You could use the historic topos. The interface that USGS and Esri have put on them make the swipe between the, say, 1952 topo and the contemporary map dramatic:
And the time feature on Google Earth has an almost unbelievable 1950 image. Of course you said GIS, and as far as I know you still can’t get that open in a GIS.
-jon
ps: you can also license imagery from me: https://www.google.com/#q=las+vegas+site:http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/&start=0
www.airscalifornia.com, but then you are in the georeferencing business.
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of andrew nicholson
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2016 7:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Looking for historical GIS data and imagery for Las Vegas area
Hi everyone,
I am a GIS Librarian up in Canada at the University of Toronto, and it has been awhile since i have worked with US GIS data.
I working with a Professor interested in urban change and mapping. Would anyone know of a urban change dataset for Las Vegas that could be shared for use in a teaching lab? I am just looking for a historical collection of aerial or sat images, census polygons, and perhaps some land use files.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Many thanks,
Andrew
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Andrew Nicholson
Coordinator, GIS & Research Data Services
University of Toronto Mississauga Library