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By Kurt Vidmer

Throughout the nineteenth century in the United States, the idea of space and time began to change with the innovation of transportation systems. The new transportation systems consisted of increased canal construction, better maintained stage roads, and most importantly railroad expansion. With these innovations in transportation systems, it because much more accessible and efficient for American citizens to travel across the country. Due to the increased accessibility of resources enabling travel, the idea of “space” and “place” began to form a new definition, as various regions became much more open to the country.

As we read in class, Withers describes Tuan’s idea of “space” and “place” as “space as an arena for action and movement, place as about stopping, resting, becoming, and be- coming involved”[3]. When analyzing the impact of the advancements in transportation technology in the nineteenth century, we can see these advancements had great impact on both “space” and “place”. However, these increases in transportation opportunities and efficiency not only allowed for farther exploration and settlement, but also played a large role in the advancement of information exchange throughout this time period.

My first primary source demonstrates how the railroad enabled people to travel across a much more vast array of places, and how this availability increased the opportunity for information exchange throughout this time period. This source is a page from a scrapbook of railroad tickets that belonged to Jeptha H. Wade. This scrapbook was taken directly from the “Jeptha H. Wade Family Papers”, which consist of letters, scrapbooks, and memorabilia from the life of Jeptha H. Wade.

Jeptha H. Wade himself played a large role in the increase in information technology during the mid-nineteenth century, as he was a leading industrialist for the formation of telegraphs[1]. Living most of his life in Michigan and Ohio, Wade was at the center of the expansion movement. As he worked his way into the telegraph business, he formed the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company in 1849. This Company became famous when they successfully implemented a telegraph line connecting to these two main cities, a line that would later be expanded to reach other large cities in the Midwest.

The ticket page in the scrapbook that I chose consists of tickets from four different cities in the year 1867. The cities included are Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. This particular page stands out to me for two main reasons. First, it is very indicative of Jeptha H. Wade’s geographic location where his company was based out of and his initial work was done. Also, it allows us to assume that these train ticket were from him commuting to and from his offices in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The second reason this page sticks out to me is because it also displays western railroad expansion in the mid-nineteenth century. Seeing that Wade was traveling to Wisconsin in 1867 leads us to assume that this was in an effort to further expand his telegraph lines west. This paints a very clear picture of the effort that was being taken to expand westward during this period.

The Milwaukee ticket also lines up with another of my primary source documents, which is a map of American Railroads, Canals, and Stage Roads from the year 1846 [2]. In this map, Milwaukee is at the very western edge of the where railroads were accessible to American travelers. Although the Jeptha H. Wade’s Milwaukee ticket is over twenty years older than this map, it makes sense that it was a necessity for the railroad expansion to a city to precede the precede the telegraph expansion to a city. With all of the required equipment, workers, and planning needed to install a telegraph line; I believe it is safe to assume that an efficient and functional railroad was required to undertake such a process.

As the ticket collection continues, there gradually is an increase in the how far west the ticket go. Some examples of documented western travels include tickets from both Minneapolis and Arkansas. This serves as a great example of how the railroads opened the country up far more for travelers.

Jeptha H. Wade’s collection of railroad tickets allow us to see first hand the changing in “space” and “place” in the mid-nineteenth century America. Not only did the railroads make it more accessible for people to travel farther differences, it also enabled information exchange to expand to these given reasons. Because of the advancements in transportation opportunities, Jeptha H. Wade was able to successfully install telegraph lines to open up communication to these new regions. The availability of efficient communication to a region enables the region to transition from a “space” to a “place”. The railroads enable the region to become Tuan’s definition of a space, and communication, such as telegraphs enable the space to become Tuan’s definition of a place.

Bibliography

[1] Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, 1856-1890, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

[2] Smith, Calvin J. United States, 1846. New York: 1846

[3] Withers, Charles W. J. “Place and the “Spatial Turn” in Geography and in History.” Journal of the History of Ideas: 637-58.