1. Social and Spatial Mobility in the British Empire: Reading and Mapping Lower Class Travel Accounts of the 1790's
- Author
-
Misich, Courtney, Misich
- Subjects
- British and Irish Literature, Geographic Information Science, Geography, History, Literature, European History, British Empire, Eighteenth-Century, GIS, Spatial History, Mapping, Social Mobility, Lower Classes, Travel Account, Interactive Mapping, Social Status, Financial, Employment, Spatial Mobility
- Abstract
Through textual analysis and mapping of 1790s published travel accounts, this project examines how lower class individuals utilized the growing British Empire to expand their societal status and travel opportunities. Modeled on early novels of the mid-eighteenth century such as Robinson Crusoe and Pamela, these supposedly “true” travel accounts showed their protagonists using personal connections, patronage, and employment to overcome adversity and rise socially. Individuals demonstrated mobility through their public image, dress, and speech. Passing for middle class was difficult, although often achievable through education, conduct, and finances. A publicly available interactive map in ArcGIS Online was created. It shows the routes of travel, characteristics of the travelers’ social status, and quotations from the primary sources, allowing them to be compared. The interactive map was built from the travel accounts descriptions of their travels, social status, financial status, and employment through manual data entry. The map is designed to be accessible and appealing to a broad public, enlarging the audience beyond specialists in digital humanities.
- Published
- 2017