Reconstructing the Past

From October 1943 to October 1945, over 400 German prisoners of war (PoWs) were employed in a woodcutting operation in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park. Housed in a newly built camp on the shore of Whitewater Lake, the PoWs had better living conditions than the majority of civilians living around the park. When the buildingsContinue reading “Reconstructing the Past”

Canada’s History Forum – History and Technology

Today was the 2013 Canada’s History Forum “Is Technology altering our History? Fortunately for viewers across the country who could not attend, myself included, the forum was broadcast online. This in itself should be some indication of how technology is changing the way we look at history! Unfortunately I was not able to catch allContinue reading “Canada’s History Forum – History and Technology”

Sketchup Learning Curve

Now that I have my GIS basemap to work from, my next project is creating a 3D model of the camp with SketchUp. While I really don’t have any experience with modelling, here’s what I’ve been working on recently. This is one wing of a standard H-Hut that served as barracks for the PoWs atContinue reading “Sketchup Learning Curve”

Lasting Effects: PoWs in Riding Mountain National Park

The following video is the result of a digital history assignment that I’m currently taken. The assignment tasked us with using digital methods to examine a significant or interesting landscape and naturally I chose the site of the Riding Mountain Park Labour Project in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park. For those not familiar with it,Continue reading “Lasting Effects: PoWs in Riding Mountain National Park”

Adventures in Arc – Part I

Having moved over my GIS project over to ArcGIS over the weekend, I though I’d share my progress. While I’m still trying to adapt to differences between QGIS and the Arc family, I can definitely see the advantages in using these programs. Arguably the most significant advantage of ArcGIS is its tools for spatial analysisContinue reading “Adventures in Arc – Part I”

Making Progress with HGIS

Having completed Monday’s HGIS workshop with Don Lafreniere, I have to say that, after going in with experience in Quantum GIS and some ArcGIS, I found the workshop significantly less daunting than my previous time with Arc. Overall, I’m impressed with what ArcGIS has to offer and I’m looking at different ways to incorporate itsContinue reading “Making Progress with HGIS”

GIS on the Go

For this past Monday’s Digital History class, we took a field trip to London’s Victoria Park to better understand what Spatial History offers to both historians and the general public. As part of this, we looked at using the free iOS App iGIS. With the ability to visualize GIS data, including georeferenced images, on aContinue reading “GIS on the Go”

London HGIS Calling!

This past week, in preparation for an upcoming assignment, I’ve been trying my hand at some Historical GIS. I spent the weekend going through the the GIS tutorials at the Geospatial Historian which, following up from my earlier post regarding mapping with Google Maps Engine, I highly recommend! The program of choice is Quantum GISContinue reading “London HGIS Calling!”