The most exciting thing about historical GIS is often the "eureka" moment when someone sees data mapped for the first time. - Anne Kelly Knowles

Whether one works with texts, historical maps, or any other kind of source, cultivating a spatial and visual imagination makes it easier to recognize the place-based information and spatial relationships embedded in historical evidence.

Using GIS intelligently requires a grounding in geographical knowledge. Applying the technology to history requires knowing how to contextualize and interpret historical sources.

The old saw that history is the study of when, geography the study of where, has some truth to it, at least as the two fields have been taught at most colleges and universities in North America.