Mapping Early Niagara is the topic of my Master’s thesis which was completed in December, 2020 at Brock University, located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
This SSHRC funded project incorporated both historical and geographical aspects in its examination of the economic development of the Niagara region in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I mapped select trade patterns that existed at the time, both within the peninsula itself and on a broader scale. I essentially wanted to know how the early colonial settlements in Niagara developed post-Revolution, using the visual dimension of digital tools to aid in my own understanding and also to share my research with the public in an accessible way.
So why did Niagara develop the way it did? Who laid the foundations of what we see and know today? How did these settlements appear and change over time? How did they interact with Indigenous nations already living on the land? These are just a few of the questions that this thesis seeks to answer. The spatial history “mapping” component is a modern approach to answering such questions. Digital mapping can show the development of space over time, and can convey historical meaning in new and different ways.
To see the results of this project, see the “Conclusions” tab in the header bar.