Maps of both past and present times are always an interesting subject to study. How areas change over time is something that historians and mapmakers alike have taken on and emphasized. Maps of the United States, in particular, are always interesting to study.
I chose a map that dealt with most of the state of Florida, along with the southeastern coast of Louisiana through the Gulf of Mexico. For my control points on the map, I chose 3 major modern cities to emphasize: Miami, Jacksonville, and Panama City. When rectifying the map, and connecting it to the map of modern-day Florida, I noticed a couple of interesting connections. The first was the importance and location of the Gulf of Mexico. In the map from 1777, it is emphasized pretty heavily. This map was more than likely used to help sailors navigate the Gulf of Mexico, and potentially the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Florida, and the southern coasts of what is now Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
One thing that I observed as well was that the map itself does not indicate cities within Florida. Again, the purpose of the map would be far more focused on navigating the waters around Florida, but highlighting important cities or higher urban areas could have been helpful. Through the rectified map, I was able to locate the cities of Miami, Jacksonville, and Panama City, as where they are located today, and pinpoint them on where they would be on the 1777 map.
This is a tool that is highly useful in blending the present with the past, and any historian working with maps should use this to their fullest advantage.
Original Map- https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3321pm.gar00007/?sp=5
Rectified Map- https://mapwarper.net/maps/85703#Rectify_tab
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