MSU Libraries

Celebrate GIS Day on Nov. 16th by participating in a humanitarian mapping project, no GIS experience needed! Bring your laptop to the Map library CTL and join us in developing map data to aid a humanitarian project. We will be helping the Humanitarian Open Street Mapping Project – their past projects have included working on mapping earthquake stricken areas in Nepal and recently Haiti in the aftermath of hurricane Matthew. The exact project we will work on is to be determined, but likely will involve improving our knowledge of road networks in an African country by looking at satellite...

Ionia, Ionia County, Michigan Terr’y. Published by Pendletons Lithography in Boston in 1835, probably for Nathaniel Brown.

This map shows a thriving town site.  The only problem was that it was a complete fiction.  The real Ionia, Michigan, Seat of Ionia County, had been placed two miles west of this site in 1833.

At the time the map was made in 1835, half of the square-mile section had been purchased by Chicago-based land speculator Nathaniel Brown.  The other half was still owned by the Federal Government.  Brown had the idea of a sawmill anchoring a community that...

Beginning in the nineteenth century, immigrants to Michigan massively changed the landscape through logging, farming, draining wetlands, building roads, cities, and planting managed landscapes.  Prior to that Native Americans used fire and other methods to alter the landscape, though on a much smaller scale.  When you stand in your front yard, the 'natural' vegetation you see is likely quite different from what stood in 1800 especially if you live in the southern part of the state.  So what kinds of trees or other landcover naturally grew in your area long ago?  A group of scholars teamed...

From 1850-1856, James Jesse Strang (image below) lived on Beaver Island as a self-appointed king among the Mormon adherents who declared allegiance to him after the death of Joseph Smith.  Strang commanded a loyal following from his congregants but it often brought the Strangite Mormons into conflict with the judiciary in Mackinac.  These disagreements drove the Mormons to seek local and state political office and culminated in the election of Strang as a state legislator.  It was through this office that Strang would seek to change the fortunes of his community and alter the geography of...