Finding Resources: Story Maps

Last Updated on June 23, 2021

Story Maps are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. The story maps are created within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform created by Esri.

Story Maps are chock full of primary sources, including photographs, illustrations, texts, newspaper articles, and even maps.

“I find story maps to be a twenty-first-century tool for a twenty-first-century library,” said Stephanie Stillo of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. “Story maps give us this fun and user-friendly way to mine deeper into our collections through mapping our data and through creative visualization.”

ARTS & CULTURE

	American Folklife Center: Field Surveys (1977-1998) explores large-scale ethnographic projects related to a series of field surveys that the American Folklife Center facilitated from 1977 to 1998 | CSV file
	Chicago Blues and Jazz documents African American blues and jazz musicians, singers, and venues, as represented in the American Folklife Center’s online Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection | CSV file
	The Colorful World of Ukiyo-e explores the use of color in Japanese woodblock prints
	“A Handsome Box”: The Adams Building explores the construction, architecture, and history of library services
	If These Walls Could Talk recreates the experience of walking into the Hispanic Reading Room where four richly colored and gigantic murals by the Brazilian artist Cândido Portinari document the Good Neighbor Policy at work in the Library of Congress
	Living Nations, Living Words features 47 contemporary Native Nations poets and their work | CSV file
	Off the Bench presents a Library of Congress treasure of early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914 | CSV file
	The Play That Electrified Harlem explores a 1936 production of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth by the Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project, one of the most ambitious government-sponsored relief measures in American history | CSV file
	Roadside America documents commercial structures along main streets, byways, and highways throughout the United States in the 20th century | CSV file

HISTORY

	American Parable: John C. Frémont and the Growth of the United States traces the life of this surveyor and explorer, soldier, politician, and businessman whose ups and downs, heroic deeds and fraught decisions paralleled the rise of the United States
	Behind Barbed Wire provides a glimpse into the daily lives of Japanese-Americans in internment camps during WWII | CSV file | related blog post
	D-Day Journeys traces the journeys of four veterans who lived through it | CSV file | related blog post
	Educated and Enslaved: The Journey of Omar Ibn Said explores the unique journey of Omar Ibn Said, a 37-year-old Muslim scholar, who wrote the only known extant autobiography of a U.S. enslaved person written in Arabic | CSV file
	Freedom illuminates the modern period of the long black freedom struggle | CSV file
	Historical Monuments of the First Peoples provides a brief history of the First Peoples of the United States told through important historical landmarks | CSV file
	The History of Pride an historical overview of annual LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations and the connections to Library of Congress collections
	The History of the United States Farm Bill summarizes the legislation and relays its significance to the agricultural industry
	Rampaging Invisible Killer Stalks the Entire Country! presents the story of the Influenza pandemic of 1918
	Stolen: An Indigenous Messenger’s Own Account of the Aztec Conquest explores the triumphs, downfall, and history of the Aztec civilization | CSV file
	Susie King Taylor follows the life of Susie King Taylor, the first African-American Civil War nurse and author of the only Civil War narrative written by a Black woman | CSV file
	Through the Enemy’s Eyes explores a map created by Japanese aviator Mitsuo Fuchida after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and related primary sources | CSV file
	A Treasure Trove of Trials relates how various nations of the world handled piracy issues before the year 1900 |  CSV file | related blog post

PLACES

	The City of Washington: From the Serial Set provides a short introduction of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and original resources of Washington D.C. | CSV file
	City Sketches and the Census look at city profiles documented in the United States 1880 Census | CSV file
	The Great Game and Afghanistan describes the rivalry between England and Russia as their spheres of influence in Mughal India, Turkestan and Persia moved closer to each other in South-Central Asia until they met in the newly formed nation state of Afghanistan
	Holy Land Photography journey across the 19th-century Middle East with English photographer Francis Frith | CSV file
	Homegrown Pride an interactive map and multimedia exploration of community cultural centers in 1977 Chicago and today | CSV file
	On Language and Colony takes the viewer through the historical path of the island of Puerto Rico since its colonization in 1493 and consequent linguistic changes
	Surveying the South relates the systematic record of early American buildings and gardens, primarily in the 1930s called the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (CSAS) | CSV file | related blog post

TECHNOLOGIES

	The 19th-Century Roots of Instagram highlights the similarities between the 19th-century Amateur Photographic Exchange Club (1861-1863) and contemporary social networking platforms such as Instagram and Facebook | CSV file of mapped data
	Camera and Locomotive tells the story of the fascinating interconnections between the the parallel histories of photography and the transcontinental railroad | CSV file
	Incunabula explores major themes in fifteenth-century (incunabula) printing | CSV file | related blog post
	Maps That Changed Our World explores the changes in world maps throughout the centuries and how as a result, perceptions of the world have shifted | CSV file | related blog post
	Perilous Proceedings skyscrapers of New York City 1900-1905
	Portraits of Brotherly Love highlights the development of photographic portraiture and the growth of the daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia between 1840-1849| CSV file
	Prickly Pear Blood explores the development of cochineal, the Mesoamerican red colorant that resembled the juice of red prickly pears
	Traveling Words and Sounds a collection of audio recordings of writers representing 32 countries and includes readings in Spanish, English, Portuguese, Aymara, Náhuatl, Creole, among other languages | CSV file

MORE

	2020 Literacy Award Winners & Best Practice Honorees highlights organizations’ unique stories, progress and achievements and explores literacy programs and approaches to promote literacy throughout the world | CSV file
	Connecting Though and Action presents the John W. Kluge Center and some of its scholars from around the world | CSV file