Creating maps is a research method helping to highlight questions and connections that might otherwise remain hidden.¹ Maps play various roles in the humanities – the most typical being the depiction of a location or event, but they can also be used to illustrate spatial experiences, create narratives, or serve as independent objects of study.² Among the datasets in the Digilab are subsets of maps from the Estonian National Bibliography and the DIGAR database. Additionally, spatial data can be linked to other datasets that include geographical locations. This blog post explores the different analyses that can be performed with these datasets and digitized maps.³

Examples of combining geographic information systems (GIS) with humanities data 

Several pioneering projects that combine geographic information systems (GIS) with humanities data have originated from Stanford University. For instance, the Orbis project maps spatial experiences, centering on an interactive map of the road network of Ancient Rome. Another significant Stanford project is Mapping the Republic of Letters, which charts early modern era correspondence and gave rise to the web-based visualization tool Palladio. The growing accessibility of GIS tools and the abundance of instructional materials have broadened the scope of such projects beyond academia. For example, Native Land Digital, a project led by Indigenous representatives in North America, maps Indigenous territories and amplifies the voices of marginalized communities. Many older, similar projects are compiled on the DH GIS Projects webpage.

Similar projects can also be found in Estonia. In Tartu, the German Tartu / Deutsches Dorpat project, created in collaboration between the Tartu City Museum and the University of Tartu's German Studies Department, maps (Baltic) German descriptions of the city. A slightly earlier project by the Tartu City Museum, Places and Stories of Ülejõe, charts the stories and memories of people associated with Tartu's Ülejõe district. A recent example from Tallinn is the Tallinn Urban Space Art Map, which displays the locations of public art pieces throughout the city.

The Digilab also includes a mapping tool called Books on the Map. This tool is based on data from the Estonian National Bibliography, specifically the publication locations and release years of books. The tool is interactive—users can track book publications decade by decade and focus on a region of interest. The map points are linked to records in the ESTER e-catalog. However, this is not the only option for analyzing datasets of the Digilab.

Mapping the Estonian National Bibliography Maps

The Estonian National Bibliography (ERB) database currently contains data on 13,142 maps, of which 5,142 include information about the northern, southern, eastern, and western extents of the maps. This allows for an analysis of the geographical distribution of the maps within the database. However, such mapping is inherently complex. The rectangular boundaries of maps overlap, especially for larger areas (e.g., world maps), making the results difficult to interpret. Unexpected but logical errors emerged during data processing. For instance, most maps depicting the Soviet Union were found to "reside" in North America. This anomaly stemmed from the underlying world map projection used.

Focusing solely on maps that fit within Estonia's borders provides insight into which areas are most frequently represented based on existing data. In general, Estonia's territory has been mapped fairly evenly. However, two notable gaps emerge: one at the border of Tartu and Jõgeva counties, and another at the intersection of Anija, Tapa, and Järva municipalities. A significant concentration of maps appears in western Estonia, particularly of the islands. Valga or Võru counties often extend into neighboring countries, which might fall outside the map's defined boundaries. A promising enhancement would be to make the map interactive, allowing users to click on a rectangle to access more detailed information, such as viewing the map itself if it has been digitized. This would greatly enhance usability and accessibility for researchers and the general public.

Digitized Map Georeferencing

Maps can also be found in the National Library's digital archive, where, in addition to metadata, users can browse the maps themselves. As of now, there are 5,224 maps available in the DIGAR archive. One of the oldest map collections is the Atlas zu der im Jahre 1865 ausgeführten Taxation der Immobilien der Gouvernements- und Hafenstadt Reval, dated to 1865, which contains maps created during the real estate evaluation process for the city of Tallinn in 1864 and 1865.⁴ The historical development and growth of Tallinn can be studied by linking these maps from the same collection with modern geographic data of the city.⁵ This process is called georeferencing. Since this is an older map covering a relatively large area, the historical map and the modern base map do not align perfectly, which is a common challenge in such analyses.

Haabersti, which is currently one of the districts of Tallinn, is absent from the historical map because, at the time the map was created, the Haabersti manor lands were separate from the city of Tallinn's territory.⁶ Similarly, the historical map does not show the Nõmme district, which was an independent town until it was incorporated into Tallinn in 1940.⁷ The areas of the Pirita and Lasnamäe districts have expanded, and the area marked in green on the historical map as "IV-ten Vorstadt-Quartal" (the fourth suburban quarter) has since been divided into the Kristiine and Mustamäe districts.

Geocoding of Text Data

The Digilab tool Books on the Map geographically depicts the publication locations of all books in the Estonian National Bibliography (ERB) over time. However, it is often useful to examine a more specific dataset. Inspired by the thematic blog post on Estonians abroad, the most recent map illustrates the publication locations of Estonian or partially Estonian-language books outside of Estonia between 1944 and 1991. Since there is no information about coordinates for the publication locations, these have been added through a process known as geocoding.⁸ The size of the points on the map corresponds to the number of books published in each location, and the number of published works is divided into six classes on the map.⁹

The largest number of works were published in Canada, specifically in Toronto, and in Sweden, particularly in Stockholm and Lund, where there was also active Estonian expatriate activity. The most prolific author was Bernard Kangro, who lived in Lund. Estonian-language books were also published in some rather exotic locations – for example, two works were published in Tokyo, Japan: "Väike eesti-jaapani õppesõnaraamat" (A Small Estonian-Japanese Dictionary) and "Eesti keele grammatika jaapanlastele" (Estonian Grammar for Japanese), both dated to 1991 and authored by Kazuto Matsumura. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the book "Creation: ülevaade elust ja loomingust" (Creation: An Overview of Life and Work) about sculptor Rudolf Saaring was published, along with a program booklet for the Estonian society "Estonia" in Argentina, titled "Eesti selts „Estonia“ muusikaring 2. ja segakoori aastakontsert" (Estonian Society "Estonia" Music Circle 2nd and Mixed Choir Annual Concert). One book was also published in Caracas, Venezuela: "Reisimärkmeid ümberilma teekonnalt" (Travel Notes from Around the World) by economist, diplomat, and pianist Herman Malvet.

Maps are attractive research tools and objects due to their visual appeal, but they also help to better comprehend data. For example, it would have been challenging to locate the 61,178 records in the dataset of Estonian-language books from places like Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and Caracas without the use of a map. Additionally, maps breathe new life into data that has been collected over time but has yet to be fully utilized.

Hopefully, this blog post will provide inspiration and motivation to use the Digilab's datasets in even more diverse and creative ways.

1. White, R. (2010). What is Spatial History? Stanford University Spatial History Lab. https://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/media/images/publication/what%20is%20spatial%20history%20pub%20020110.pdf

2. Drucker, J. (2021). The Digital Humanities Coursebook: An Introduction to Digital Methods for Research and Scholarship. Routledge.

3. For data cleaning and processing, R has been used, and for creating maps, the open-source geographic information system QGIS was employed. The modern base maps of Estonia are sourced from the Estonian Land Board's Geoportal, while the world base map is from the Natural Earth portal. The use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the humanities is taught, for example, at the University of Tartu.

4. Raid, T., Suurmaa, L., Harding, A., Burghardt, A., & Tuch, B. (2011). Tallinn ajaloolistel linnaplaanidel 1634-1989: Maps of the city of Tallinn = Tallinn auf den Stadtplänen = Планы города Таллинна. Grenader.

5. The historical base map of Tallinn can be found in DIGAR: http://www.digar.ee/id/nlib-digar:113197.

6. Raid, T., Suurmaa, L., Harding, A., Burghardt, A., & Tuch, B. Tallinn ajaloolistel linnaplaanidel 1634-1989: Maps of the city of Tallinn = Tallinn auf den Stadtplänen = Планы города Таллинна.

7. Vabariigi Valitsuse otsus 27. juulist 1940. (1940). Riigi Teataja, 86, 1163–1174. https://dea.digar.ee/?a=d&d=AKriigiteataja19400729.2.15&e=-------et-25--1--txt-txIN%7ctxTI%7ctxAU%7ctxTA-------------

8. Geocoding has been performed using the tidygeocoder package from the R software suite.

9. The division of point sizes into classes can be somewhat misleading. You can view the map where the size of each point represents its exact value here.