Haunting women of Greenwich Village
Haunting Women of Greenwich Village is a concept for a self-guided tour of locations in Greenwich Village, New York City that are rumoured to be home to feminine ghosts and spirits. Many of these ghost stories are based on the lives and deaths of real women who once lived in the neighbourhood. I designed the map and structure in hopes of complimenting the neighbourhood and intriguing both tourists and curious locals.
Thank you to my tour guide Matt from New York Ghosts for sparking this project. I also am very grateful to the thoughtful research and work of Leanna Renee Hieber from the tour company Boroughs of the Dead. I highly recommend her book A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America's Ghosts.
Main mother map designed to be a starting point for visitors at Washington Square Park.
Typeface
My goal was to use a font that looked similar to historic plaques and would evoke a sense of history and storytelling. I also wanted to use typefaces that were designed by women. I decided on Adorn Smooth for a title font and Mrs Eaves for body text.
Shapes
The oval shape of the map informs the oval shape of the numbered location icons, similar to how homes have street number plaques.
Colour Palette
My colour selection came directly from the historic maps of the neighbourhood I found searching the New York Public Libraries’ digital archival collection. Pink was often used to highlight neighbourhood blocks, and the soft beige of the map background is what we clearly associate with maps.
An example of both a historic plaque and child map.
View of main mother map installed in Washington Square Park for tourists and locals to discover.
View of child map in front of plaque featuring a story about Henrietta Chumley.
Lamppost and Hand Motifs
Many ghostly spirits are often believed to be reaching from beyond the veil to guide the living toward some type of lesson or historic misunderstanding. The choice of a lamp post was to illuminate the unseen and guide living tourists and locals towards these stories. I used hands on the structure to hold the map to further communicate this point.
Elevations of physical structures.
Reference images featuring Greenwich Village tombstones, nearby historic map designs, visual inspiration and historic lamppost designs.
I used a lot of sketching on my iPad using Procreate to imagine what the physical forms might look like. I was excited to land on this design, which became my structural influence.
Topic Selection
I have always loved a good ghost story, and based on the booming haunted tourism industry around the world it is clear I am not alone. I selected a historic location and found a ghost tour there.
On the tour, I was surprised at how most stories featured women who had been mistreated or met unjust deaths. I then decided to focus on guiding tourists and visitors to learn more about the story. Through reading Leanna Renee Hieber’s book, I was prompted to think more thoughtfully about how these women’s stories often connect to modern social injustices.
I felt it was important to find a balance between morbid curiosity and respectful storytelling. There were a few locations on the tour I specifically left out of my map, due to a slight discomfort in telling modern deaths as if there are ghosts lingering.