Where Middletown's readers were : a look at the processes in the creation of a GIS map : [an honors thesis] (HONRS 499)
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Abstract
In following in Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd's footsteps, Ball State University began its own `Center for Middletown Studies' in which both the past and present of Muncie, Indiana's sociology is further examined. One of the Center's subdivisions is the What Middletown Read program which is attempting to catalogue library patron information from the Muncie Public Library of the late 1800s and early 1900s into a digitized format. As an undergraduate fellow of this program, I attempt to visually display a select number of library patrons' residences through the technical skills I have garnered during my years at Ball State. Through the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) I map these library patron locations on a map of Muncie from the 1890s and draw conclusions for the reasons of such locations based on my own findings as well as the Lynd's. I include a journal describing my processes as well as some in depth highlights of notable Muncie residents from that era.