GIS data support

Who we are and what we do

Eight-sheet map of Venice from the 1700s

Map created by GSD students Map created by GSD students Aeshna Prasad, Michael Lidwin, Megan Mcglinchey, and Mehvish Jamal working with the Map Collection.

What is GIS

Screenshot of a slide defining GIS as Geographic Information Science or Systems, and discussing how it can be methods, data, or tools GIS definitions.

Classic John Snow map from 1854 showing the locations of cholera outbreaks centered around drinking wells.

John Snow cholera map, 1854.

Original John Snow map with a GIS heat map superimposed over it

John Snow cholera map, overlaid by a modern-day GIS heatmap layer.

Why GIS

GIF of the vision zero data page on City of Boston's data portal Analyze Boston, Boston’s open data portal.

Screenshot of the vision zero data as a table Vision Zero dataset, open as a table.

Screenshot of vision zero data as crowded points Bike crash data displayed visually as individual points in GIS software.

Map of bike crashes shows patterns better

How we can help

Screenshot of a web map showing mobile health care providers

Screenshot of ArcGIS StoryMaps

Screenshot of original data student sent us of COVID deaths, not processed for GIS Screenshot of census download page Sceenshot of census state shapes Screenshot of statistical data before being joined Screenshot of the join interface in QGIS Screenshot of the COVID death table after being joined to a states shapefile

GIF showing a slider between a dataset of FEMA relief and an empty basemap in ESRI because the data is not loading

GIF of the Harvard Map Collection census tutorial series which has 6 lessons How to prepare census data for use in a map tutorial series

Screenshot of map of Chile

Screenshot of a map of London showing dots which represent Indian restaurants

Scan of a paper map showing information about restaurants in London

Screenshot from Harvard Geospatial Library Global volcanoes dataset in the Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL).

maps@harvard.edu