Urban Space on the Edge of Revolution
The Baedeker guidebook to the Russian Empire (English edition, 1914) contains 61 town plans. The plans are generally at a scale of 1:30,000, with a standardized cartography: they lend themselves very well to comparative analysis.
We are developing a method of calculating spatial characteristics and integrating them into an interactive web-based visualization that allows viewers to “see” and query the space of multiple towns (broken down into 700mx700m grid squares) simultaneously. Our workflow includes georeferencing, vectorization, grid application, and raster analysis (including zonal statistics to describe the percentages of buildable, built, green, “blue,” commercial, and cultural space).
As of September 2025 we have applied our method to 4 of the 6 Ukrainian towns in the set. In coming months we aim to complete this work for all Ukrainian and Finnish towns at a minimum. The goal is to create a research platform where students of history can explore spatial patterns and idiosyncrasies across two very different borderland regions. We will be integrating this quantitative/spatial perspective with the qualitative perspectives provided by travel accounts and other historical sources that describe the particular elements of the built environment (churches, monuments, theaters, markets, hotels, hospitals, etc.).
Duration: Academic year 2025-2026
Team: Kelly O'Neill; Abigail Bennett
