In order to understand the potential benefits that GIS offers to humanities scholars it is helpful to first explore how it has been used in other disciplines where it has a longer track record. Social scientists, particularly those concerned with quantitative human geography have had to adapt technologies and methodologies that originated in the earth sciences and make them applicable to their discipline. Along the way many mistakes have been made and lessons learned. This paper presents a brief overview of the use of GIS in the social sciences to provide a context for a discussion of its use in the arts and humanities.