R. G. Healey

Geography, timing, and technology: a GIS-based analysis of Pennsylvania's iron industry, 1825-1875

This article examines key questions about the development of Pennsylvanias 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.

Integrating GIS and data warehousing in a Web environment: A case study of the US 1880 Census

While the business intelligence sector, involving data warehouses and online analytical processing (OLAP) technologies, is experiencing strong growth in the IT marketplace, relatively little attention has been devoted to the problem of utilizing such tools in conjunction with GIS. This study contributes to the development of this research area by examining the issues involved in the design and implementation of an integrated data warehouse and GIS system that delivers analytical OLAP and mapping results in real‐time across the Web. The case study chosen utilizes individual records from the US 1880 population census, which have recently been made available by the North Atlantic Population Project. Although historical datasets of this kind present a number of challenges for data warehousing, the results indicate that the integrated approach adopted offers a much more flexible and powerful analytical methodology for this kind of large social science dataset than has hitherto been available.

Historical GIS as a Foundation for the Analysis of Regional Economic Growth

The argument of this article starts with three key theoretical postulates: First,regional-scale explanation differs in important respects from either aggregate macroeconomic studies of development at the national level or microeconomic and business historical studies of individual firms. Second, neoclassical economic theory is unsuitable as a basis for the analysis of regional economic dynamics, and a different framework, called adjustment theory, should be used in its place. Third, utilization of adjustment theory in the historical geographical domain leads directly to the deployment of both the concepts and methods of geographical information science as the foundation for empirical inquiry. While the first two assertions would undoubtedly merit one or more articles in their own right, space only permits us to develop an outline justification of each. However, the theoretical questions raised in this justification provide the necessary background for the detailed investigation of the role of historical GIS in the analysis of regional economic growth, the main focus of our discussion. The first section of the article therefore addresses these theoretical issues, then examines a number of methodological issues and design principles that arise from the use of GIS in historical regional analysis.The practical implications of these issues and principles are illustrated by means of two individual case studies of GIS creation, both of which form part of a larger substantive investigation into the spatiotemporal dynamics of regional industrial development in the northeastern United States, during the second half of the nineteenth century.The first case study concerns the development of the railroad network of the Middle Atlantic states prior to 1900 and is thus at quite a broad geographical scale. The second is amore localized study of mining investment in the anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania during the same time period.The concluding section of the article will summarize key implications and benefits of adopting a GIS approach to the analysis of regional development over time.

A Full-Scale Implementation of the NAPP 1880 U.S. Census Data Set Using Dimensional Modeling and Data-Warehousing Technology

Abstract Data warehousing is a high-performance database technology for the processing of complex data cubes that can be aggregated and crosstabulated in a wide variety of ways. Individual-level U.S. 1880 census records can be analyzed using this technology to extract information not available from printed census volumes, if hierarchically structured code lists for numerical census variables can be converted into analytical dimensions that drive the crossclassification methods. Problems encountered in the construction of a full-scale warehouse, containing millions of records for Northeastern industrial states, are examined and resolved. Also, deficiencies in census-supplied information on occupations are identified, and a new occupational-coding system is implemented to facilitate remedying of these deficiencies in future, as new information from noncensus data sources becomes available.

A New Occupational/Industrial Coding System for 19th Century U.S. Heavy Industrial Workers

Many census occupational classification systems have been developed over the last 150 years. Availability of digital census data sets now means such classifications can be systematically analyzed. Examination of heavy industrial workers in the full count U.S. 1880 census, and other censuses, has revealed major problems in the attribution of occupations to industrial sectors. This is traceable to the original enumeration process, and it particularly affects generic tradesmen such as blacksmiths and carpenters, who worked in numerous industrial sectors. As a result, the imputation of industrial sector codes from recorded occupations by the North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP) is substantially in error, suggesting that re-coding of existing census records using non-census sources would be necessary for such industrial sector codes to have empirical validity. A new occupational/industrial coding system, incorporating the NAPP-modified HISCO scheme, is presented. This system is capable of supporting both future re-coding work, in a structured data warehouse environment, and the systematic coding of occupational data from a range of archival sources such as company records and city directories.

Under-enumeration, inconsistency, and bias in the U.S. Manufacturing Census 1860–1880: Case studies from the American manufacturing belt

Abstract A new typology of enumeration and tabulation errors found in the manuscript schedules and the published reports of the U.S. Manufacturing Census 1860–1880 is proposed. This is based on a review of historical and contemporary assessments of census accuracy and additional new findings. Detailed case studies of different manufacturing sectors in the rapidly growing city of Cleveland, Ohio, including railroad shops, transportation-related manufacturing, and oil refining are undertaken using non-census sources, as worked examples of census reporting problems, and comparisons are provided with cities in surrounding states. Significant under-enumeration, bias toward small companies, and inconsistent reporting (both within and between census years) emerge as the norm rather than the worst case scenario. The manufacturing census is found to be unsuitable for use in quantitative studies without extensive corroborating evidence of accuracy.