The present project is to locate on the Agas Map the remaining locations in the Map of Early Modern London’s placeography and determine their GIS coordinates. Geolocating a historical street, site, or other location entails historical, archaeological, cartographic, and occasionally literary research. We then capture the fruits of that research in the XML gazetteer that populates the map. We map locations on the Agas Map using custom drawing tools. We use a custom API (Vertexer) to capture latitude and longitude coordinates from tiled map data. These two complementary mapping technologies enable us to give users both an Elizabethan image of the place (via the Agas Map) as well as a real-world location to which they can walk (via Google Maps).

This work allows scholars and students of early modern literature to understand how space and place figure in the writing of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Mapping the places of cultural production enables us to understand the relationships between cultural producers like publishers and playhouses, and to visualize the flow of people and material culture around London.

Intern will geolocate London sites already identified by MoEML by researching archaeological, literary, and historical data, then adding geocoordinates to our XML files. Under the guidance of the MoEML project director and senior RA, the Intern will summarize the research and produce short abstracts for the MoEML Placeography. The Intern will also identify additional locations to be added to the MoEML Encyclopedia (such as taverns, conduits, and bookshops), and turn raw datasets into new location file for MoEML. We will provide training in XML, TEI, GIS, use of historical databases, research hygiene, how to conduct multi-disciplinary historical research, and project documentation.

Required skills/background: Excellent written and spoken English; curiosity about the early modern period and desire to learn new skills; facility with computers.

Desirable skills: Knowledge of historical and/or literary research methods; some knowledge of TEI or other XML language (on-the-job training will be provided, however).

The present project is to develop and implement static tiled maps for the Map of Early Modern London. This work will allow us to add additional historical maps to our OpenLayers mapping platform, make use of Open Street Maps data, and stabilize our technology for long-term archiving. The project will mobilize the geographical data added to the database by other RAs and make it possible to display our data on any georeferenced surface.

The intern will take on the role of Junior Programmer (Mapping). The intern will work with the Lead Programmer to add additional historical maps to the OpenLayers stack in MoEML, and to replace Google Street Maps functionality with onsite open map tiles. The successful intern may be involved in building new mapping tools, depending on the skills the intern brings to the position. We will provide training in XML, TEI, GIS*, OpenLayers, Electron (http://electron.atom.io/), and our custom APIs (e.g., Vertexer at http://hcmc.uvic.ca/people/greg/maps/vertexer/). The intern will be a full member of the MoEML team and will have the opportunity to produce and implement new technologies on the site. (*Note that we do not work in ArcGIS.)

This position will appeal to students who have experience in Historical GIS and/or the technical side of tiled map building; to students who have taken GIS courses in geography departments and who wish to extend their geohumanities skills; and/or to students who understand how to build tools from open source resources.

Required skills/background: Experience with historical GIS; willingness to use programs other than ArcGIS; facility with CSS.

Desirable skills: Knowledge of tiled map building and configuration; some knowledge of Javascript and regular expressions.