This past Summer, one undergraduate Geohumanities & GIS intern and one a high school Seevak Fellow from Boston Latin School worked with the Center to create new layers for Atlascope, georeference digitized atlases and worked to expanding the current range of cities and towns available to the public. In addition to this impactful work, they also chose to use Atlascope as a narrative aid to highlight some important histories of Boston and Salem. In their Atlascope tours, Carlos and Anna exemplify how our changing geography can document societal change and how those changes have helped shape our current world.
We invite you to read more about their Atlascope tours below and reflect on the way the history of these tours is reflected in the physical landscape of yesterday and what impacts this history continues to have on our environment in the present.
Searching for Hawthorne’s Salem
Ever since the earliest records of visitors from the rest of New England arriving at Salem in 1692 to witness the Witch Trials, tourism has been a constant activity in Salem. Henry James was one of those tourists, writing an account of his visit in 1904: “The American Scene.” But although the landmarks in James’ itinerary might be familiar to any modern-day visitor to Salem, his interest was less focused on witchcraft, ghosts or Halloween, and more on the remnants of Salem’s Golden Age of Navigation and the sources of inspiration behind the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Salem native and author of “The Scarlet Letter” and “The House of the Seven Gables.”
Beyond the Boulevard
Who was Melnea Cass, the “First Lady of Roxbury?” One half of the namesake for the notable intersection often referred to as “Mass & Cass”, few know that “Cass” is short for Melnea Cass Boulevard and fewer know her story. Through her work, Melnea had a truly significant impact across the city with more than 50 years of activist work. A lifelong Boston resident, Melnea spent decades advocating for Black Bostonians, early education access, and expanding voting rights amongst many other causes.
Are you interested in making your own Atlascope tour? Reach out to learn more!
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