Bard Expermental Humanities

Crowdsourcing Local History

Digital History Lab, Experimental Humanities

This lab is funded through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Lab Coordinator: Gretta Tritch Roman

Lab Assistant: Arti Tripathi

We invite you to participate in our project to identify the buildings indicated on the historic map made by Alexander Thompson in 1798 and includes present-day Rhinebeck as well as Red Hook and Tivoli! There are four known versions of this map. The version used here is from Bard College's Montgomery Place collections. We begin with this version of the map because it has the most named points of the four, but it should be noted that the names across these maps do vary. Each building (houses, mills, churches, inns, etc.) is marked with a colored marker: red to indicate the building is named on the map and blue to indicate it is unnamed. Each marker is identified by a unique Reference number, which is included in the information bubble that appears when you click on the marker.

In the spring semester of 2016, students in the Historical HGIS class at Bard College continued the work started by Nancy V. Kelly, Arthur Kelly, and Patsy Vogel in identifying each named point on the map. The students did preliminary research, which is included here. We welcome any corrections you have for this research, which may be found in the popup information bubble on the red markers. We also hope you may recognize any of the points marked in blue on the map, whether it is the building indicated on the 1798 map that still exists or even the property on which the building is drawn. Please use the crowdsourcing form below to contribute your corrections and additions. Each entry should be limited to one marker and should include the unique reference number.

Note about the accuracy of the map:
The Thompson map below has been georefererenced along roads and boundaries that appeared to be closest to the present-day, including the mouths of waterways, the Old Post Road, the boundaries of then-Rhinebeck (which includes present-day Red Hook and Tivoli), and a few other roads. We have chosen to not include the labels of the present-day roads on the map; however, you may verify the name of any road (drawn in white below) by click on the line. The same goes for the waterways.
Important: The location of the buildings on the Thompson map is an approximation. The location of the dot may or may not exactly coincide with the actual location of the building. With your contributions of the addresses of these buildings, we can continue to rectify the Thompson map to line it up with a current topographic map.
Thank you in advance for your participation in the project!

Is the form below not working? Fill it out here!