Ss-Gis

T HE H ISTORY OF GIS
J T C OPPOCK A N D D W R H I N D
C omputer - based G I S have been used since at least the late 1960s: their manual
predecessors were in use perhaps I00 years earlier. Acknowledging the paucity of
w ell-documented evidente, this chapter describes t he b ackground to the development
of such systems, stressing t he context in which such development took place, the role
ofo rganitations a nd individuals where this can be ascertained, and the applications
which the systems were i ntended t o meet. A broad definition i s t aken of GIS s o as
not to exclude any signijicant d evelopments; computer m apping s ystems of a11 t ypes
( including those with line-printer graphics, the forerunners of contemporary raster
systems) are included.
It is d emonstrated that most, b ut by n o m eans all, of the early developments
originated in North A merica. T he roles of key organizations such as the U S B ureau
of the C ensus, t he U S G eological Survey, the Harvard Laboratory for Computer
Graphics and the Experimental Cartography U nit are described and the activities of
the commercial sector are exemplified by a case study of Environmental S ystems
ResearchInstitute. R easons are suggested for sign@cant international differences i n
t he d evelopment of GIS, such as the attitudes t o ownership of data and the perceived
role of the state. It is c oncluded that severa1 stages of evolution of G I S can be
defined. T hese overlap in time and occur at different m oments i n different parts of
t he w orld. T he first, or pioneering age, extended from the early 1960s to about 1975;
in this, individual personalities were of critica1 i mportance i n d etermining w hat was
achieved. The second phase, approximately from 1973 until the early I 980s, s aw a
regularization o f experiment and practice within and fostered by n ational agencies;
local experiment and action continued u ntrammelled a nd duplication of effort was
c ommon. T he thirdphase, r unning f rom about 1982 until the late 1980s, was that of
commercial dorninance. The fourth (and current) phase is o ne of user dorninance,
facilitated by competition a mong v endors, e mbryonic s tandardization o n open
systems and increasing a greement o n the user's perception of what a G IS s hould d o
and look like.

INTRODUCTION

A variety of information indicates that thefield of
GIS h as expanded rapidly in r ecent years (see
Maguire 1991 in this volume). From where did all
t his business and the resulting jobs arise?
Unhappily. we scarcely know. GIS is a field in
which history is little m ore than anecdotal. T o
rectify this, a search through the archives of

government departments and agencies would
certainly help. As yet, however, few organizations
havegiven any thought to formalizing the history of
their involvement in GIS a nd at least one major
player (Ordnance Survey; see Finch 1987) h as
refused to let its detailed records be examined by
externa1 r esearchers. Less certainly, the records of
computer hardware and software companies could
also be a source of relevant information but no such

J T Coppock and D W Rhind

m aterialhas been uncovered. Unfortunately for
those writing the history of GIS, neither staff of
commercial companies nor government officials
have a tradition of writing books or papers on their
e xperience of an emerging technology. Research
staff in g overnment or private s ector research
organizations are exceptions to this rule b ut, even
for them, writing papers for the benefit of thescientific community at large has a relatively low
priority. As far as is known, the only official attempt
anywhere to p rovide a b road overview of the field as
a whole is t hat given by the Report of the
Committee of Inquiry into the Handling of
Geographic Information (Department of the
Environment 1987; Rhind and Mounsey 1989).
The main source of information, with all t he
risks of partisan b...