History Ideas with GE

Search below to find ideas from:

Lewis and Clark

Sir Ernest Shackleton

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

1906 Earthquake

 

Lewis and Clark Expedition in Google Earth

Maps are wonderful things, but maps combined with Google Earth are even better. One of the Google Earth team members, known as 'ink_polaroid' in the Google Earth Community, a few months ago posted a historical map of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The GE file includes colorized tracks of the route taken during the expedition, and placemarks with links to a sample of diary entries from the expedition members from the Discovering Lewis and Clark website.

Make sure you open the Lewis and Clark Expedition Places folders and see some of the other features. He has a map showing the extent of the Louisiana Purchase (which is what initiated the L&C Expedition), and placemarks to other sites during the trip. You can zoom in and see the sites up close, and also turn on the "Roads" layer to make comparisons to their trip. Don't forget to "Tilt" the view and see the mountainous terrain they travelled when they got out west.

The power of combining the 3D views of GE, the satellite and aerial photography of the terrain, the tracks and placemarks, with the links to the web make this map so much more informative than any paper map.

Fantastic Google Earth Documentary on Sir Ernest Shackleton

One of the all-time great adventure/rescue stories, perhaps because it was so well documented, is the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton. In 1914, Shackleton attempted to be the first to cross the continent of Antarctica, but his ship became trapped in ice and he and his men had to wait for 10 months for the winter to pass. But, the ship broke up in the ice. The tremendous effort Shackleton made to rescue his men (and he saved them all) is a great story. One of the most heroic sea stories of all time.

Some folks at the Google Earth Community have been putting together a tremendous collection of facts, placemarks, pictures, panorama shots, tracks, and other historical information. You can download the Shackleton "documentary" here(currently V3.0). The main poster is someone called 'pm77', who was also helped by Frank McVey and others - and you can read the post thread here.

Once you download...

Once you download the GE file above, open the folder in your Temporary Places panel (on the left) called "South". The first placemark contains background information and links to web sites which can give you all the details. If you already know the story, you can immediately start selecting the various placemarks and see pictures and background information. There are informative links which give interesting background perspectives and historical details.

As more people explore the capabilities of the the GE file format, I expect we will see more and even better historical "documentaries" like this within Google Earth. But, this will give you a taste of what's to come.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Google Earth Documentary

There is a forum at the Google Earth Community called History Illustrated. Occasionally, a particularly well-done collection of placemarks with detailed information is posted, which really helps illustrate historical events. In late March, an excellent collection of placemarks and overlays providing details on the lives of the Six Wives of King Henry VIII was posted by 'LuciaM'. Henry VIII's notorious treatment of his wives is well known, but few people probably know the full background on their lives. LuciaM provides a chronilogical history to each wife showing the locations of birth and other events in their lives in Google Earth and providing overlays to pictures of castles where high resolution aerial photos are not yet in GE. In addition, photos of paintings and pictures of wax likenesses are shown. Links are provided for further information. LuciaM's original post contains all the photos within the GE file. I have created a version where the pictures are downloaded as needed - which is a faster load. Download Six Wives - Original version(2.8 Mbytes), or Faster version(78 K). By the way, it's best if you open the folders for each wife in the "Places" pane after you load the model and read each placemark in chronological sequence.

The Six Wives is a very fascinating read and greatly enhanced by showing the locations in Google Earth. The last example of historical documentary I saw done this well was the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's adventure in the Antarctic. Great work LuciaM for an excellent collection! Make sure to read her post and let her know how you like it.

USGS Releases Awesome 1906 Earthquake Documentary Using Google Earth

The USGS has developed a truly definitive documentary web site which uses Google Earth as the primary visualization tool in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake which devastated the San Francisco Area. The web site walks you through several segments describing various elements of the 1906 Quake and also the hazards and current conditions of the San Andreas and Hayward Faults today. Each segment includes a Google Earth KMZ file which includes a layer of visual information illustrating that segment. The USGS goal is to not only illustrate the most damaging earthquake in US History, but also to visualize and understand the causes and effects of this and future earthquakes.

Included in the visual elements are many Google Earth files, which I recommend you view along with the web site starting here. Here are sample of some of the more interesting ones: location and extent of the faultsand the 1906 quake, historic photosof the 1906 quake, 3D model graphs showing the rupture length and slip, a shaking intensity mapoverlay, and illustrations showing the hazards of the bay area todayand susceptability to conditions which might cause serious damage to structures. Also check out the real-time earthquakesnetwork link.

This product was produced by the USGS Northern California Earthquake Hazards Program, Luke Blair, a geologist and Director of the USGS Geographic Information Laboratory, presented the new documentary at a press conference (inlcudes link to video of presentation) today.