Looking back, Matthews says that the military commanders were, in a way, geographers. “Being able to visit these places and see them was really awesome.” “I was really interested in history,” he said. Visiting historic sites and monuments near his hometown helped Matthews better understand the geographic context of the events that had occurred there. When Shane and Ryan were both in grade school, Tom took them to Jamestown, Williamsburg, Appomattox, and other historical sites. His parents, Tom and Joyce, weren’t geography buffs but they nurtured their elder son’s interest in history. Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War. During the Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold, the famous American defector, led British troops in a successful attack on the city in 1781. The city is steeped in Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Matthews was raised with his younger brother, Ryan, in Richmond, Virginia. Shane Matthews Growing Up Spatially Aware
![jedi civil war map jedi civil war map](https://www.epicwar.com/assets/p/20/4764.jpg)
“I like talking about maps and evangelizing maps and creating maps when I can.” “I enjoy talking to people, and I like to look at maps all day,” said Matthews. In addition to having a great affinity for maps, Matthews is a people person. Such a huge, cooperative effort needs people like Matthews. “We are building the GIS of the world collectively,” Brown said. According to Clint Brown, director of product engineering at Esri, Matthews is helping spearhead the effort to encourage ArcGIS technology users to contribute to and use Living Atlas of the World content. Matthews and others reach out to Esri partners, distributors, and government organizations worldwide and request authoritative data to add to the atlas. This collection has approximately 4,000 basemaps imagery historical maps story maps and maps with information on demographics, lifestyles, boundaries, the landscape, traffic, transportation systems, and earth observations (e.g., precipitation, snowfall, and earthquakes). He recruits organizations to provide content, including imagery, for use in the Living Atlas of the World, a vast and evolving online compilation of authoritative maps, apps, Esri Story Map apps, scenes, and layers on a wide variety of themes. Matthews joined Esri in 2011 as a cartographic specialist. Later, as a product manager, he oversaw development of the Trails Illustrated Topographic Recreation Maps and Adventure Travel map series. As a production cartographer there, he created and edited map products. He worked at the National Geographic Society from 1999 to 2011. The 45-year-old Virginia native and outdoorsman earned a bachelor of science degree in geography from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
![jedi civil war map jedi civil war map](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WjvGJiT_VII/ThDE_suI5lI/AAAAAAAAFH8/fo_ztgGy5Yo/s1600/Atlas+of+early+republic.jpg)
That incident notwithstanding, Matthews and maps typically go hand in hand.
![jedi civil war map jedi civil war map](https://i.imgur.com/xcC4bGy.png)
“My background is in physical geography, so that is what I relied on without getting too nervous.” “I knew the whole watershed was spilling into Bear Creek, so if I followed the stream, I would eventually hit that creek and could get my bearings from there,” said Matthews. However, when the trail he was following fizzled out, he didn’t panic. Because he was familiar with the trail, Matthews had set out without a map or compass. The Esri cartographer was hiking in the rugged Mount Evans Wilderness Area in Colorado. A few years ago, geographic knowledge paid off for Shane C.