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Charting The Unknown: How Computer Mapping at Harvard Became GIS
There are many stories about the origins of geographic information systems technology, and a few of them are true. No matter which story you hear, if you probe a little bit, you will find a connection to the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. At this Laboratory, beginning in 1965, a varied collection of planners, geographers,
cartographers, mathematicians, computer scientists, artists and many other fields converged to rethink thematic mapping, spatial analysis, and what we would now call geographic information systems.
This book explores some of the themes addressed by this fertile interdisciplinary collaboration. It includes some of the early computer mapping software and experimentation in cartography. It also introduces some of the spatial analysis and applications to environmental planning conducted at the Laboratory. It charts the cycles of expansion and decline as the creativity confronted challenges on many fronts. Around the edges are glimpses of some of the key figures involved in this exploration.
Any current user of GIS technology will be fascinated to find out some of the complex origins of the GIS toolkit. There are enduring traces of the Harvard Lab's work to be found throughout the current technological artifacts. There are also sets of challenges that have yet to be fully resolved. Knowing the history of GIS can offer some inspiration for further creativity and some humility at how much was done with such limited resources.
The book includes a CD - ROM packed with information including movies made at the Lab, interviews with some of the key members of the Lab, and historical documents.
Chapter One - Founding the Laboratory for Computer Graphics
Chapter Two - SYMAP: Packaging thematic maps
Chapter Three - Environmental Planning
Chapter Four - Spatial Analysis
Chapter Five - Graphic Expressions
Chapter Six - Decline and Rebound
Chapter Seven - On the Topological Path
Chapter Eight - ODYSSEY
Chapter Nine - Parallel Developments
Chapter Ten - Crisis of Direction
Chapter Eleven - A Modest Continuation
Chapter Twelve - Enduring Traces
Contents of the CD
Movies:
Three short films illustrate early attempts at 3D cartographic visualization of geographic change and movement over time. The first film was produced by one of the Harvard Laboratory's most prominent figures before he came to the Lab; the second two were produced at the Laboratory by one of its most prolific researchers. Lansing Urban Growth Dynamics 1850-1965: A pictorial history of the expansion of the metropolitan area (Allan Schmidt); produced at Michigan State University, 1967.
# # American Graph Fleeting: The Movie (Geoffrey Dutton); produced at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, 1978.
# AIR (Automated Information Retrieval) (Geoffrey Dutton); produced at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, 1981.
Interviews:
The videotaped interviews reassemble some of the key members of the Laboratory's staff. These individuals discuss important concepts and the difficulties of the early technology. Most of all, despite the twenty-five - or even thirty-five - year passages of time, the videotaped memories capture the fascination of being present as a new technology was being created - a true charting the unknown. Eric Teicholz, former associate director of the Lab (at Lab from 1966 - 81); now president of Graphic Systems.
# # Allan Schmidt, former executive director of the Laboratory (at Lab from 1967 - 81); now retired.
# Tom Poiker (formerly Peucker), former visiting scholar at the Lab (1968; also from 1973 - 74) while he was professor of geography at Simon Fraser University; now Professor Emeritus at San Francisco University.
# Jack Dangermond, former student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and research assistant at the Lab (at Lab from 1968 - 69); now president of ESRI.
# Nicholas Chrisman, former research associate at the Lab (at Lab from 1972 - 82); now professor of geomatic sciences at Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada, and scientific director of the geoide (Geomatics for Informed Decisions) network.
# Bruce Rowland, former student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1973 - 75); now business manager, ESRI's Professional Services Implementation Services Department.
# R. Denis White, former associate director of the Lab (at Lab from 1975 - 86); now a geographer at the Environmental Protection Agency's Western Ecology Division Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon.
# Scott Morehouse, former lead programmer at the Lab (at Lab from 1976 - 81); now director of software development at ESRI.
# Duane Niemeyer, former research assistant at the Lab (at Lab from 1980 - 82); now manager of the Defense Services Department at ESRI.
# Hugh Keegan, former research assistant at the Lab (at Lab from 1980 - 82); now manager of the Applications Prototype Lab at ESRI.
Context newsletters:
Context was a sporadic publication of the Laboratory and served as a newsletter to describe the Lab's projects keep software users informed of new versions and new products. Included are scanned images of each of the total 11 Contexts produced from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
Context 1 February 1968
Context 2 September 1972
Context 3 December 1972
Context 4 June 1973
Context 5 November 1973
Context 6 April 1974
Context 7 November 1974
Context 8 May 1976
Context 9 January 1978
Context 10 Spring 1979
Context 11 1982-83
Lists:
List of all papers published in Harvard papers in theoretical geography.
List of attendees at the First International Advanced Study Symposium on Topological Data Structures for Geographic Information Systems, Endicott House, 16 - 21 October 1977.
List of bibliographic citations to the most accessible publications from the later period of the Laboratory.
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