Hi Deborah,
The UK Ordinance Survey may be able to point you in the correct direction. I'm not sure that the historical data you want will be digital, but they have some information about historical maps sourcing on their website:
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/support/historical-maps.html
The British Museum is another source (maybe best source?) - they have a huge collection of maps inherited from the British Empire, but again, not sure what is digital and what is not:
http://www.bl.uk/subjects/maps
Unfortunately, one thing I would worry about is that the data is unlikely to be anything like "public domain" when/if you find it. Copyright on map data is much stronger in the UK (held by the crown), so not entirely as easy to use as you might hope. Items available at the museum might be less restricted, but I really don't know.
I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Tanya
________________________________________
From: Northeast Arc Users Group [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Deborah Reichler [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 1:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [NEARC-L] Searching for shapefile of historical India boundaries
I'm trying to create a couple of simple maps for a faculty member. She is doing research in 1920s and 30s British India and would like me to create some maps of her data from that era.
I found modern Indian administrative boundaries pretty quickly at http://www.gadm.org/ but have been unable to find any source that has a shapefile or geodatabase (suitable for import into ArcGIS) of Indian states from the British Imperial period.
Would appreciate any leads you might have,
Thanks,
Deborah Reichler
Hamilton College
------------------------------------------------------------------------- This list (NEARC-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all NEARC Users.
If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove yourself by going to http://s.uconn.edu/nearcsubscribe.
If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove yourself by going to http://s.uconn.edu/nearcsubscribe.