Last week, the Smithsonian Archives released a “how-to” video on removing photographs from magnetic (“sticky”) photo albums. It’s a good explanation of how to use dental floss to remove photographs that are stuck to album pages:
It sounds like the Archives is going to start a series of videos with tips on preserving home collections, which would be great. Check out their YouTube Channel or visit their blog for more info.
We Are What We Do promotes social change through small actions
A new website called History Pin [HistoryPin.com] hopes to help bridge the growing gap between generations by allowing users to upload old photographs and add them to an interactive map.
The site is the result of a partnership between Google and We Are What We Do, a social movement that “creates ideas, products and tools that make it easy for people to make a difference to big social and environmental issues.”
Users can upload old photographs, add a story, and “pin” the photograph on the interactive map by layering it onto modern Google Street View scenes.
The result is a user-generated archive of photographs that allows you to view changes to landscapes over time. It’s a neat concept I’ve seen in books and photo contests, but never online like this. The crowd-sourcing approach will only make it better, especially as photographs of the same location taken in different years get uploaded.
Here is a screenshot of a photo taken at the foot of George Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, looking up to the Town Clock. Notice the Google Street View image in the background:
George Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia
The story added by Nova Scotia Archives provides context to the old photograph and the Google Street View image shows how the landscape has changed over time.
History Pin provides URLs to all the uploaded photos (here is the George Street photograph), and allows users to comment or add additional stories to each photograph.
So far, it looks like most of the photographs have been uploaded by archives and other heritage organizations, mostly in the UK right now. I haven’t uploaded any photos yet, but apparently the upload feature can be quite buggy, especially when you try to layer the image on Google Street View. Hopefully the bugs will be worked out soon though, because the concept is great, and I think the site has a lot of potential.
Here is a YouTube video explaining how to upload photos.
Teatro La Fenice
I just found out that one of my photographs from a recent trip to Venice has been included in an online travel guide produced by Schmap! Schmap makes travel guides for cities around the world with Yahoo maps. They include a boat load of photos for each destination reviewed, so my photo of Teatro La Fenice is just one of several of Venice’s most famous opera house.
You can view the Theatre Section of the 8th Edition of Schmap’s Guide to Venice here. If the link works, it will display my image first, then you can scroll through all the other images.
iPhone and iPod Touch users can go here to get the Schmap Guide to Venice on your apple device. Desktop users can see what the guide looks like on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
I’m not entirely sure how much I agree with Schmap’s criticism of the external noise. On our trip to Venice, we saw Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at Teatro La Fenice, and everything they say about the amazing acoustics is true: we were up high and in the back and we could hear the singing and orchestra pit as well as anywhere in the building. But I don’t recall hearing anything from outside the opera hall, during the performance or intermission. The review came from wcities and wasn’t written by Schmap, so who knows what it’s bases on.
Anyway, here’s a little widget showing the Theatre section from the Schmap Guide to Venice. Enjoy!
