Keweenaw Time Traveler
  • Home
  • Start the Time Traveler
    • Help
  • Stories
  • ABOUT THE PROJECT
    • Data Availability
    • Meet the Team
    • Our Partners
    • Publications
    • Contact Us
  • Project News

Research is Underway on a Collaborative Francophone Migration Project

11/13/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Gregory Family, Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, MS042 Reeder Photograph Collection, J.T. Reeder.
Joseph Gregoire, who would soon become known as "Father of the French Canadians of Lake Superior", left Canada for Norwich Mine in Ontonagon County, Michigan in the winter of 1854-1855…

Explore Joseph Grégoire’s migration from Québec to the Keweenaw in a new Story Map by undergraduate history major Brooke Batterson

History is about the people who lived it, and archival material has allowed us a glimpse into the lives of early migrants from Quebec, Canada to the Keweenaw. The HESA Lab is a partner in an international collaborative research project called Three Centuries of Francophone Migration in North America 1640–1940, which unites over 40 researchers in Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and Europe to better understand the historical experiences and contemporary relevance of French-speaking people throughout the continent. At Michigan Tech, researchers will use the Keweenaw Time Traveler and other resources to investigate the lives of French-Canadian migrants to the Copper Country explore their greater significance for the development of society and industry in the Upper Peninsula. 
Undergraduate history major Brooke Batterson has been learning more about one of the first families to arrive from Québec after industrial mining got underway who settled in a place that came to be known as Gregoryville (near Lake Linden). She has created a Story Map, which provides an immersive experience with historical maps and archival images to explore, as well as stories to read and share. ​
Joseph Gregoire came from St. Jean, Québec to the Keweenaw and established one of the first majorly successful lumber mills in the region. The Gregoire family played a crucial role in the development of the area and held significant influence throughout the community.  Little is left at Gregoryville today but some signs of the family's history remain in the landscape around Lake Linden. The story is a micro history of a single family that will lead to broader research on social mobility for Francophones in the Keweenaw.

Three Centuries of Francophone Migration in North American 1640–1940, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, is a 7-year project based at the Université de St Boniface in Winnipeg. The project directors visited the Keweenaw in February 2020 right before COVID shut down international travel! Read more in our previous blog post.
Picture
Field work in Lake Linden, Michigan, 2020, Brooke Batterson, Mark Rhodes, Sarah Scarlett.
Sarah Scarlett, assistant professor of history, and Don Lafreniere, associate professor of geography and GIS, in the Social Sciences department, will use the Keweenaw Time Traveler and a combination of spatial and archival datasets to focus specifically on whether French-Canadians were socially mobile as they migrated from Canada to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during the period of 1860 to 1940.

Read more in a Michigan Tech Unscripted blog post called ​“C’est la Vie.”
Picture
0 Comments

Tech Surge Presentation

10/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
            Geospatial Research Scientists Ryan Williams and Daniel Lizzadro-McPherson, in collaboration with Dr. Don Lafreniere and Dr. Guy Meadows, presented their work to map historic rates of change along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, at the Lakebed 2030 Tech Surge conference. The event took place in October of 2019 in Traverse City. At the conference, Ryan and Daniel shared the latest technological advancements with Great Lakes communities and businesses, which are reliant on shoreline data to make important decisions that impact everyone living or working along the shore.

            “A main component of these land use planning methods is an understanding of the history of shoreline and coastal bluff change over time. This project uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map historic aerial images from 2016, 2009, 1980 and 1938 and used those images to create historic shoreline and bluff line features that could be used to visualize historic coastlines and characterize areas vulnerable to future shoreline change.” (1)

            Community Planning groups such as Networks Northwest and Land Information Access Association were in attendance and were aided by the creation of the Community Coastal Resiliency Strategy, and a GIS map and app containing imagery and maps of Great Lakes shorelines, bluff lines, and a 30-year bluff-retreat risk analysis. These groups and more have gained a new tool and insight which can be used to move business, and residential development, forward along Great Lakes shores.

            ***Financial assistance for this project was provided, in part, by the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
0 Comments

A Time Traveling Rose

8/30/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Right to Left: Rose and Dr. Don Lafreniere at Rose’s Graduation from MTU!
   Today we have reluctantly said farewell to a long time, Time Traveler, Rose. Rose has worked with KeTT since 2015.  Users may remember seeing her at the various festivals and public events we hosted over the years. She was a mentor for our high school GIS training program, GRACE, worked on our ‘schools-as-vectors for infectious disease’ project, and much more.
   Rose has moved on and up, now pursuing a MS in Geography in the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario. At HEAL Rose will be investigating the intersections of children’s health and the built environment.
   We would like to congratulate Rose on her new position, and hope she comes around to say hello once in a while. We bid you farewell on your adventures and may all your travels be timeless.
0 Comments

Upgrades to the Explore App

8/4/2020

0 Comments

 
Our team has been working behind the scenes for months to improve your experience in the Explore App. These functionality upgrades are just the beginning of a larger redesign that will be happening over the next 18 months. When COVID-19 in under control and we can host public design charrettes again, we will be asking you—our users—for feedback. But in the meantime, please try out the new functionalities and let us know what you think in the comments. 
​GLOBAL SEARCH
With this new version, searching for people, places, and stories will be a lot easier, as will sharing what you find on the Time Traveler. Instead of searching by Address, Person, Place, or Story, there will only be one search bar where you can search keywords in every category. 
Old Explore App search bar:
New Explore App search bar:
Picture
Picture
Your search results will be reported in the categories of Buildings, People, Places, and Stories with parenthetical numbers to tell you how many results you got in each category. For instance, the results below appear after you enter "Smith" in the Global Search bar, which results in 195 people, 28 places (which includes businesses), and 13 stories. Clicking on any of these results will take you to that location on a map closest to the year of the record. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
FILTER RESULTS
After you search for a person, place, or story, you see how many search results are in each decade. If you want, you can choose one or more decades to filter your results by time period. 
Picture
You will also be able to filter your search results based on record type. Currently, only city directory and business directory data is available on the Explore App, but we are working hard to make more historical resources available in the coming year, including Census records, School records, and Mining Employee records.
Picture
Lastly, you will also be able to filter results by their location. These locations should look familiar as they are based on the map locations you can explore in the app. In other words, if you don't want to see all 195 Smiths, you could choose to only see the Smiths in Lake Linden. 
Picture
​SHARING SEARCH RESULTS​
One major upgrade introduced today is the ability to share your results with friends using a distinct web address. When you find a map and search results that you want to share, click the blue "Share" button to get a link that will take other users to exactly the search results and map view that you created. This way you can share an interesting building, person, or fun story on social media, in an email, or embed it on your own website! Just click on the blue Share button to get a shareable URL.
Picture
Picture
SUMMARY OF OCCUPATIONS
Have you ever wanted to find a neighborhood where trammers worked and lived? Or are you looking for foundry workers or lumbermen? You can now see a pie chart of all the occupations for people living in the range of the map you are viewing. These occupations are as listed in the City Directories. These occupations and their percentages will change as you zoom and pan around the map, changing with what houses and people are in view. With this feature you can see how neighborhoods change throughout time and across towns. Below is the pie chart for a section of Calumet in the 1900s.
Picture
Picture
Thank you to the students in Dr. Robert Pastel's computer science course who worked to build these new functionalities, especially Mason Sayles, who helped us implement it over Summer 2020.
0 Comments

Before Equal Employment Protections: One Immigrant Miner's Story

7/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Written By: Kevin White, HESAL Research Associate working on the "Michigan Miners at Home and Work" Project
Looking at mining company records can be a much more difficult process than you might think. Often as I am reading the data recorded on employee cards (birthdays, birth place, name, and nationality of family members), it never crossed my mind that some of that data could be wrong. Every now and again I might find addendums that were added to the employee cards, such as an update on the card when a miner gets married, but it is very unusual to see sweeping changes like those found on the employee card of one Kamel Ally.
Picture
The data written in red is the true information about Kamel Ally. The data written in black was the initial information he gave when he applied for the job in 1915 using the name "Carl".
When I initially started working to transcribe this card, I thought that there had perhaps been a miscommunication between the employee and the Calumet & Hecla clerk that had filled out the employment card. It wouldn't be the first time that something like that had happened. However, continuing to read through the card eventually brought to light a situation that was unlike any I had found before.
Picture
Transcription of Note: "Regarding the record of Carl Ally. On May 31, 1917 the man called and stated that when he entered our service in May 1915 he gave incorrect information in order to conceal his nationality. He is a Turk and claims to have had trouble securing and holding a job on that account. See the record shown in Red on reverse side is correct."
Ally had intentionally falsified his information when applying for work at Calumet & Hecla. While this deceit alone made the card stand out from the others, my interest was further compounded when I found the reason he had lied: to achieve equal employment opportunity. At first glance at this information is interesting, and represents an anomaly among many of the other employment cards being reviewed and digitized for the Mapping Miners at Home and Work project, however I learned so much more by taking a deeper look at what this information meant.

First off, this card provides compelling evidence of a history of employment discrimination against Turkish people. At the time when he applied for the job, ethnic tensions were high around the world. Discussing the topic with Emily Riippa, one of the archivists at the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library at Michigan Technological University, she mentioned that at the time Mr. Ally began working with Calumet & Hecla in 1915, World War One was entering its second year of fighting. During 1915, America had yet to enter the war, however the Ottoman Empire (the homeland of the Turks) had allied itself with Germany. While at the time America was not involved in the war, as a nation people had begun to recognize the Germans and other Central Powers (including the Ottoman Empire) as hostile powers. It is quite possible that this was the reason he may have lost his previous job, and as such when he was applying for his position at Calumet & Hecla, he chose to hide this information.

However, as the war progressed and America sided with the Allied Powers, hiding the fact that one was from a hostile nation would become riskier. This is compounded by the fact that the copper mines in the Keweenaw were a key asset in America's war-time production. Emily believes that it is quite possible for him to have revealed this information in order to protect himself from being suspected as a spy for the Central Powers. I believe he may have also done it as a sign of good faith toward the higher-ups at Calumet & Hecla. It was mentioned on his employee card that he had previously been dismissed from work due to being "disobedient". While this (like many things on the employee card) is vague, it is quite possible that he had been discharged due to working with union lobbyists or strikers, which were people who would have been seen as disobedient to the higher-ups at C&H. He may have revealed his true national origins alongside agreements to not work with those groups in order to get his job back at C&H, where he ended up working until early 1918.
Picture
Calumet & Hecla officials photographed a parade of a local World War I regiment passing by the company library and office building on June 7, 1917. "Copper Country Soldiers and Sailors in the World War", Calumet & Hecla Photograph Collection, MTU Archives, MS 003-009-004-12
Mr. Ally's employee card gives us just a small glance into what the life of a Turkish immigrant might have been like in the United States. There were many Turkish immigrants who arrived in the country in the early 1900s similar to Mr. Ally, and their stories echo similar discrimination. Many Turks immigrated prior to World War I and adopted Christian names (such as Carl, as opposed to Kamel) in order to try and assimilate into the predominantly Christian America and avoid persecution and discrimination. Many Turkish people also chose to immigrate back out of America after the Republic of Turkey was formed in 1922. But it appears that Mr. Ally decided to stay in America despite discrimination he had suffered in the past, as can be seen by Mr. Ally's participation in the American census (thanks again to Emily for finding that!). It is also worth noting that he did continue to use the name Carl on these later documents, perhaps to assimilate into American life.
Picture
American government and industrial powers bred suspicion and distrust during WWI. The neighboring Quincy Mining Company posted this notice in 1918 printed in six different languages instructing citizens and non-citizens alike to follow orders and avoid the appearance of treason. HAER MICH, 31-HANC, 1-278, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.mi0086.photos.089087p/
Upon reviewing Mr. Ally's card, another question comes to mind: how many other people falsified their information? It is highly unlikely that Mr. Ally was alone in his scenario, and there were likely additional employees who chose to change their names and nationalities in order to avoid discrimination. Many of those documents may never have been rewritten or marked. It reminds me that data should not just be taken at face value. I am studying computer science as my major, and I am used to dealing with data sets with thousands of entries. But seeing things like this reminds me that every data point has a story and a person behind it. The data we collect from the Mapping Miners at Home and Work project can be used not only to help us create an overarching view of history in the Keweenaw, but also to bring to light the lives of the individuals who made it what it is today.
The Mapping Miners at Home and Work project is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources. CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.  To learn more, visit www.clir.org and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Picture
0 Comments

New City Directory Improvements for the Explore App

7/15/2020

0 Comments

 
Recently, James Juip, Senior Research Associate here in the HESA Lab, has undertaken the task of cleaning up the City Directory data that makes up much of the historical records currently available in the Explore App. His work will make it easier to read and understand information about historical people by removing "Null" entries and expanding the shorthand found in the directory to full occupation titles. For example, "lab" was the shorthand used for "laborer", and "clk" was the shorthand for "clerk". These two jobs are among the five most common jobs in the City Directory, along with Miner, Student, and Trammer.

In addition to finding and cleaning common jobs, James also found several unusual professions listed in the directories. Some of our favorites include:
  • ​Umbert Cippollone and Pietro Lovarine who worked as Macaroni Manufacturers. They lived at 1032 Ingot Street in Hancock in 1917, and the Macaroni Factory was attached to their house. Pietro owned both the factory and house, renting the house to Umbert and nine others who worked a variety of jobs, including Trammer, Cellar Man at Park Brewing Company, Mine Boss, Miner, and Laborer.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Stuart G. Ross was a Magician living at 701 Water Street in Hancock in 1942.
Picture
  • Alexander Siegel was the Superintendent of Hydrants living at 727 Hancock Street, Hancock in 1917.
Picture
  • J. P. Mason, who boarded at the Douglass House in Houghton in 1888, was not only a Physician and Surgeon, but also a Pharmaceutist and Dealer in Druggist Sundries at 410 Shelden Street.
Picture
Among these unusual professions were also the jobs of Huckster, Clairvoyant, Broom Maker, Traveler, Scissor Grinder, and Sauerkraut Manufacturer. What interesting historical jobs do you know of or can you find in the Keweenaw?
0 Comments

Citizen Historian Giveaway - Finish the Map!

6/26/2020

0 Comments

 
​Didn’t win a mug last time? No worries – we are launching another Citizen Historian Giveaway today! There are two maps on the Building Use App that are almost complete. Can you help finish them? Calumet 1888 is 95% complete and Lake Linden 1917 is 60% complete – we are so close to having every building on these maps classified! If you can get the building counter in the lower left corner to 100% just send us a screenshot and we will send you a Keweenaw Time Traveler mug. Send us a message on Facebook or email rchildeb@mtu.edu with your screenshot or if you have any questions.

​Keep in mind that these last few buildings tend to be the most difficult to classify, so we have created a mini handbook found below to help you finish the map.
Picture
Picture
Building Use Classification Handbook
  • The Sanborn Fire Insurance Company that produced these maps used several abbreviations to label buildings. Use this guide to help you determine if a building should be classified as "Dwelling", "Automobile", "Store", "Industrial", or "Public".
  • Watch the video below for visual instruction on how to use the Building Use App.
  • Several of the remaining buildings are small, unmarked buildings - these buildings are classified based on the lot type they are on. If they are near a house they would be marked as a "Dwelling" and if they are on an industrial lot they would be marked as "Industrial"
  • Some of the remaining buildings have a large X from corner to corner - these buildings are "Stables" and their classification also depends on if the lot is domestic or industrial
Picture
This is a "Stable" and would be classified as a "Store" as it is on a lot with other stores
Picture
This building would be classified as a "Dwelling" as it is on a lot with other dwellings
  • If you have any questions about how to classify a certain building send us a message on Facebook or email rchildeb@mtu.edu!
0 Comments

Geospatial Researcher Scientist at the GRF wins Best Graduate Oral Presentation

6/22/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Department of Geological and Mining Engineering Sciences (GMES) is happy to announce that Master's student Daniel J. Lizzadro-McPherson's talk, Remapping the Keweenaw Fault and Discovery of Related Structures in Michigan's Historic Copper District, was awarded the Best Graduate Oral Presentation from the Geological Society of America's 2020 North-Central Section Meeting, held online this past May. The talk was featured in the Unique Geology and Geoheritage of the Lake Superior Region Session led by Erika Vye, William Rose, Jim Miller, and James DeGraff. Lizzadro-McPherson presented on the history of mapping the Keweenaw Fault and the current remapping efforts aimed at understanding this complex fault system in northern Keweenaw County. For more information about this project or to receive a link to the virtual presentation, please email djlizzad@mtu.edu.
Picture
0 Comments

New Publication Explores How Big-Data GIS Infrastructures Can Be Used in Historical Archaeology

6/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
A combination of several built and social environmental factors allows archaeologists to better contextualize data.
HESAL Post-Doctoral Researcher Dan Trepal recently co-authored an article with HESAL director Don Lafreniere and Jason Gilliland (University of Western Ontario) titled "Historical Spatial-Data Infrastructures for Archaeology: Towards a Spatiotemporal Big-Data Approach to Studying the Postindustrial City" in the journal Historical Archaeology. This article discusses the ways in which big-data GIS infrastructures for historical research, such as that underpinning the Keweenaw Time Traveler, can be useful for archaeologists who study historical cities. Archaeologists excavating urban sites are expert at revealing hidden aspects of day to day life at small scales. The paper uses examples, including several from the Time Traveler, to show how using historical big-data in a GIS-based digital infrastructure sources allows archaeologists to place their evidence of day to day life in a broader context built from many thousands of individual pieces of historical information. When combined, the archaeology and historical big data give us new perspectives on past people, places, and things that may be impossible to see when using one kind of evidence alone.
0 Comments

Citizen Historian of the Year

5/31/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Everyone here at the Keweenaw Time Traveler would like to congratulate Antonia Burich for all of her hard work on the "Document Building Use" app. Antonia is our most dedicated citizen historian, having classified thousands of buildings! She classified 11,654 buildings for our May 2020 giveaway. Thank you Antonia for all of your commitment to the Keweenaw Time Traveler. Your work is an invaluable addition to the historical data we hope to share with the world.
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed

Contact Us​

Picture
HESA Lab
Picture
  • Home
  • Start the Time Traveler
    • Help
  • Stories
  • ABOUT THE PROJECT
    • Data Availability
    • Meet the Team
    • Our Partners
    • Publications
    • Contact Us
  • Project News