While GIS offers a way to digitize detailed historical records and maps, it can also provide a new way to understand history and trends over time.
historical maps
Maps and Cartography
British Library Crowdsources 2,700 Maps for Georeferencing
Launched back in February of 2012, the British Library started a pilot project to engage the public in help the library to georerefence a portion of its extensive digital maps collection. The British Library recently announced the successful completion of its efforts to have more than 2,700 maps georeferenced for […]
Maps and Cartography
California as an Island – Map Collection Now Online
Stanford has announced that the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection of California as an Island is now available online. Glen McLaughlin collected almost 800 maps specifically about California as an island over a period of 40 years. The maps were acquired by Stanford University in December of 2011 and is the largest known […]
Maps and Cartography
British Library Launches Crowdsourcing Map Georeferencing Program
The British Library has launched a pilot project to engage the public’s help in geoferencing historical maps. A sample of 725 maps of England and Wales from the 18th and 19th century (from the Ordnance Survey Drawings, 1780-1840) along with with large-scale street plans of London from 1560 to 1860 (from the the Crace […]
Maps and Cartography
Where to Look for Historical Maps
The use of extracting data from old paper maps is growing in popularity as a method to understanding historical geography. David Ramsey popularized the method of georectifying historical maps and draping those maps over a DEM to create a 3D view. Pastmapper is a project that digitizes historical maps in […]
GIS Learning
Best of GIS: Notable 2011 Geospatial Happenings
It’s been a very long time since I’ve done a “best of GIS” year end review. Listed below are some of what I have found to be the more exciting and sometimes just plain fun happenings and advances in the GIS and greater geospatial field for the year 2011 […]
Maps and Cartography
Over 120 Years of Mapping History Online
The USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection currently makes over 98,000 maps dating as far back as 1884 available to the public.