The Space Between: The Importance of a Historian and Geographer Collaboration

Today is 9/11 and I can't help but have most of my thoughts instinctively focused towards the events that happened on this day twelve years ago.  My Facebook feed is littered with digital documentation of that day and its after effects that it had on the lives of many Americans.  While I can distinctively recall my exact location when I first saw what was happening on the news, I can't help but turn my perspective to how important this digital collection will be to humanity when I'm in the ground and merely a memory to those in my family.  These videos and audio files have documented in great length the history of that day, the first time in history that an event like this has been documented in such great detail.

The role of the historian and the role of the geographer are rarely seen as one in the same.  While historians slave over journal entries and newspaper articles, geographers are deeply imbedding themselves in vast amounts of information from days throughout history.  Both of these professions have the same goal, to tell the story of the world, but the two go at it from two entirely different points of view.  Historians seem to latch themselves to the personal lives of people that have lived, while geographers steer themselves in the direction of the state of the world the people lived in.  The question that begs an answer is, why aren't there more collaborative teams that are composed of historians and geographers?

While the two professions often find a common ground in large facilities such as the Smithsonian Institute and large colleges, the benefits of this common ground are not fully being integrated into the educational syllabus of the schools and colleges.  In high school I took geography one year, which was mainly comprised of the shape of the states and where rivers are, the following year I took a history class that was comprised of memorizing states, dates, and names.  Is it any wonder that our education of the past is sorely lacking?  When I first started college, I quickly realized just how much I'd been cheated.  As years pass and historians of newer generations make their way into professor positions around the country, the focus of many history departments has departed from the "memorization" game and has headed into the "cause and effect" game.  An individual might be able to learn dates, places, and names, but to be educated on the importance of this information is more important.  In the age of smart phones and tablets, a specific date an event occurred can be searched and found in a matter of seconds.

Technology has afforded these two professions a second chance at happiness.  Historic maps can now be imbedded in a program that can stream seamlessly with Google Maps.  Sure, the technology is new and there are a few bugs to work out, but imagine the importance of this system once the vast amounts of information is imputed.  Imagine the ability to scroll over a building in NYC and having the ability to click on it, which would bring up the building's history in regards to pictures, dates, building permits, and other historic information.  Imagine having the ability to run a program that shows westward expansion to your children visually.  Imagine having the ability to see the geographic changes of the world combined with personal stories and information of its residents.  While the technology is a long way off as of now, but it is never too early to start.  When you see something from a singular point of view, its like looking at life in 2D.  However, looking at something from multiple points of view utilizing the full extent of knowledge, suddenly you are looking at life in 3D.  Geographers have the ability to do there job without historians, however, I don't feel that historians can do there job without geographers.  The importance of the vast data is too relevant to be ignored.

-Jason Barrett