When I was visiting Monmouth this summer I met up with a guide in the Visitor Center. James (Jim) Raleigh from the Friends of Monmouth was giving tours to anyone willing to listen. Jim not only took us around the battlefield, but around the town and surrounding area. He mentioned a project he was working that I found fascinating. He was using a GIS (Geographic Information System) to reconstruct the battlefield. Most of our Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields have been lost to progress and are covered by strip malls and suburban sprawl. My employer has started to use GIS for demographics and I have the opportunity to learn this new technology. I received a couple of new books in the mail today from Amazon which blend GIS and history. The two books are Past Time, Past Place and Placing History. Both books are edited by Anne Kelley Knowles. I will have post a review when I have had a chance to dig a bit deeper. My initial impression is that Placing History is the more academic of the two.
