Sunday, May 8, 2011

Crimes, felonies and misdemeanors in Concordia, 1880-1910

Since April 26, History students at the Instituto de Profesorado "Concordia" (IPC) have begun preliminary research for the Epistemology of History Seminar.


This year the research line has been defined as "Crimesfelonies and misdemeanors in Concordia, 1880-1910". It aims to provide continuity and more specificity to the research begun in 2009 by another group of students who were devoted to investigate the same subject during the period 1916-1920, using as their primary source the collection of the El Litoral newspaper contained in the library of IPC.


Today, first surveys are being carried out in the Municipal Historical Archives of Concordia (AHMC), where students have found many documents. This has allowed them to select specific topics such as homicide, robbery, cattle rustling, political crimes, smuggling, etc., and locate them in the urban or rural space. From here, they will try to focus on the social, cultural and economic factors of each process, in addition to studying the relevant procedures of prosecution, prevention and control.


The Seminar is headed by M.Sc. Juan de la Cruz Ojeda.

Versión en español

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Trench of Alsina on Google




Regarding the post Google and historical research, I recommend the study of Laura Oliva Gerstner on the "Trench of Alsina”, published online by the University of Barcelona. This paper is an excellent contribution to deepen knowledge of the line of forts in Argentina during the 19th century as well as to experiment with digital resources for historical reconstruction.


Spanish version.



Saturday, February 12, 2011

Google and Historical Research

How useful and accurate Google tools are for historical research? I would like to share here an experience that would tip the balance of the debate slightly to say yes.

In this exercise we will try to systematically define the original location of the village of Mandisoví in the argentine province of Entre Ríos, using sources that Google technology gives us.

Juan de San Martín gave the order to establish the village of Mandisoví in 1777 by the creek of the same name. It was visited by future viceroy Santiago de Liniers in 1803, and General Manuel Belgrano in 1810, both major Argentine heroes. Was finally abandoned in 1847 when Governor Urquiza decided to move its population to the Uruguay River to establish the new town of Federación. Since then, 164 years have hidden their original location.

So where is located the old village of Mandisoví? Good “federaenses” know that about seven kilometers west of the current city of Federación there’s a monolith that resembles the site of the old village. I don’t live in Federación or know too much around. And I assure you that before this study, I was unaware of this monolith. So, I tried to track the exact location of Mandisoví using Internet tools.

The first useful information can be found in Google Books. There we introduced the search for "Colección histórica completa de los tratados", which corresponds to the digitization of the book edited by Carlos Calvo in 1866, and we select volume 8. This one can be downloaded for free in PDF. The author transcribed here the Memory of the geographer Andres Oyarvide, who visited Mandisoví on October 23, 1788. On page 438, you can read:


“On day 23th we continue the wagon road through lying hills without seeing remarkable objects in the long distance is found, we cross the streams Mandisoví Chico and Grande, and 2 miles west of this is the place with the same name with a good chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Conception, and is the better and more decent than we've seen in all the places of Indians, and here we spent the night, and I also established the southern latitude 30° 58' 36'', being the direct course of this road 2° SW, 18,13 miles away.”

The data of latitude -30°58'36'' leads to the use of Google Earth. We search here for "Federación, Entre Ríos" and after that we try to draw that parallel with a red line, resulting as follows:


Oyarvide didn’t provide us the meridian location. However, he traced the direction of the road from his previous location (the post of Tuparaí, north of Chajarí) set at 2° SW, and the final distance of this route, 18 miles 13”. With this data, Google Earth gives us a rough preliminary location:


The intersection shows the approximate data on the missing meridian: -57°29'24''.

Anyway, we need more data to confirm the location given by Oyarvide. To do this we’ll return to Google Books and we’ll find there the work of Martin de Moussy, "Description géographique et statistique de la Confédération Argentine", Volume 3. Its scanned version can be read entirely online. On page 116 we read:


That is, "Federación is a town founded in 1844, 2 miles below the old village, now abandoned, of Mandisoví". I came to find the center of the old Federación, and from there I drew a line two miles (10 km) until I reached the parallel made by Oyarvide. To locate the old Federación I used again Google Earth, as their blocks can still be seen covered by the river:



Thus, the result gave us a location almost identical to that previously established:



Thus, we determined the historical location of Mandisoví, with a sufficiently reliable system. This is not an original discovery. Like I said, from this I learned of the existence of a reminder monolith and a centenary historical accompanying tree. And I'm planning a visit the place, to know it personally. Through this small study, we tried to experiment with new technology tools to determine how far they can be useful for historical research. The debate remains open.


Clic here for Spanish version.