What did the New Haven Harbor shoreline look like before the industrial revolution?
Where were the mills located that propelled industry in the city, and what contaminants did they leave behind?
How has the area surrounding Tweed New Haven Airport changed since the time of its construction?
A new interactive digital atlas created by Yale’s New Haven Environmental History Project (NHEH) invites users to probe the city’s historical landscape for answers to such questions, and to make connections with the city of the present day.
The New Haven Digital Atlas is a powerful tool for gaining a better understanding of how the city has changed over time, said Paul Sabin, faculty director for Yale Environmental Humanities, which oversees the project, and the Randolph W. Townsend, Jr. Professor of History in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
“By studying these changes, students and community members can engage with major themes in urban history, including the manipulation of water, development of industry and communities, the role of infrastructure, and the creation of public space,” Sabin said.
The goal is to make the atlas a teaching tool for local schoolteachers. Yale Environmental Humanities recently hosted about 30 K-12 teachers and community members at an event introducing the atlas and demonstrating how it might be used in the classroom, Sabin said.
Area around present-day Tweed Airport in 1934 (left) and in 2021 (right).
The atlas is the creation of Sam Blair, who graduated this spring from the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) with a master’s in environmental science and will be starting doctoral studies in anthropology and environment at Yale in the fall. It was funded with support from Yale Planetary Solutions.
The project grew out of Blair’s master’s research into salt marshes in urban areas in Connecticut.
“I looked at the history of those landscapes, including the landscape around New Haven Harbor, and started exploring more and more historical maps, and techniques to take that information and make it meaningful by combining it with other types of environmental data,” Blair said.
The atlas presents aerial views of the greater New Haven area and allows users to overlay various data sets to show, for example, what sections of the city looked like in the 1930s compared to now, or how land use along the waterfront has changed.
“Who would have imagined back in 1846 that the farm fields of Oyster Point [now the City Point neighborhood] or the water around Long Wharf would all become a city?” Blair said. “There is a whole world under our feet from the past that we’re not aware of.”
Comparing an 1846 survey of New Haven Harbor with a 2016 map of the city’s land usage.
Blair was aided by two interns from the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions (YCGS): Pablo Macias Lopez, from North Las Vegas, now a rising Yale College senior who is double majoring in physics and film and media studies, and Christopher Fan, from Boston, now a second-year graduate student in environmental management at YSE.
Fan said he used his past experience working with in geographic information systems (GIS), including an internship at NASA, to help present various types of spatial data on the maps in the atlas.
One set of data he worked with came from Preservation Connecticut, a non-profit that works to preserve, protect, and promote historic places. With permission, Fan, Blair, and Austin Madson, remote sensing supervisor at YCGS, imported and reprocessed data from “Making Places,” Preservation CT’s statewide survey of historic mill sites, to situate local mills in the atlas.
The team also researched pollution and contamination data from an array of sources and added that information as an optional layer to go with the mill sites.
“I think the atlas will make it a lot easier for people to find this kind of data,” Fan said. Obviously, it’s out there, but sometimes it’s hard to find.”
Kyra McCreery ’26 also contributed to the atlas, uploading and organizing historical images and connecting them to present-day geography. Those images — a view of East Rock in 1849, New Haven Hospital in 1890, kids on Court Street in 1965 — are now searchable on their own map in the atlas.
The historical image map connects photos and drawings to present-day geography.
“I’m especially interested in how digital tools can create new ways of seeing the city and connecting historical materials to present-day spaces in New Haven,” McCreery, who graduated in May with a degree in history, said.
Some of the images were deliberately chosen because of their proximity to public schools, making them accessible as part of a walking field trip, said Kirke Elsass, a postdoctoral associate with NHEH who works on historical research and curriculum development.
Sabin said NHEH plans to continue adding to the atlas, and to work with YCGS, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the project’s community partners. The atlas is an ongoing initiative that will continue to expand with additional maps and data, as well as curated views that highlight different aspects of city development.
“Students can learn GIS skills while contributing to the atlas,” he said.
Blair is gratified by the feedback they’ve received so far.
“I’ve met many people both inside and outside of Yale, across ages and professions, who are very excited about the atlas and want to use it in ways I wouldn’t have imagined,” he said.
