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The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides free online access to summary statistics and GIS boundary files for U.S. censuses and other nationwide surveys from 1790 through the present. NHGIS datasets are large and require additional processing steps for use in ArcGIS Pro. Therefore, a sample of this data will be provided later in this tutorial. If you are in interested in using NHGIS data for your project, please use this link to book an appointment at the GDC for further assistance: https://library.rice.edu/services/gis-assistance
Preparing the Downloaded Data for ArcGIS Pro
Once you have downloaded the historic sites from COHGIS Open Data Portal and the major rivers data from H-GAC, you will be able to find the data files in your Downloads folder. You will see that all the files are zipped, meaning they contain compressed files of data within them (you can tell a file is zipped when the file type column reads “Compressed (zipped) Folder”). You will need to unzip the folders to be able to see the data inside them.
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- From the Windows Taskbar, click the blue globe icon to launch ArcGIS Pro.
- When ArcGIS Pro opens, under the 'Create a new project' section on the right side of the screen, click the Blank project template.
- In the 'Create a New Project' window, for the 'Name' input, type "Intro_Part2".
- For 'Location', click the yellow Browse... button to the right.
- In the 'Select a folder to store the project.' window, click Computer in the left column and click Desktop in the right column and click OK.
- In the 'Create a New Project' Window', click OK.
- Maximize the ArcGIS Pro application window.
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