Piloting a model for the crowd-sourced creation of an authoritative and accessible
repository of historical layers for GIS at George Mason and Virginia Tech
Universities in 2024–2025, with the support of a Virginia 4-VA Grant.
Orientating
Meaningful early modern visualization and spatial research is currently hampered by
the lack of accessible, authoritative layers representing historical data such as
settlements, road networks, political boundaries, and altered coastlines and
waterways.
Transforming
We will bring Virginia researchers and students together for historical GIS training
at two Mapathon events hosted during the Spring Semester 2025 at GMU and Virginia
Tech.
Sharing
The results will be published on ArcGIS Online under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and support
project PIs in their NEH-funded research projects on historical travel
infrastructure, violence and mortality, and unfree labor.
Project Organizers and Affiliates
Dr. Rachel Midura
Virginia Tech
Assistant Professor of Digital and Early Modern European history. Her research areas
include the history of travel, diplomacy, espionage, and information/communication in
early modern Italy and the Habsburg Empire.
Assistant Professor of History and Affiliate Faculty at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for
History and New Media (RRCHNM). Her research areas include digital spatial history,
digital humanities, early modern Italy, the history of crime and violence, the history
of women and gender, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Associate Professor of Oral and Public History. Her research interests include early
American history, historic preservation, and native American history.
Assistant Professor of History and the Director of Public Projects at the Roy
Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Her research interests include
mathematics, plague, and cryptography in early modern England.
