The S. Murray Rust, Jr. Digital Scholarship Center at Lehigh University
recently launched a geographical information system (GIS) project that
maps the townscape of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the early twentieth
century (http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel/gis/). This
interactive, historical GIS tool enables site visitors to map and to
investigate spatially the lives of turn-of-the-century Bethlehem
residents and Bethlehem Steel Company employees. Active from 1857-2003,
“the Steel,” as locals call the company, was the area’s major employer
at the opening of the twentieth century. The Steel is a major figure in
the story of industrial growth, dominance, and decline both regionally
and nationally.
Using demographic, housing, and employment data, this GIS tool provides
information about those who lived in Bethlehem, especially Bethlehem
Steel workers. The data, gleaned from the Sholes’ Directory of the
Bethlehems from 1900-1901, Bethlehem Steel employee lists from
1900-1902, and select 1900 census data for Lehigh and Northampton
Counties. Visitors can visualize this data geographically, as the site
plots the information on a composite of historical Sanborn fire
insurance maps from 1912-1935. Site visitors can also search the data
sets textually.
The local Sholes’ Directory provides Bethlehem residents’ names,
addresses, occupations and employers, marital status, and whether they
owned or rented. Finer-grained data and spatial information is
available for Bethlehem Steel Company employees. The company’s employee
lists provide employee names, salaries, and where they worked within
Bethlehem Steel. By searching the 1900 Census for these 1,200 steel
workers, the site supplements the employee list information with details
about the workers' age, race, place of birth, education, paternal and
maternal country of origin, and other census information. By
cross-referencing the employee lists, the Sholes’ Directory, and the
census data, the site allows visitors to see where these workers lived,
their proximity to work, and how their job status, pay, ethnicity, and
education affected housing patterns. The site is being expanded and
enhanced so visitors will be able to see the location of other
businesses and industries (and the residences’ of their workers) in
addition to the Steel. Coming in August 2008, data on the location of
the area’s textile mills and their employees’ residences will be made
available.
This GIS component is the most recent addition to Lehigh University’s
digital library project dedicated to illustrating the region’s
industrial history, Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry
and Culture (http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel/). This project
chronicles the nineteenth-century industrial boom and twentieth-century
industrial decline in the Lehigh Valley through a large set of digitized
materials including letters, books, newspaper articles, maps,
photographs, pamphlets, and oral histories. The site continues to grow
as materials are added that tell the story of how coal, canals,
railroads, iron and steel converged in the making of an industrial
community. Beyond Steel, especially with the addition of the GIS
component, enables researchers and students to study not only the lives
of railroad barons and steel titans, but also the everyday experiences
of people who worked and lived in the community.
For more information about the GIS project of Beyond Steel, contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(apologies for the cross-posting)
--
Tim McGeary
Senior Systems Specialist
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Google Talk: timmcgeary
Yahoo IM: timmcgeary
