History

GIS

An Introduction to the Use of Electronic Computers in the Storage, Compilation and Assessment of Natural and Economic Data for the Evaluation of Marginal Lands, 1962, by Roger Tomlinson [PDF]
“This is the paper that started the work on GIS in the Government of Canada.” — Roger Tomlinson

Feasibility Report of Computer Mapping System, Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Administration, Department of Agriculture, Government of Canada, August 1963, by Roger Tomlinson [PDF]

The Canada Land Inventory: Objectives, Scope and Organization, Report No. 1, January 1965. Department of Forestry Publication No. 1088.

An Introduction to the Geo-Information System of the Canada Land Inventory, 1967, by Roger Tomlinson [PDF]

Video: Roger Tomlinson’s “Data for Decision”, 1967

A Geographic Information System for Regional Planning, August 1968 [PDF]
“I believe this is the first published use of the new term ‘Geographic Information System’.” –Roger Tomlinson

Geographical Information Systems, Spatial Data Analysis and Decision Making in Government. Roger Tomlinson, 1974. Doctoral thesis, University of London.

Video: The Invention of GIS — Harvard University Gazette

Book: Charting the Unknown: How Computer Mapping at Harvard Became GIS

Videos: GIS pioneers talk about the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis

Video: Ian McHarg on the Charlie Rose Show in 1997

Video: Ian McHarg at the ESRI User Conference in 1997

Video: Roger Tomlinson at DMTI Spatial in 2007

Video: Dr Roger Tomlinson: Data for Decision, Then and Now (2010)

Back from the Brink: The Story of the Remarkable Resurrection of the Canada Land Inventory Data

LUMIS: A Land Use Management Information System for urban planning (1975)

Montana GIS News

Montana GIS user directory (1989)

Esri

Esri headquarters, early 1970s

1971 Australian Newspaper Article about ESRI

1972 Australian Newspaper Article about ESRI

Early 1970s Redlands Newspaper Article about ESRI

ESRI/Jack Dangermond, Early 1970s

Maryland Automatic Geographic Information System Technical Report (1974)

Original ESRI Brochure from the Late 1970s

The Birth of ArcNews: Esri’s First Newsletter, from 1979

Digitizing with ARC in 1982

ESRI Phone List Circa 1983

Plot made with ARC/INFO, June 1984

ESRI Newsletter, September 1984

Original ARC/INFO Brochure, c. 1985

ESRI Software R&D Team, circa 1985

Applying Software Engineering to a General Purpose Geographic Information System, by Peter Aronson. Auto–Carto VII: Proceedings of the–Digital Representations of Spatial Knowledge, Washington, DC, 11-14 March 1985

Jack Dangermond and Scott Morehouse, mid-1980s

PC ARC/INFO, 1986

ESRI Newsletter, Fall 1986

“ARC/News”, Winter/Spring 1987

Jack Dangermond, 1987

ARC/TECH, Issue #1, Fall 1987 (first issue of ESRI’s “technical newsletter’)

Jack Dangermond, 1987

Original PC ARC/INFO Brochure c.1989

ARC/INFO Video from 1990

ArcView 1.0, 1991

Original ArcView Brochure from 1991

Esri.com, 1994

ESRI staff, 1995