GIS for property research

GIS definitions

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

What is GIS used for?

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.

GIS data layers

Screenshot of a 1939 map of New York City with GIS points superimposed on top of them.

Diagram of multiple GIS layers corresponding spatially to one another

GIS data layers diagram.

Screen recording of New York Public Library app OldNYC OldNYC: Mapping Historic Photographs at the NYPL.

Property research with GIS

Picture of Belle's old house, on 4 Folsom Ave Belle’s house in college.

Picture of the City of Boston reading room City of Boston Archives Reading Room.

Picture of a real estate atlas open, it is a large book 19th century insurance atlas, open to a plate of downtown Boston.

Atlas viewer, Atlascope, a GIS tool from the Boston Public Library.

Photo of a microfilm reader

Microfilm reader.

Picture of the probate records in Milwaukee Milwaukee probate records on mircofilm.

Picture of the probate record loaded on the microfilm reader Probate record loaded onto the microfilm reader.

Screen capture of one of the probate records Text from one of the Milwaukee probate records.

Screenshot of the parcel viewer for Milwaukee county, showing one lot outlined Modern-day parcels in Milwaukee.

GIS support from the library

screenshot of a white population demographic map of chicago with dots to indicate the location of 9-1-1 infrastructure A student in the social sciences studying race and policy who had never used GIS before learned how to create demographic maps at the library.

Screenshot of a hand-drawn map of English literature Non-GIS map for an English class a student consulted us on.

maps@harvard.edu

You can contact us at maps@harvard.edu.