Maps

I don’t know why, but I’ve loved maps ever since we started studying geography when I was in elementary school. I loved to copy maps I found interesting. Cartography, in fact, is another potential career I considered pursuing in addition to archaeology, art, interior design, and anything involving gardening or craft work.

It would be impossible to set the stage for the action in this series without accurate maps, and of course I use them extensively in my research. Below are a number of links to excellent online resources for historical maps that I’ve chanced upon. In addition to the Americans, both the English and French commissioned maps of the known areas of the North American continent and the action during the Revolution, and there are excellent collections of accurate maps online. I can spend hours studying them if I let myself. If you haven’t already run across these resources, I hope you find some of them useful in researching your own projects!

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/guides.html

David Rumsey Map Collection: http://www.davidrumsey.com/index.html

Old Maps Online: http://www.oldmapsonline.org/#bbox=-75.421967,39.815342,-74.90973,40.089054&q=&datefrom=1000&dateto=2010

University of Texas Library: http://lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html

World of Historic Maps (maps for purchase): http://www.history-map.com/

Serendipity

Sometimes you get lucky.

I was doing a web search this morning for an image I could use for a book video, and by divine coincidence a resource popped up that contained a wealth of information I can use for this series. Serendipity happens!!

If you’re interested in the history of Ohio Territory up to the author’s time, with primary accounts about the Native Americans and woodsmen who inhabited the area, including Simon Kenton and Tecumseh, you’re going to love Stories of Ohio by William Dean Howells, originally published in 1897 and provided as a free ebook by The Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21381/21381-h/21381-h.htm#2H_4_0007

You can download it in various ebook formats and also as a PDF here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21381

Another excellent resource on details of Native Americans and their captives I found some time ago that I may not have mentioned here before is French and Indian Cruelty Exemplified in the Life and Various Vicissitudes of Peter Williamson. I just discovered it’s available for $2 for Kindle. I have it as a text document, but it has formatting issues, so I bought the Kindle version of the original book—cheap at twice the cost!—which includes period engravings. LOVE my Kindle Fire! I can load all sorts of resources on it and carry them with me.

Point is, when you’re searching for one thing, be sure to check through your results for resources on other subjects that might be useful. You never know what might turn up!