using national historical GISs Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis Queen's University Belfast Belfast, Northern Ireland BT7 1NN United Kingdom Ian.Gregory[at]qub[dot]ac[dot]uk http://www.qub.ac.uk/cdda Abstract: The development of national historical GISs provides exciting new opportunities to re-examine the geographies of the past. In particular they allow new insights to be gained into change over time and space, an area that has traditionally been under-researched due to the complexities of the data. This paper explores this topic by using the Great Britain Historical GIS to explore changing patterns of infant mortality in England and Wales through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the mid-nineteenth century infant mortality, deaths among babies before their first birthday, was very high at around 150 deaths per 1,000 births. This started to decline in the second half of the nineteenth century, a decline that continued throughout the twentieth century to be fall to a rate of less than 5 per 1,000 today. This broad national pattern conceals many geographical differences. The paper focuses on changing geographical inequality in infant mortality. It demonstrates that by using innovative GIS techniques new insights can be gained on complex subjects that have been extensively researched by traditional means. Bio: Dr. Ian Gregory is the Associate Director of the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis, part of the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology at the Queen's University of Belfast. He has written two books on using GIS in historical research, Historical GIS: Technologies, methodologies and scholarship , in press with Cambridge University Press (with P.S. Ell) and A Place in History: A guide to using GIS in historical research (Oxbow, 2003). He has also written well over a dozen refereed journal articles and book chapters on the subject. He was the architect of the Great Britain Historical GIS, one of the largest national historical GISs yet completed. He has worked extensively to raise the profile of historical GIS through organisations such as the Social Science History Association , the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative , the Association of American Geographers , and the Royal Geographical Society. |