The document discusses the nature of history, highlighting issues such as lost information, unreliable memory, disorganized records, and intentional misremembering. It examines historical sites like Fort Orange and Lake George, mentioning archaeological findings and the importance of community engagement among historians and archaeologists. Additionally, it references specific historical maps related to events like the French and Indian War and the Battle of Antietam.

1. OHM: Doing History
SOTM US 2023
Richard Welty

2. The Nature of History
• Information starts being lost as soon as an
event happens
• Memory is unreliable
• Records are disorganized or not even kept
• Some deliberately choose to mis-remember
• If you don’t like the narrative, rewrite it

3. Mer De Quest

4. Mer De Quest
• Buache's map of America (1745 edition)
• Conjectured after Martin Aguilar found the
mouth of a large river in 1602-3
• Based on rumors and assumptions
• Appeared on maps through the late 1700s

5. Albany NY 1695

6. Albany NY 1695

7. Albany NY 1698

8. Albany NY 1698

9. Reach out to the
Community
• The historians and archeologists, in addition to
the mappers
• They won’t necessarily go directly to your
speci
fi
c interests, but may well inform your
own e
ff
orts

10. Fort Orange
• Dutch forti
fi
cation & trading post where Albany
waterfront is located today
• Site is buried under modern construction
• I 787 & CSX railroad tracks
• Archeological dig done shortly before I 787
construction reached it

11. Fort Orange
• The archeologist who led the dig (now retired)
sent me a copy of his report including a map
• Was able to place Fort Orange in OHM fairly
accurately
• Probably could have gotten the info from the
New York State Education Department
• Other archeology done in Albany for periods of
Dutch and English rule

12. Fort Orange

13. Lake George
• Between Hudson River and Lake Champlain
• French & Indian War period
• Battle of Lake George
• Fort George
• Fort William Henry
• Landforms have changed

14. Lake George

15. Lake George
• Mark Silo, a volunteer guide at the Lake George
Battle
fi
eld Park, set out to
fi
gure out how to
match the maps
• A lot of footwork
• But also examination of older maps
• https://lakegeorgebattle
fi
eld.org/wp-content/
uploads/2023/02/newsletter-Winter-2023-
MSilo-full-online.pdf

16. Antietam
• Cope Maps
• ca 1900
• Army Corp of Engineers
• rather precise
• troop locations supplied by Ezra Carmen

17. Antietam - Cope

18. Antietam
• Elliot Burial Map
• 1864
• apparently annotations on an existing map
• existing map not as precise as it looks

19. Antietam - Elliot