05 December 2011

National Archives Joins Historypin


I love seeing images of what "used" to be somewhere or how a building, street or community looked at the time of my ancestors.  This new partnership by NARA makes it so much fun to look at older images found in the NARA collection and then see a street view (via Google Maps) of what it looks like now!  The above image shows a San Francisco street in 1906 after the earthquake and how it looks today. Be prepared to just get "lost" in the site -- its addictive!

As NARA says ... 

"Have you ever looked at an historic storefront flanked by modern office buildings and wondered what the streetscape might have looked like back when that first building was constructed? If so, the National Archives’ new partnership with Historypin may be right up your alley! Historypin, a project of the British non-profit We Are What We Do™, seeks to build connections between multiple generations through an appreciation of the history of their shared communities. The site enables users to overlay (or “pin”) historic images, videos and audio recordings onto the sights of today, both online at Historypin.com and on the Historypin mobile app (available in the App Store and the Android Market). This new media mashup, which runs on Google maps, encourages visitors to add their own memories to the pinned records, highlighting the personal connection to changing landscapes."

Read more at NARAtions (The Blog of the United States National Archives).






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2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this, Diane - it's great fun, and I've found a c1900 photo of the house my GG Grandfather was living in when he died in 1886. Just need to ask the photo owner if I can download a copy :-) Jo

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  2. How cool ... I just love photos ... when I couldn't learn much about my various family members I would try to get photos of where they lived, worshipped, worked, etc -- it has always made their lives more real to me. Glad you had some fun and success!

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