Maritime life in Frenchman Bay in the late 19th century

Project Background

Freeland bunker was a mariner, world traveler, and business man from Winter harbor in the late 1800s. Starting in 1872, he wrote daily journal entries that included information about his life such as people he interacted with, places he visited, letters he sent, goods he sold, the wind and temperature, etc.

These journals were discovered in an old suitcase and given to the winter harbor historical society, and since then, many community members have been working to transcribe and analyze the journals to try and synthesize a picture of who Freeland was and what life was like at this time and place in history.

Our team worked with the Winter Harbor Historical Society to utilize text analysis with R to inform further reseach into topics of Freeland’s community, social, and economic involvement.

Project Outputs

Our final product aims to provide access to the information we discovered in the form of a GIS Story Map that utilizes images, maps, and narrative to synthesize our research, accesible to anyone interested in learning more about Freeland Bunker, Winter Harbor, or history in general. This website can be found Here or in the pop up below.

Team

Our Team:

Gael Guardarrama & Noelle Stringer

Data

Access the project on github and find out more about the data in the codebook.

Resources

Map Digitization through Historical Journals: An overview of the global information extracted from the Freeland Bunker Journals, including interactive maps tracing Freeland’s ocean voyages, comprehensive data on economic activity, and more!

Winter Harbor Historical Society Visit in person or online to learn about all things Winter Harbor!

Acknowledgements

Special Thanks to:

The Winter Harbor Historical Society, For their knowledge, guidance, & enthusiasm

Laurie Baker & the Community Engaged Data Science Class at College of the Atlantic, For their feedback and troubleshooting assistance

Ilham Santoso, For their inspiration & collaboration