Abstract:
The David Rumsey GIS Viewer allows on-line visitors a unique
opportunity to easily interact with, integrate, and visualize
these historic maps along with the modern geospatial data from
NASA, USGS, ESRI and GCS Research. Users can overlay of current
geospatial data with historical maps from the David Rumsey Map
Collection.
Eleven historical maps of the San Francisco Bay area from 1851
to 1926,
... eighteen historical maps of the Boston area from 1776
thru 1897, and over thirty historical maps covering the area of
the 1804 - 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition are now available for
viewing in the GIS Browser. Additional historic maps of
U.S. cities and regions will be added in the near future
including Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver,
Seattle, Yosemite Valley, and Lake Tahoe.
The current geospatial data that can be overlaid and compared to
the historical maps includes roads, lakes, parks, state
boundaries, digital orthophotos (aerial photography),
topographic mapsheets, digital elevation models and satellite
imagery.
The modern geospatial data that can be overlaid and compared to
the historical maps includes urban areas, transportation
infrastructure (roads, rail), public land survey, lakes, parks,
state boundaries, digital elevation models and satellite
imagery. Users can create, save, and print custom maps, as well
interactively blend/fade/merge and overlay/swipe multiple map
layers for enabling real-time visual change analysis over the
Internet. Results of the user customized map layer
visualizations can be saved and downloaded as new images,
complete with the georeferencing information, thereby allowing
easy integration into other desktop GIS applications.
Browser technology:
Telemorphic, Inc. built the browser starting with their standard
Maplicity and MapImager products, and added custom application
development to support simultaneous review of multiple
historical maps in a linked viewer environment. Telemorphic uses
ArcIMS from ESRI, Inc. to provide the server-side GIS
functionality for the site. Internet and ArcIMS ASP hosting is
provided by Lightspeed Technologies, Inc. The geospatial data is
provided by USGS BARD and ESRI, Inc.
[Summary provided by Cartography Associates] 
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