Good afternoon, /r/AskHistorians!
As I said in the title, I'm a freshman history major who has had a lifelong passion for cartography, especially mapping historical events, nations, regions, you name it! I was drawing basic street maps of my neighborhood as early as preschool. Since then, I've gradually honed my skills in drawing maps, progressing from childish crayon and pencil drawings, to utilizing wikipedia templates in middle school, creating rudimentary historical maps in GIMP in early high school, and nowadays, intricate, detailed, and (in my opinion) visually aestetic maps in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
I've also had a lifelong passion and obsession for learning, analyzing, and reading about historical events, trends, figures, etc. My main area of interest is European History in the early modern era (~1390 - 1700), with an additional emphasis on the development of political institutions (on top of a general interest on all aspects of that period).
So, with that (possibly excessive) pile of personal background out of the way, here's my question for you wonderful contributors:
What career paths or general job oppertunities are out there that would allow me to persue both my passion/obsession with history and my hobby/interest in map-making?
As an added note, George Mason University (my current university) is offering a concentration in digital history - basically, the presentation of history in modern, digital mediums (websites, interactive displays, etc), which would line up nicely with my interest in digital cartography. This is a concentration that I am actively perusing.
I know this is a very specific question, but any advise you all might have would really go a long way!
Interesting, I share some of those same interests and I'm planning on starting library school next fall.
Ever consider Web development or computer science? I worked for a small software developer that specializes in GIS software for about a year--granted it was in sales but I learned a decent amount about the software and the industry. I'd also taken some GIS courses in college beforehand.
I know you seem more oriented toward the humanities but another good area to look into but be the environmental route, geology or geography can be pretty map-based.
I guess it depends on what you like more, a subject that interests you, or cold hard cash. Honestly you can always pick something more general now and pivot to something you're more interested in as you get older.