STATE CARTOGRAPHER’S OFFICESpecial program within UWEstablished by statute , 1973• Data/information• Coordination • Education/outreach • Special maps • Assistance to
professionals/publicwww.sco.wisc.edu
OBJECTIVES• A brief overview• Focus on unique Wisconsin
resourcesas well as nation-wide data
• Will not discuss WHS holdings GIS = Geographic Information
Systems= a digital map (graphics +
database)
“Geospatial data” = data with location
CONSULTANT USE CASES• Establish context/development history of
a community/property• Nominations may be for houses,
commercial buildings, farmsteads, mills, archaeological sites, schools, factories, resorts, etc.
• Rural & small town resources are important
• Often looking for historic maps, photos, images
• Low-cost or free
GIS RESOURCES TO BE DISCUSSED• Historic aerial photographs• Historic topographic maps• Historic land inventories• Other historic
datasets• Miscellaneous
resources
HISTORICAERIAL
PHOTOGRAPHS
WHAIFinderhttp://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder
What is it?• Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image
Finder• Online access to 38,000 air
photos of Wisconsin from 1930s• Complete statewide coverage• Download in TIFF or JPEG formats• Joint effort of UW-Madison’s
Robinson Map Library, State Cartog’s Office, and UW Digital Collections
What does it cost?
100% Free!
Photo Details• Display everything that was
visible: buildings, roads, fences, agric. fields, forests, wetlands, water, etc.
• Scale 1:20,000 or 1 inch to 1667 feet
• Spatial resolution about 3 feet (600 dpi)or 6 feet (300 dpi)
• Grayscale not color• Not georeferenced
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Possible Uses• Historic site analysis of cultural
and natural features, their locations and arrangements
• Historic land cover assessment: forest, agricultural, wetlands
• Presence/absence of features (e.g., out buildings)
• Change over time (development, reforestation, etc.)
Using WHAIFinderhttp://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder
New Beta Version!
More Historic Photoshttp://www.sco.wisc.edu/ap-catalog.html
Other Resourceswww.wisconsinview.org• Free air photos, satellite imagery, LiDAR• Mostly imagery is current (<10 years)
eros.usgs.gov/aerial-photography• USGS EROS Data Center Archive• Federal agency imagery back to 1930s• Fees charged (e.g., $30/photo)
www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/aerial-photography/index• USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Air Photo Field
Office (APFO)• 10 million + images back to 1955
HISTORICTOPOGRAPHIC
MAPS
New USGS app178,000 historic USGS topos Published from 1884-2006View/downloadScanned images
GeoreferencedKML downloadNationwideFree!
topoView
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/TopoView/
Geospatial PDF Format
TerraGo Toolbarhttp://www.terragotech.com/products/terrago-toolbar
Using Geospatial PDFs
Toponyms
GNIShttp://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/index.html
GNIS Query Page
Results List
Variant Names in GNIS
Frederic Cassidy, 1968
Edward Callary, 2016
HISTORIC LANDINVENTORIES OF
WISCONSIN
• Statewide survey between 1830 and 1865
• Pre-European settlement• Surveying teams under direction of
GLO and Surveyors General• Recorded conditions of landscape
along survey lines creating the “PLSS”
• 1-square-mile grid
General Land Office Survey
• Species and size of 2 or more “witness trees” at every ½-mile and 1-mile corner in the state
• Observations about soils, vegetation, ecosystems, timber areas, ore outcroppings, Indian gardens, villages, and trails, and other cultural features
• Surveyed approx. 1,700 townships• Collected 300,000 data records • Almost ½ million trees• About 23,000 ecosystem boundaries
General Land Office Survey
Maps and field notes
Sketch maps and township maps
GLO Survey Maps and Notes
GLO Survey Maps and Noteshttp://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/
GLO Survey: GIS Database
Database attributes include witness trees, disturbances (like fire), ecosystems types, PLSS information, surveyor name and date, etc.
• David Mladenoff (UW-Madison) converted notes to GIS database
• Location of each record tied to a geographic location based in PLSS
http://www.sco.wisc.edu/glo/
GLO Survey GIS Database: UsesSite history (individual properties)Historic land cover (larger areas)Cultural resource identificationPhysical feature identification (e.g., historic wetlands)Relationship between land cover, economic activity, settlement history, abandonmentAnd others…
Bordner Survey• Bordner Survey = Wisconsin Land Economic
Inventory• Comprehensive mapping program of most
Wisconsin counties completed in the 1930s **
• Over 100 classes of information at every quarter-mile, including forest type, agricultural use, cultural features, and all point and line features that could be identified
** Following the cutover era in the north, with devastated forests, burned land, and abandoned farms, the state saw the need for comprehensive inventory of the land to guide planning. Field mapping started in 1928, and was completed under the WPA in the late 1930s.
Bordner Survey Mapshttps://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/econatres/wilandinv/
Bordner Survey Mapshttps://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/econatres/wilandinv/
Bordner Survey Mapshttps://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/econatres/wilandinv/
Bordner Survey Mapshttps://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/econatres/wilandinv/
Bordner Survey MapsMladenoff and SCO are working on a project funded through WCMP to digitize a large portion of the state and make it available online
OTHER HISTORIC DATASETS
Atlas of Historical County Boundarieshttp://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp
Atlas of Historical County Boundarieshttp://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp
Historical County Boundary Datahttp://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp
Non-Commercial Usehttp://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp
Historical Counties in Google Earth
NHGIS - Historic Census Datahttps://www.nhgis.org
NHGIS - Historic Census Datahttps://www.nhgis.org
NHGIS Boundary Fileshttps://www.nhgis.org
NHGIS Boundary Fileshttps://www.nhgis.org
NHGIS Boundary Fileshttps://www.nhgis.org
NHGIS Interactive Maps
MISCELLANEOUSRESOURCES
QGIShttp://www.qgis.org
Statewide Parcelshttp://www.sco.wisc.edu/projects/parcels.html
LiDARhttp://www.wisconsinview.org/
LiDAR
AAG Historic Data Clearinghousehttp://www.aag.org/cs/projects_and_programs/historical_gis_clearinghouse/hgis_databases
WGNHShttp://wgnhs.uwex.edu/
Robinson Map Libraryhttp://maplib.geography.wisc.edu/
AGS Libraryhttp://uwm.edu/libraries/agsl/
County Mapping Siteshttps://gis.lic.wisc.edu/coastalweb/www/wisconsin-ims/wisconsin-ims.htm
Historical Society WHPDhttp://www.wisconsinhistory.org/
Historical Society Collectionshttp://www.wisconsinhistory.org/
IMAGE CREDITSPlatform mound at Aztalan, James Steakley, Wikimedia CommonsAerial Photo of East Campus Area, Jeff Miller, UW-MadisonRoad Sign – Sweden, Henrik Sendelback, Wikimedia CommonsCumulus clouds in fair weather, Michael Jastremski, Wikimedia CommonsStop sign montage, openclipart.org and cliparts.coDells formation, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Historical Medical Library, Wikimedia CommonsCity of McFarland Web site Dane County Place Names, University of Wisconsin PressPlace Names of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin PressWildcat Mountain State Park Autumn Forests, Yinan Chen, Wikimedia CommonsGLO Survey maps and notebooks, UW Digital Collections and Board of Commissioners of Public LandsWisconsin’s Land Cover in the 1800s, WI DNR & UW-MadisonBordner Survey maps, UW Digital Collections & David Mladenoff/Forest Landscape Ecology LabWisconsin in 1718, Guillaume Delisle, Wikimedia CommonsSouthern Wisconsin Landscape at the Roadside, Yinan Chen, Wikimedia CommonsSnowy Langdon Street, Yinan Chen, Wikimedia CommonsAnd many, many websites as denoted by the URLs throughout!
THANK YOU!
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