Historical GIS: Uses for Economic and Business History

The use of Historical Geographical Information Systems (HGIS) technology has been increasing in recent years. Maps used in GIS systems must be geo-referenced—that is, common coordinates or other information must be embedded in images so that multiple datasets can be applied to the same space. The technology has been in use for many years among geographers, but has only recently come to the attention of historians. At the same time, software programs for creating and viewing geo-referenced materials have become more widespread. A number of websites are now available that illustrate some of the possibilities in relation to economic history topics:

Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture
Urban Transition Historical GIS Project
Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City
David Rumsay Map Collection GIS Examples
Mapping the Du Bois Philadelphia Negro
Digital Harlem: Everyday Life, 1915-1930
The Grub Street Project: Topographies of Eighteenth-Century London
Shaping the West (Richard White on Railroads)
A Vision of Britain through Time
National (US) Historical GIS and Social Explorer

A short bibliography geared to explaining GIS to historians:

Anne Kelly Knowles, Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History, and Placing History
David J. Bodenhamer, et al., The Spatial Humanities
Ian Gregory and Paul Ells, Historical GIS

Update, July 29, 2011: See also Patricia Cohen's article in the July 26 New York Times, "Digital Maps Are Giving Scholars the Historical Lay of the Land."

Digital Collection: Princeton Exhibit of Subway Posters

The Princeton University Library has digitized a number of posters from the Interborough Rapid Transit Subway Company . The posters, designed by the public relations firm Ivy Lee, were displayed in subway cars to provide information to riders about changes in fares and routes, safety issues, and other matters of interest. The collection consists of 385 images dating from 1918 to 1932; many of them provide financial information about rates, company dividends, and a general look at an early rapid transit system. October 29, update: Jonathan Rees over at "More or Less Bunk" was moved by this post to go off in search of a better site, and found the massive collection of the London Transport Museum , which displays over 5,000 items in a searchable collection .

The Exchange has moved to the BHC's website

Dear members subscribers of The Exchange The Exchange, the weblog of the BHC, is now part of our website ( https://thebhc.org ). We migrated the blog to serve our membership and interested parties best since Blogger is discontinuing its email service. Note that this will be the last message we will send from Blogger . The Exchange was founded by Pat Denault over a decade ago, and it has become an essential channel for announcements from and about the BHC and from our subscribers and members. Announcements from The Exchange will come up on the News section of our website as they did before. However, if you wish to receive these announcements via email, and you have not done so yet, please subscribe to The Exchange by: Going to our website's homepage ( https://thebhc.org ), s crolling down to the end of the page, and clicking on "Subscribe to the Latest BHC News." Or go to the “News” section of our website's homepage ( https://thebhc.org/ ), and click on...

Wilfried Feldenkirchen (1947-2010)

With sadness we report the death of longtime BHC member Wilfried Feldenkirchen. He died in a car accident on June 21, 2010, while test driving a replica of Siemens' 1905 electric car, the Victoria , a project for which he was the manager. He was professor of economic, social, and business history in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. A former trustee of the BHC and a member of the editorial board of Enterprise & Society , Professor Dr. Feldenkirchen specialized in nineteenth- and twentieth-century corporate and financial history, focusing particularly on Siemens. In addition to numerous articles and essays, his works include: The Banks and the Steel Industry in the Ruhr: Developments in Relations from 1874 to 1914 (1981) Werner von Siemens: Inventor and International Entrepreneur (1994) Siemens, 1918-1945 (1999) Siemens: From Workshop to Global Player (2000) "Vom Guten das Beste": Von Daimler und Be...

The Exchange

Search This Blog