Very occasionally, we have new map website additions that have a connection to North America, so I was keen to bounce on details of a website looking at Henrietta Liston's North American tours (1796-1801), in case of interest.

 

The website is at: http://digital.nls.uk/travels-of-henrietta-liston/  

 

... and we have developed an interactive map viewer at: http://digital.nls.uk/travels-of-henrietta-liston/map/  

 

The map viewer shows all 8 routes of the Listons as a clickable set of overlays, linking through to the Henrietta's journal entries for the places visited - whilst also allowing mapping by William Faden and Aaron Arrowsmith from the 1790s to be viewed in a right-hand screen. The viewer has been developed with open source tools, primarily OpenLayers, and we have released the code for onward use on Github: https://github.com/NationalLibraryOfScotland/ListonMapApplication  

 

In Glasgow, February 1796, Henrietta Marchant married influential Scottish diplomat Robert Liston, newly appointed British Minister to the United States. Soon after, they sailed for New York, arriving in May and reaching Philadelphia in time for the rising of Congress. Between 1796 and 1801 the Listons journeyed through the United States, Lower Canada and the West Indies, and Henrietta wrote travel journals about her experiences. Over the course of the five years between 1796 and 1801, the couple helped to restore better relations between the two countries. They became friends with the first President, George Washington, and other Founding Fathers.

 

There is also a brief news release at : http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2017/03/liston-journals

 

 

Chris Fleet
Map Curator | Collections and Research Department

National Library of Scotland
159 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PH

Tel: 0131 623 4670
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Website: maps.nls.uk
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