Final Blog Post, Overview

Now that the semester is over, I  have two story maps which are somewhat different then what I was planning at the beginning. My overall trip story map is what I thought it would be, since it is just pictures with captions of our trip. My fortifications story map was something I decided to do half way through the semester, given the quality and quantity of information I was able to collect. Initially I wanted to make a story map about the Battle of Verdun with battle lines and the like. But given my interest in the forts it quickly morphed into a story map concentrated on the forts instead. My first problem, which was pretty much everyone's problem, was getting ESRI story maps to work properly. After a couple days of tinkering with settings and index files, I was able to get templates not hosted by ESRI to work, which is what my fortifications story map uses. My next problem was finding pictures for all the forts and fieldworks, a couple of which no picture could be found. Other then those two problems it was relatively smooth sailing. I ended up only have two tabs instead of three on my fortifications story map, eliminating the WWI tab and dividing up that information into the ClassTrip Tab on the same story map and into my other trip story map. Given more time, I would continue to work on the Fortifications story map and add in the tab I was not able to include but overall I have happy with the results.

Trip Story Map
Fortification Story Map

Project Status Update 7

New Tasks accomplished:

Finished Class Trip CSV:

Finished source reviews:

Alistair Horne's The Price of Glory
This book is somewhat different from the others I have read for my project. Instead of taking an third person view on the material and giving broad overviews, Alistair Horne takes you right into the action with an almost first person feel of the accounts of the Battle of Verdun. This book is specifically about the Battle of Verdun 1916 and as such will be a main source for my fortification project. I liked how it felt like reading a novel more then a history textbook and I feel like this book is perfect for anyone interested in learning more about WWI or looking for an exciting wartime narrative.

John Mosier's The Myth of the Great War
This was the first book I read for this class. It covers the entirety of WWI along the Western Front providing pictures and quite a few maps along the way. Dividing the book into fourths, the middle two are of the most interest to me for my project since they cover the battles leading up to and including the Battle of Verdun 1916. This book gave me a good background on WWI which I could then expand upon by reading another of John Mosier's books specifically about Verdun.

John Mosier's Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle in World War I, 1914-1918
Using a similar writing and format style as his book The Myth of the Great War, John Mosier expands on his knowledge of the Battle of Verdun 1916. He explores the shortcomings of both the Germans and the French, discusses issues in political geography, and details the troubles faced by soldiers taking part in what he refers to as the 'most important battle of WWI.' This book is another excellent source for my project as the entire book, as well as my project, focuses on Verdun.


The Battle of Verdun 1916 - the greatest battle ever
This website has an extensive timeline of the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Using an almost day by day approach, the events of the battle are spelled out in a clear manner. The battle is sectioned off into six different phases with meaningful subtitles, making finding specific dates and information easy to accomplish. I will use this site for finding specific dates and little bits of information that would take to long to find in a full length book.


Tasks that still need to be done:

Finish WWI.csv and write history section for website.
Troubleshoot pictures.

Project Status Update 6

This week I wrote up a little introduction to my project and the methods I used, for the class website. I am still writing the history section about Verdun for the website and will have it finished by the end of the week. I finished my Forts.csv and I am hoping to have the last two finished by next week. Here is my intro/methods for the website...

Introduction:

Of all the World War I memorials and sites we visited in France, nothing grasped my interest and spurred my imagination more than walking through Forts Douaumont and Vaux. Half way through our trip we left the Somme Battlefield region and headed towards Verdun. Immediately upon arrival, we set off to meet with Christina Holstein, a Verdun historian, local battlefield guide, and author of the Books Walking Verdun, Fort Douaumont, and Fort Vaux.  Trudging through the mud and rain, we followed Christina through the forest eventually arriving at the ditch surrounding Fort Douaumont. After Pausing momentarily for some quick history from Christina, we made our way inside the Fort. The cool damp air combined with dim lighting and numerous stalagmites, stalactites, barred off passageways, and crumbling stone and concrete gave the fort a rather solemn and almost creepy atmosphere. We had such a remarkable opportunity to walk these forts with Christina Holstein and my memories of strolling down the dark damp corridors hearing stories of the struggles the men occupying these forts had during WWI will never be forgotten. As such, my final project for this class is entirely concerned with the double ring of fortifications surrounding Verdun.

               

History:

Coming soon…

Methods:

I have made an ESRI Story Map that will have selectable tabs to display information about forty-four different forts and fieldworks, specific information about fortifications that experienced action in WWI, and a final section to display pictures and give a little background on the time we spent as a class in the Verdun area. Using all three of Christina Holstein’s Books, John Mosier’s The Myth of the Great War and Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle in WWI, and Allistar Horne’s The Price of Glory, I summarized the events of the Battle of Verdun and organized them into my WWI tab in my Story Map. Using Clayton Donnell’s Fortifications of Verdun, websites such as The Great War Fortifications in France... and Le site web de la fortification Sere de Rivieres, and along with Google Earth, I pinpointed the location, as well as provided a picture and basic information, of each fort and fieldwork in my Forts tab. Finally, to give a personal account of the fortifications of Verdun, I used pictures that one of my classmates or I took while in France and added some background information which could include what we are looking at, why it’s important, and my own thoughts on the matter in my Trip Tab.

Being able to upload pictures and install a Story Map Template onto our own private webserver, I was able to create different CSV files in Microsoft Excel that correspond with each separate Tab mentioned earlier. These three CSV files have all my textual information and reference the location of the pictures associated with each fort, fieldwork, or photograph. Once the pictures were uploaded to the correct location and my CSV files were created, I made a web map on ArcGIS online with each CSV loaded into it, referenced the web map in the Index file located in the Story Map Templates folder on our webserver, typed in the full web address of my Story Map, unchecked some browser security settings, and the finished product appeared. Although the trip overseas was the best part of the class, researching and working on this project was almost just as fun.

 Here is a screenshot of my finished Forts.csv