Animating History: Digitally Mapping the United States Telegraph System

Digital humanities is a booming field. This article introduces a new digital map that shows the development of the telegraph system in the United States from its inception in 1844 to 1862. This interactive map locates offices and lines, and it displays data that put the telegraph system in its political, social, and environmental contexts. As far as the authors know, this is the first born-digital map of a telegraph system anywhere in the world. Readers are invited to explore the freely available map, and historians of technology are encouraged to use digital maps for their research and teaching. Digital maps are ideal for visualizing systems and networks, two concepts that have dominated the history of technology for several decades. The ability to display time-sensitive data for several variables at the same time is especially useful.