February 1999 Mapping the Civil War “How can you teach the Civil War without maps?” asks Professor of History Steve Stowe. When Stowe was planning A200 The American Civil War—a lecture class with an enrollment of 185—he enlisted Graphic Services to help students visualize troop movements and battles. Suzanne Hull, Director of Graphic Services, drafted a series of maps for Stowe, rendered as color overhead projector transparencies. The collaboration not only allowed Stowe to acquire custom maps, it also helped him focus the instructional significance of graphics for his class. “I knew Graphic Services could help me with the maps; what was a really pleasant surprise was the conceptual assistance.” Hull talked about possible options—flip maps, for instance (overhead transparencies with separate layers for different kinds of features)—and could draw on her library of past projects to illustrate choices for Stowe. “Suddenly I saw a range of things I might do that wouldn’t have occurred to me if I hadn’t visited Graphic Services.” Hull based the maps on those in the course textbook, then customized them according to Stowe’s requests, using Graphic Services’ map database. Stowe tested several prototypes in class, checking legibility with students in the back of the large lecture hall. Based on last semester’s experience, Stowe plans to make some changes. The series of maps includes views of the eastern half of the U.S. and more detailed regional views. State boundaries, key cities, and a few key geographical features—major rivers, some mountains—show students the big and not-so-big pictures, and the relatively uncluttered maps allow Stowe to draw in troops and outline battles. “I wanted students to think about distances,” Stowe says of his choices for map features. “And I wanted students to think about the physical topography of the landscape, too. When we say that Sherman’s march cut the South in half, what are we saying geographically?” The maps, and Stowe’s practice of drawing on them during class, “kept a level of improvisation going, and led to a higher energy level for the students.” Stowe also received assistance from TLTL, on a web site for A200. “Their professionalism is first rate,” Stowe says of ISS. See story in the September 1998 ISS Newsletter for other examples of Graphic Services’ maps.

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