GEOSPATIAL DATA REPORT : Finding and Using GIS Data

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/SERIES/00059.xml

[Available to ICPSR members only - most U.S. higher education institutions are member institutions!]

“The United States Historical Election Returns series was developed by ICPSR and was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. ICPSR’s holdings of historical election data cover the years 1788-1990 and consist of several discrete datasets that contain county- and state-level returns for all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States senator, and United States representative.”

I haven’t used the files yet. I will post the resulted maps later..

http://www.historicaerials.com/

“HistoricAerials.com provides free online access to historic and current aerial photography. You can view aerial photography from the 1930s through today. Use our multi-year comparison tools to detect changes in property. Come and explore your favorite points of interest at HistoricAerials.com.”

Keywords: historical, historic, airphotos, aerial photographs, aerial photos, orthophotos, orthoimagery, ortho photographs

http://nces.ed.gov/

Though this site does not offer data in ready-to-use GIS formats, this website has a lot of potentials for GIS analysis  (in the area of education research.) For example, statistics (longitudinal data about schools and enrollments) and address of public and private schools (including charter schools and magnet schools), colleges and libraries are all available from this website.

All we need is to use its Data Tools and obtain a numeric data table (select data, and then scroll down – you will typically find “Download Excel File” option) and then geocode adresses/locations to use the data in GIS. Under “Data Tools” try “Locators” tools for basic and current data, and “Build Custom Tables” tools for historical and more detailed information.

http://www.nhgis.org/

Download historical census data & cartographic boundary files (states, counties & tracts.) The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) is a project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000.  Registration (free!) is required to access files.

Census tract data was first collected in 1910 for selected cities only (NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston, and Pittsburgh) and was later expanded to the whole nation in 1940 (still urbanized areas only.) [Reference - learn more about the Census tract data history from this Census's history website or from the following book: Bulmer, Martin. 1986. The Chicago School of Sociology. P. 157-.]

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Data_and_Statistics/

A variety of agriculture related data is available from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) web site. Currently included datasets are:

- Annual agricultural statistics going back as far as 1866 (at state level) or 1909 (at county level)

- 2002 Census of Agriculture

Older historical agricultural census data are available from the following sites:

• Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790-2000 (including Census of Agriculture for 1840 – 1910 at 10 year interval)
  http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02896
  Or http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/ASPs/search_athena.asp?CODEBOOK=CPH-206&IDTITLE=2210

• County and City Data Book
  Basic agriculture census variables, such as: land in farms, sales ($) of crops and livestock and the number of farms, are available from this print series. The cited variables slightly vary by year. The 1956 CCDB contains the 1954 Census of Agriculture (CA) data, 1962 CCDB contains 1959 CA data, 1967 CCDB contains 1964 CA data, 1972 CCDB contains 1969 CA data, 1977 CCDB contains 1974 CA data and 1983 CCDB contains 1978 CA data, and so on. Download County and City Data Book data from the following ICPSR sites (Note: read the codebooks to check variables availability.)
  http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07736 (1947 – 1977)
  http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08256 (1983)

• AgCensus: the U.S. Census of Agriculture 1987, 1992 & 1997
  http://www.nass.usda.gov/Data_and_Statistics/Quick_Stats/

• [Electronic reports - not databases] Historical Census of Agriculture reports 1840 – 1950 (10 year interval)
  http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/Historical_Publications/

Note: Censuses of Agriculture between 1950 – 1987 (1954, 59, 64, 69, 74, 78, 82) do exist but appear to be available in the print format only – go to a local federal depository library to find the print reports. Here is a useful guide for print resources: http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/gov/censusag.shtml

http://www.worldclim.org/
WorldClim is a set of global climate layers (climate grids) with a spatial resolution of a square kilometer.  Three types of downloadable climate datasets are: Current conditions (interpolations of observed data, representative of 1950-2000), Future conditions (downscaled from global climate model (GCM) output, IPPC 3rd assessment; 4th assessment coming soon), and Past conditions (downscaled global climate model output.) They can be used for mapping and spatial modeling in a GIS or other computer program.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/

The China Historical Geographic Information System, CHGIS, project was launched in January 2001 to establish a database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. Registration is required to obtain data from this site.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/japan/

This site from Harvard provides historical GIS dataset for Japan including infrastructure and land and coastal boundaries as well as topographic images. Registration is require to obtain data from the site.