Archive: October 2023 (3 Posts)

Refined by: (Year) 2023; (Month) October

Transporting Literacy, Prosperity, and the American Dream: The Seaboard Air Line Railway at the Turn of the 20th Century

October 20, 2023

This is a guest post by Abraham Kaleo Parrish, Geospatial Data Visualization Librarian in the Geography and Map Division. The Seaboard Air Line Railway (SAL) was a prominent passenger and freight railway in the south in the late 19th and beginning 20th centuries. Headquartered in Portsmouth, VA, the rail line’s primary backbone connected southern states …

Posted in: African American History, American History

Dozens of men working on building railroad with forest in background.

Following the Cape to Cairo Railway

October 13, 2023

Posted by: Tim St. Onge

An 1898 map allows for a close examination of the natural and political geography of colonization during the "Scramble for Africa" and the never-completed Cape to Cairo Railway.

Posted in: 19th century cartography, African History, Borders, Military History

Political map of Africa with countries colored and shaded by political status as of February 1960. Cameroon is now independent; the Federation of Mali and the Malagasy Republic are shown as "independence under negotiation" and Somalia, Belgian Congo, and Nigeria are shown as "projected independence - 1960"

Mapping the Year of Africa

October 4, 2023

Posted by: Amelia Raines

1960 was a dramatic year for Africa, in which 17 countries gained their independence from colonial powers. This post charts the events of that watershed year through a series of political maps produced by the CIA.

Posted in: 20th century cartography, African History, Borders, Middle East and North African History

Refined by: (Year) 2023; (Month) October