Geography, Timing, and Technology: A GIS-Based Analysis of Pennsylvania's Iron Industry, 1825–1875

Abstract

This article examines key questions about the development of Pennsylvania's mid-nineteenth-century iron industry. The analysis is based on new data and exhaustive examination of previously underutilized sources within the framework of a geographic information system (GIS). Hypotheses are tested on the timing of adoption of mineral-fuel technologies across the state; the temporal relationships between investment in ironworks, business cycles, and tariff policy; the substitutability of different types and qualities of iron; how transport costs affected iron prices; and the geographical segmentation of iron markets in the antebellum period. The findings reveal complex and dynamic patterns of regional economic development.

Visual Heritage in the Digital Age

“…Raven and Hooley (2005) for instance conducted extensive research looking at urban and industrial change for towns in the Midlands, which included the relative distributions of industries, growth of industries over time and increase of specialisations within the towns (Raven and Hooley 2005). Knowles and Healey (2006) used industry specific trade directories along with approximately 50 other sources to create a comprehensive GIS project involving mapping sites associated with the iron industry. In the case of the research by Raven and Hooley (and with much other research that uses trade directories), the data was aggregated at a 'town' level, and it is hoped that the current research can complement this by developing a methodology that utilises the spatial component of the trade directory data as well as census data at a finer 'street' level.…”

“…While documentation of this period is quite extensive, both through records and maps, the majority of previous research using these resources is directed at individual people or specific industries (for example Knowles and Healey 2006). Likewise, although the use of GIS in historical and archaeological research is now well established, most recent or current studies involve the study of areas and aggregate data at a scale too great to be of use for detailed analysis of smaller areas (for example Raven and Hooley 2005).…”

Competing space and place identity with landscape change analysis using Web GIS through Singapore historical maps (1828–2015)

“…For example, historical maps are superimposed for comparison over time by adjusting transparency (Rumsey & Williams, ). Geospatial features are extracted for spatial analysis (Knowles & Healey, ; Cunfer, ). Nonetheless, the utilization of traditional desktop GIS functions, particularly digitization of geospatial features, is time‐demanding, and most historians and historical geographers are still unfamiliar with the quantitative functionality of GIS because historical research materials often exist as verbal texts (Knowles, ).…”

Historical GIS: mapping the Bucharest geographies of the pre-socialist industry

“…Greogory & Healey (2007) analysed the issue of using GIS in the above mentioned areas and evaluated the way in which it changed the research perspectives of history and historical geography. Knowles & Healey (2006) constructed a GIS based analysis of the steel industry in Pennsylvania where the dual spatial-temporal perspective, based on researching a series of hypothesis including: the moment when fossil fuel consuming technologies appeared, the way in which transport costs affected iron prices and the pre-war geographical segmentation of steel industry markets, lead to complex and dynamic models of regional economic development. Historical GIS captures the territorial features of a given time period and the relations established between the components of a territorial system.…”