Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online

Getty Research provides a catalog of geographic names. For example, here is the entry for Boise. It shows it in the following hierarchical position:

1. - World (facet)
2. - North and Central America (continent)
3. - United States (nation)
4. - Idaho (state)
5. - Ada (county)
6. - Boise (inhabited place)

Then each page for each location provides some details about it and its classification. For example Boise is classified as

• inhabited place (originated as Fort Boise in 1863)
• city
• state capital (since 1864)
• county seat
• manufacturing center (for packing houses & food processing)
• quarrying center (for stone)
• agricultural center (produces fruit, sugar beets & livestock)
• mill center (for lumber)
• commercial center
• administrative center (for federal & state agencies)
• educational center (includes Boise State University founded in 1932)
• tourist center (noted for Boise National Forest, with remnants of empty gold mines & ghost towns)

There is the ability to search the categories and browse the hierarchies. I guess the objective is to provide agreed upon and standardized categorization and labels. Most of the labels look like the kind of names you would see on a map, and they come with latitude and longitude.

Tags: [Geography] [Cartography] [Catalog] [concert] [Boise] [Idaho] [USA]