The American Guide Series was designed to give shape and language to the various regions of the United States, while both expanding tourism and creating a link between tourism and a more patriotic and American outlook. 1 Through creating a StoryMap, it was interesting see the locations in the state guides come to life through designing a tour that I would create for another person. The Guide Series was written by the people of those specific areas, which brought a more honest component to the information given. This is important for spatial understanding because the locations documented were of interest to the writers while they were still standing, rather than a researcher going back to learn of a monument or area that no longer exists.
I chose my tour destinations based on the travel of my in-laws from their home in San Diego to their current home in Yuma. Because I would like to potentially relocate to San Diego one day, I chose to look at the project in reverse, looking at historical locations along the way. I felt that the West would have an interesting past and story as we have discussed in class the mass migrations of families to these areas. While reading through both the Arizona and California guidebooks, I looked for tourist stops that would either be of interest to me as I travel, or that would be heavily populated by others. I tried to find patterns in the locations that would help me to develop an idea that could feed into the concept of the ‘American way of life’ in the West that had been a topic in our readings. I had not thought at this point to consider the feasibility of an African American traveler going to these places, and I was shocked to see that their trip would not have been as enjoyable, or even as safe. Based on the various maps from the Navigating the Green Book site, there were almost no locations that were marked green, other than a few restaurant and “tourist homes”. Looking into the Green Book emphasized, to me, the importance of digital mapping to our understanding of history through “reconstruct[ing], preserv[ing], and visualiz[ing components and artifacts] of the past”. 2 This led me to see differently the tour that I had created.
- Marguerite S. Shaffer, “Narrating the Nation,” See America Firs: Tourism and National Identity (Smithsonian Books, 2013) 202.
- Sarah E. Bond, “Mapping Racism and Assessing the Success of the Digital Humanities,” History From Below, October 20, 2017, https://sarahemilybond.com/2017/10/20/mapping-racism-and-assessing-the-success-of-the-digital-humanities/
