We are surrounded by historic buildings and structures. We work in them, shop in them, and eat in them. With Historypin, you can now know your everyday buildings’ histories, and be part of their documentation. Historypin is a user-generated global archive of photographs taken in the past and present. The goal of the Historypin project, created by WeAreWhatWeDo, is to connect groups of people within a community and bridge age gaps through a shared history.
This summer, I selected more than 250 images from the Hagley
Digital Archive to add to Historypin. In the selection process, I first focused
on images from the Gentieu Collection of Brandywine River Valley Images,
choosing images from 1880-1920 taken by photographer and former DuPont Company
employee Pierre Gentieu. I was interested in forming a snapshot of what it
would have been like to work in the DuPont Company black powder yards in the
late 1800s, and I particularly wanted to find photos of the structures that no
longer stand. But photographs of structures on the grounds did not tell the
full story, so I expanded my search beyond the Gentieu Collection to include
churches, schools, taverns, shops, and even other nearby mills and industries.
This gave me a fuller understanding of the community of workers on the
Brandywine in northern Delaware at the height of the American Industrial
Revolution.
The main feature of Historypin is the map. Photographs are
pinned to the map using the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of the
location they were taken. The map shows the location of the photographs in
time, so it is possible to narrow down the years of the photographs visible on
the map using a timeline slider. Some
photographs that were taken from the street can be overlaid on Google street
view. Since most of the photographs are on the Hagley Museum grounds, I was
only able to do a street view overlay for 17 of the images. Here are a few
examples: Alexis I. DuPont School, Wilmington Train Station, Washington Avenue
and Concord Street Solgas Truck Accident, and Rockland Bridge.
Another important part of Historypin is the story behind the
photograph. I did a lot of my research in the Hagley Digital Archives, pulling
stories from the photograph descriptions and captions written by the
photographer. I also gathered stories by going outside (I am a big proponent of
experiencing history outdoors). I had taken a tour of Hagley before, but with
the historic photographs in mind, I looked at the grounds with new interest,
walking every inch of the property I could access. I drove downstream from
Hagley to see for myself Breck’s Mill, Walker’s Mill, and the former covered
bridge at Rising Sun Lane (I even got one of my carpool buddies to jump out of
the car and take a photograph of the plaque on the new steel bridge). As I
gathered more stories, I found that the stories for other photographs changed
with the new perspective I gained. And by venturing outdoors to find the
history, I was able to easier pin the photographs on the map in an area that is
entirely tree-covered from an aerial view today (but was not when the DuPont
Company black powder mills were running).
After pinning the photographs to the map with their stories,
I dove into the other features of Historypin: collections and tours. I made two
collections: one called The Industrial Brandywine in Delaware, and another
titled On the Grounds of the Hagley Museum and Library. Having taken Hagley’s
Powder Yard Trail self-guided tour, which is written in walking order for
guests, I wanted to create a tour on Historypin that explained black
powder-making in the order of the process. In the Historypin tour, Making Black
Powder in the DuPont Company Powder Yards, putting the steps in order of the
process helped me better understand what a day in the Hagley Yard might be
like. I next made a tour of the photographs of fires and explosions in the
DuPont Company black powder yards, which I found to be both fascinating and
terrifying. These images definitely changed the way I looked at the peaceful,
beautiful Hagley grounds I worked in every day. Next, I created a tour of Life
of a Worker in the DuPont Company Black Powder Yards, which expands beyond the
grounds of the Hagley Museum and contains many images of buildings that no
longer stand. Lastly, I created an Industrial Brandywine in Delaware tour that
begins at the northern-most dam on the Brandywine in Delaware, and follows the
creek downstream until it empties into the Christina River.
There are many excellent channels on Historypin from which
to pull inspiration. There are channels by institutions, such as the
Smithsonian, and by individuals, such as Steve Clifford. Some channels have
appealing designs, such as Bath in Time. To get ideas about what types of tours
you can create with your own photographs, check out these tours: Washington
Slept Here from the Connecticut State Library, The 1968 Democratic National
Convention that includes a sound file from the U.S. National Archives, Lost
Louisville from University of Louisville Photographic Archives, and Earthquake
and Fire from San Francisco MTA Archives. To think about collections in a
non-traditional way, check out the Women in the Military collection from the
U.S. National Archives, or The Snow Collection created by Historypin using
photos from many different channels. If you are interested in doing a local
project and getting your community involved, take a look at Reading’s History
local project, or if you just want to get involved as an individual, consider
taking a modern photograph, or a repeat such as this one of a photograph from
San Francisco MTA Archives.
Historypin is not only a website, but an App for mobile
devices, so it is easy to get involved.
With the App, you can explore pins near you, post your own
photos, and explore other collections.
