Programming with Library of Congress Digital Collections : Maps

Activities

Visit a National Park in your area (either in person or virtually--the National Park Foundation created this collection of virtual tours of national parks). 

Create a map of the Park. What areas or features do you want to highlight? How will you delineate trees, mountains/hills, and water features? If you want to indicate which animals live in the park, how will you do so? 

Or, design your own National Park. What kind of features would you want to include in your park? (ex. hiking trails, observatories, playgrounds, monuments). Draw a detailed map of your park.

Yellowstone National Park, (190-?), by Union Pacific Railroad Company

Partnership Opportunity

See if your library can partner with a National or State Park in your area. Your library could offer park passes, maps, and maybe even circulate a hiking pack (with trail guides, binoculars, a compass, a first aid kit, and a flashlight) for patrons to check out. If you can, incorporate a primary source map of your local park!

For Fourth Grade Patrons and Families

Did you know that patrons in 4th grade can get FREE passes for themselves and their families to visit national parks, wildlife refuges, marine sanctuaries, and forests through Every Kid Outdoors (an interagency collaboration between the Department of the Interior, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Forest Service.) The passes are valid through August 31 of the students' fourth grade year.

Use Chronicling America to search for an article about a National Park in your state.  Think about:  

• Did you learn something new about your state?
• When or how did the park become public land?  
• What do you think a current newspaper article would say about your park?

Activity

Write your own article about or review of a state or national park. If you are not able to visit the park in person, find some pictures or go on a virtual tour of the park. What are some of the highlights of the park you visited? If you could change or add something to the park, what would it be?

image: "Wanted: The Dunes National Park" in The St. Charles Herald, (October 4, 1919). 

There are so many great books about maps, so we included a few of our favorites.  (Don't forget that floorplans are also a type of map, and looking at a building over time can show history!) The following books make great pairings for storytimes or classes that feature maps and primary sources. Libraries can incorporate the primary source maps into their programming or as a display.  

Allen, Kari. The Boy Who Loved Maps. 2022. Anne Schwartz Books.

A little boy loves everything about maps--collecting them, studying them, and making them, but when a little girl asks him to make a map of the perfect place, he is "lost." Back matter includes activities to do with maps and step-by-step instructions on how to create a map of your home. (PK-Grade 4)

Blackall, Sophie. Farmhouse. 2022. Little, Brown and Company.

Through salvaged articles Blackall found, Farmhouse tells the story of a real farmhouse and the family who lived there. In this Little, Brown Young Readers Behind the Page video, Sophie Blackall talks about creating Farmhouse.  (PK-Adult) 

Soontornvat, Christina. The Last Mapmaker. 2022. Candlewick Press.

Twelve-year old Sai, as the mapmaker's assistant to Mangkon's most celebrated mapmaker, joins an expedition to chart the southern seas. (Grade 4-Grade 8) *2023 Newbery Honor 

Thermes Jennifer. Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island. 2019. Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Traces the 400+ year history of Manhattan and the people who have inhabited the island. (Grade 2-Grade 6)

Wittenstein, Barry. Oscar's American Dream. 2020. Schwartz & Wade Books.

Follows the history of one building and how it changes over time  from a barbershop to a lady's clothing store to an army recruitment center to a coffee shop and more. (PK-Grade 3)

The Library of Congress' Cities and Towns Collection includes over 3,000 maps of locations around the world, dating from 1201 to 2019.  See if you can find a map of your birthplace or of somewhere to which you would like to travel.    

Since ALA is based in Chicago, here is an 1857 map of the city.

image: Chicago, (1857) by J.T. Palmatary, Christian Inger, Herline & Hensel, and Braunhold & Sonne, [map], published by Braunhold & Sonne.

Patrons can also find any map in the collection and then use physical and online resources to learn more about the location. Think about:

• When was the map produced? 
• Does the map accurately represent the location? 
• What has changed? 
• How would you update the map? 
• Were things left out that you would include?  (If so, why do you think things were not included on the map?)

The National Parks Preserve Wild Life, (1936-1939) by Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project.

The Library of Congress' WPA Posters Collection includes over 50 posters that were created as a part of the WPA between 1936 and 1943 to advertise National Parks. These posters were advertisements but are also works of art.  

Activity

Create your own poster for a National Park (real or imagined!)  What part of your park would you want to highlight on the poster?

image: Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes, (1507), by Martin Waldseemüller. The "Waldseemüller Map" is the first document known to name "America." 

The Library of Congress' Waldseemüller Map is the only known copy of the 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller. Waldseemüller's map was revolutionary because it was the first time the American landmass was depicted separate from the Eastern hemisphere and separated by the Pacific Ocean. For more information about the Waldseemüller Map, the Library of Congress has an interactive map presentation allowing users to compare his 1507 map to one he created in 1516, the Carta Marina. Patrons can look for similarities and differences. What new information had been gathered between 1507 and 1516? What is different between these maps and modern maps of the world?

Activity

The Library of Congress offers onsite Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) summer institutes for librarians and educators. Among other analysis methods taught, the Library of Congress teaches the Jigsaw Method. Through the Jigsaw Method, a primary source, such as the Waldseemüller Map, is cut into multiple pieces and distributed to students/patrons to be analyzed. Observers have to analyze their individual piece trying to determine information such as when it was created, why it was created, and what it depicts. They then find a partner with a different piece of the map and share their observations, reflections, and questions. This continues until all of the pieces of the map can be put together, providing a full picture of the map. Once the map is put together, patrons/students should again reflect on when it was created, why it was created, and what it depicts. 

Once the map is put together like a puzzle, think about: Did your original observations and reflections change? Were any of your initial questions answered?