The unique feature of geographic information systems (GIS) and other forms of historical data visualization is the capacity to hold and display large amounts of data associated with spatial reference points. This software can display all data for a given point, a single variable for all points, or, most important, any combination of variables across all reference points. In doing so, these systems bring to the screen instantly and cheaply a display of information once visible only in paper form, drawn slowly and expensively, first by cartographers and then by vector plotters. This project deploys GIS to help us understand the intersection of social and political life in nineteenth-century Alexandria, Virginia, and Newport, Kentucky—medium-sized cities with populations under 20,000. Commercial Alexandria, with a race-based labor system, and industrial Newport, with an immigrant labor system, present an analytically useful mix of commonalities and differences.

Since the emergence of distinctive social science disciplines in American universities in the late nineteenth century, there have been recurring tensions over whether history should be practiced within or pursued separately from particular social science disciplines. This study considers this issue for the case of economic history in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Economic history was active as an inter-disciplinary field throughout the twentieth century, and it had a substantial presence throughout the twentieth century at Chicago, in one of the world’s leading economics departments. This study focuses on how economic historians and economists at Chicago have conceived of the relationship between economic history and economics over the past century. It argues that a key set of tensions has been, on the one hand, developing a conception of the economy that is subject to historical forces yet, on the other hand, allowing adequate scope for employing the tools of economics.

Creating a historical narrative for a place has traditionally entailed consulting the source materials that have managed to survive over time, interpreting those records, and constructing a narrative for how that place came to be. Until recently historians have often viewed technology and its ability to contribute to this process with skepticism if not outright hostility. Contrary to this view, geographic information systems (GIS) can add to, and not detract from, the creation of a historical narrative for a specific place. Apart from the Great Fire of Seattle in 1889, the regrading and removal of Denny Hill (1898–1930) arguably represents the most iconic period in Seattle’s urban history. The Denny Regrade, the removal of a 245-foot hill that once buttressed Seattle’s downtown retail and commercial districts, remains prominent in the historical consciousness of Seattle, as it represents a period of intense and dramatic change. GIS, and in particular historical GIS, offers the opportunity to more deeply explore and re-create the history of the Denny Regrade due to its inherent ability to spatially integrate, visualize, and analyze information. Using the Denny Regrade as a case study, this article examines the application of historical GIS to a topic in urban history across an extended temporal scale (1893–2008). Three main areas are discussed. The historical context of the Denny Regrade is explored; components of the historical GIS developed for the study are examined; and examples of geovisualizations and new historical data and information are presented.