FROM:
 
Richard C. Cassin, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Ocean Sciences Research Institute
San Diego, CA. USA
 
GIS and Historical Research:
 
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 15:12:41 -0500
Sender: Geographic Information Systems Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Fred J. Calef III" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: GIS and Historical Research...
 
Hello GIS-L,
 
I use GIS for archaeological and historical research.
 
Specifically I am using GIS to update the 1783 Dr. Ezra Stiles map of
Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. The Stiles map is unique in that it contains
building locations and heights for the town. Also, Dr. Stiles was a bit of
an eccentric ( or genius ) because liked to record everything. He
recorded the weather, peoples flokes, and (most importantly) surveyed the
town.
 
He literally paced out the whole town recording building heights, types of
buildings (stores, libraries, religious meeting places, etc.), and
recorded distances of various traverses he had made.
 
The map itself was a onetime draft and has various ink marks and blotches
and is generally hard to read. My goal is to fully restore the information
of the map and have it in digital form to better query the information it
has to offer.
 
Eventually, I'm going to link it with some archaeological data gathered
from different sites in Newport and bring it into Autocad to render it in
3D (which I've done for apart of it) for a 'walking tour' of the town as
it was.
 
As for archaeology, I have been involved in using GIS to record a Native
America n site that is one of the few preserved horticultural fields in
North America to be properly excavated. I've produced a variety of maps
for conferences and analysis using Arc/INFO. GIS has allowed us to view
the archaeological data more quickly and begin to discover some of the
complex spatial relationships. GIS allowed us to interpret the location of
two Native American wetu structures by shading in postholes according to
their depth revealing the distinct wetu shape. In all, a powerful tool for
archaeologists.
 
And a powerful tool for historians.
 
...................................Fred Calef III
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