GIS in the History Classroom

Resources

The Association of American Geographers has put together a rich source of online resources at:

Association of American Geographers. Historical GIS Clearinghouse and Forum .

Portland State University and local school districts partnered in this project featuring a variety of topics in US History many of which include GIS activities:

Besser, Diane, coordinator. 2001-2011. “Teaching American History Project: Great Decisions in U.S. History ." Portland, Oregon: Portland State University.

An introductory essay on classroom inquiry approaches in both history and geography emphasizing the importance of local stories.

Dailey, George. 2004. “Geohistorical inquiry: Research Connecting Place and Time and Critical Thinking ." ESRI, Inc.

ESRI makes available a wide range of lesson plans including GIS activities for the social studies and for history classrooms specifically. Search by topic, subject area, and grade level:

ESRI. Arclessons . Redlands, California

The best source related to the technical aspects of GIS in the study of history is:

Gregory, Ian N. Ell, Paul S. 2007. Historical GIS: Technologies, Methodologies, and Scholarship. London: Cambridge University Press.

There is no better place to start exploring the use of GIS in the writing and study of history than these two collections of essays:

Knowles, Anne Kelly (Ed.). 2002. Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History. Redlands, California: ESRI Press.

Knowles, Anne Kelly, Hillier, Amy (Eds.) 2008. Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship. Redlands, California: ESRI Press.

An excellent case for the classroom use of GIS within a constructivist model of learning as suggested here is made by:

Kinniburgh, John. 2010. “A Constructivist Approach to Using GIS in the New Zealand Classroom ." New Zealand Geographer. 66:74.

United States census data and shapefiles dating back to 1790 can be found at:

NHGIS. 2013. “National Historical Geographic Information System ." Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota.

For an essay exploring the value and potential of GIS in the study and writing of history see:

Owens, Jack. 2005. “What Historians Want from GIS." in ArcGIS OnLine. Summer 2007.

Online GIS software and source documents are included in these lessons developed as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant:

Radisnski, Josh. 2005. “GIS for History ." Chicago: University of Chicago.

Access to digitized historical maps can be found at:

Rumsey, David. 1996-2013. “The David Rumsey Map Collection” . Cartography Associates. University of Texas Libraries. 2011.“Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection Austin, Texas: University of Texas Libraries.