A visualization of migrants' letters

This is my experimental attempt at mapping the origins of letters using colour and size to represent the date of writing. Older letters are represented with large circles using colours at the red end of the spectrum. The more recent the letter the smaller the circle with a colours moving to the blue end of the spectrum. Overlapping circles allow a user to see the different periods in which letters from particular location were written. (The size of the circles do not represent the number of letters written.) Click on a circle to see the location.

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The visualisations use a variety of open-source libraries, including Leaflet, Exhibit, JQuery, D3, Dimple, and Peoplemovin, but have been chosen and tailored specifically for spatial, temporal and personal attributes. The letters data used is drawn from the collections of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies and the Immigration History Research Center and Archives at the University of Minnesota. More information on these collections can be found on the websites of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies and the Immigration History Research Center and Archives.


1647	1682	1717	1752	1787	1822	1857	1892	1927	1962	1997

Leaving, crossing, arriving

Stories of migration as told through correspondence

Time Map