Writing Example

Assignment 4

Thematic Mapping

Jake Plummer

Legend

1910-1930 Expansion

1930-1950 Expansion

1950-1970 Expansion

1970-2020 Expansion

Buildings still on campus

Build either renovated or torn down

Buildings built 1910-1930

Building built 1930-1950

Building built 1950-1970

Building built 1970-2021

Why do we study history while we are at school, and why is history important? When looking at the University of Cincinnati’s past it is important to understand both that the buildings and the land have changed over time. When looking at any building on campus, there is a chance that the building was a replacement of another. Like McMicken Hall for example, before the McMicken Hall we know was built there was an older McMicken Hall that was deconstructed. There have been many buildings, some of which are still here and some which have been demolished. These demolished buildings are represented by the dashed lines on the map. I choose to color code the buildings based on the time periods when they were built. Green were built before the 1930s, blue were built from 1930 to 1950, red were built from the 1950s to the 1970s, and yellow were built from the 1970s to the present.

There was a time earlier in UC’s history when we did not have quite so many buildings on campus. All these buildings were mostly centered along the west side of campus and are among some of the oldest buildings on campus. In the 1930s the old McMicken Hall was still around and was replaced with the newer McMicken Hall by the 1950s.

Now moving on to the 1950s-1970s and there was a large boom of buildings built including the first two building of DAAP and several of the residential halls. Then finally by 2020 all the buildings that are here now have been built, with several construction projects around campus.

This is a timeline of when all the buildings on campus were built. You can see from this infographic that there are certain periods that had massive levels of new buildings being constructed and some pockets where nothing was being built at all. While looking at the history of the campus and the buildings that were built, it is also important to look at how UC has expanded its territory. The expansion of the University of Cincinnati is not something that happened all at once. Much of the expansion happened in waves.

When looking at the direction of the expansion of UC, it is clear that the expansion happened in three main directions. To the south, to the north, and to the east.

When looking at all this, you may ask why is learning about UC past is important. I believe that it is important because history can inspire people to make changes now rather than doing nothing. Growth is necessary for mostly anything to develop, so UC needs to be able to know where and how to grow.