Research Guides: HIST 301: The Historian's Craft (Watkins, Spring 2025): Primary Sources

Intermission: 1780s Frenchman's Map

The Frenchman's Map, 1780s
An outstanding Digital Humanities project & partnership between the Library's Special Collections, VIMS, and the Center for Geospatial Analysis (CGA)

Who made this map?
Why?
What is the historical significance & importance?
What does the accuracy of the map tell us?
What other types of primary sources do we need to contextualize this map?

Contextualizing Primary Sources with Other Primary Sources

Armée de Rochambeau, 1782. Carte des environs de Williamsburg en Virginie où les armées françoise et américaine ont campés en Septembre 1781.

Frenchman's Map 1782

Are there notable similarities or differences?

1921 Sanborn Map, Williamsburg
1910 Sanborn Map
Would you like to know more?
Special Collections website about the Frenchman's Map

Why this Matters (or why I made you talk about a map for 5 minutes)

When looking for primary sources, the hardest (and most fun) part is deciding what types of sources you need. Letters? Broadsides? Monographs? Drawings? Wax Recordings? Oral Histories? Old Cereal boxes? Government materials? Knowing what kinds of material you need is the first starting point for Primary Sources.