Spatial Map

◎Open the Spatial MapFull-screen map · topic filters · historical events · time playback→

This map plots newspaper records from the Chronicling America archive onto the geographic boundaries of the United States as they existed in 1882. Each dot represents a newspaper excerpt mentioning Chinese children, students, or families, over two thousand records spanning 1880 to 1885, colored by topic category and filterable by time and historical event.

What the Map Shows

Every point is positioned at the publication city of the newspaper that printed the excerpt, not the location of the events described. A San Francisco paper covering the Tape v. Hurley school case appears over San Francisco; a Boston paper covering the Chinese Educational Mission recall appears over Boston.

Points are colored by topic category, the thematic cluster assigned by the LDA topic model. The underlying boundaries come from the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, reflecting 1882 administrative divisions, including western territories that had not yet achieved statehood.

Features

Topic filters: Nine thematic categories (Chinese Educational Mission, Education & Schools, Children & Family, Law & Exclusion, Violence & War, and more). Toggle categories, enter solo mode, or drill down to individual topics. Record counts update in real time.

Historical events: Ten anchored events from the Angell Treaty (1880) to the Seattle Expulsion Attempt (1886). Selecting an event highlights the relevant state or county, filters records to the event's date window, and opens a description card anchored to the geography.

Time filter: Restrict visible records to a single year or month to trace how press coverage shifted around specific moments, such as the Exclusion Act debate in spring 1882 or the expulsion wave in fall 1885.

Basemaps: Switch between a modern reference layer and a period Rand McNally 1882 layer.

In This Section

• Map Overview: detailed guide to using the map, topic category descriptions, and key geographic observations
• Map References: all data sources, basemaps, tools, and software used