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I've been looking for a while for Historical GIS datasets. In a lot of places (also in answers here at Stack Exchange), people are referring to a great dataset at ThinkQuest, which contains shapefiles for many years inbetween 2000 BC and 1994 for the whole world (I am interested in Europe, in particular).

But since ThinkQuest has been discontinued, the archive is only accessible through the ThinkQuest Library. Unfortunately, this archive does not contain the actual downloads of the datasets...

Does anybody know where I can find these datasets, or is there maybe someone who downloaded these in the past willing to share them here?

PolyGeo
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carelfransen
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    I think you should put this question to "Open Data' since it is not related to GIS or Remote Sensing... Maybe put your question into this http://opendata.stackexchange.com/ and somebody might have an answer for you ? – PROBERT Dec 08 '15 at 16:39
  • Ah! That's very useful. I was not aware of the open data stackexchange. Thanks! – carelfransen Dec 09 '15 at 16:59
  • I have posted my question here as well. I will update my question or add an answer when I get relevant information in that topic. – carelfransen Dec 09 '15 at 17:06
  • The general 'looking for historical GIS data' would be a good fit for opendata.SE ... but I don't know that it'd be a better place to ask than on here. And looking for people who might've downloaded that specific dataset would likely be better on here, as you'll get a more specific audience. – Joe Dec 09 '15 at 17:47
  • @carelfransen Last night I was doing some research on google and I found some interesting maps on the LIbrary of Congress has their historical collections maps on that site https://www.loc.gov/maps/collections/ I am not sure where are you from and if you are not from USA maybe check it out similar to the one in your country or maybe check out the university's Geography department. Just thought. – PROBERT Feb 18 '16 at 15:39
  • Cross-posted as https://opendata.stackexchange.com/q/6627/6229 – PolyGeo Jun 18 '18 at 11:10

2 Answers2

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I have just been trying to find these historical GIS datasets from ThinkQuest Library I was looking for, but this time I was successful!

I managed to find a backup of the file at GitHub, where the complete dataset can be downloaded.

carelfransen
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  • I tried these, but it seems the projection info (.prj file) is missing? – Mike Honey Jun 23 '18 at 06:35
  • That's correct, but you can just define them as WGS 1984. That works for me. – carelfransen Jun 25 '18 at 14:51
  • Any tips on how to achieve that? Download .prj from http://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/wgs-84/ ? – Mike Honey Jun 27 '18 at 03:52
  • What software do you use? In ArcGIS or QGIS you can adjust the Coordinate System of the data frame and visualise the maps on the fly. Or you can use the Define Projection tool to add the projection data to the files themselves. WGS 1984 is one of the standard projections, and thus available in all cartography software. – carelfransen Jun 28 '18 at 05:25
  • Thanks for your help. I have QGIS but it seems really complex. I'll have a go following your notes. I'm really just a viz guy, so a map user not a builder. Is sharing maps always this hard? – Mike Honey Jun 30 '18 at 03:25
  • I'm learning cartography from scratch as well, without an educational background in GIS. It's a steep learning curve, honestly, I'm in the middle of it. A while ago I started making notes of everything I learn in GIS, so I can easily get back to it when I have to do something similar.

    If you search for the keywords in my explanation on Google, you can find many step-by-step tutorials on adding/changing projections, such as this: https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/73686/how-can-i-change-the-projection-of-shapefile-in-qgis

     – carelfransen Jul 02 '18 at 08:35
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May not help but EDINA maps has GIS/CAD data back to mid 1800's for the UK.

Free to download with a institution signin.

PolyGeo
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SPG
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  • Thank you! I did not know about edinamaps, but I checked it out. I am in particular looking for mainland Europe, though, and the shapefiles from ThinkQuest I mentioned covered the whole world. I edited my question to clarify. – carelfransen Dec 02 '15 at 11:31