Historypin and the California Room are Mapping the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition
by Carol Acquaviva
For the past year, the California Room has partnered with Historypin — a website which brings together people, groups and institutions to share historical photos, videos, audio recordings and personal recollections. Our contributions to Historypin include photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, and views of Marin County dating back to the 1880s. With many of these historic images, you can compare the “now and then” with an overlay of Google Street View (see picture at above).
Last month, Historypin launched a new project highlighting the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, to commemorate this centennial year. The digital exhibit “ Mapping the PPIE” was unveiled at the PPIE Community Day at the Palace of Fine Arts on February 21st.
A feature of “Mapping the PPIE” includes a high resolution map of the fairgrounds, super-imposed onto Google Maps, allowing people to pin photos as accurately as possible to pavilion or building locations.
Historypin was so impressed with the California Room’s PPIE photographs that they created a sub-project for us: Attractions in “The Zone: Photographs from Inside “The Zone” at PPIE, from the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Marin County Free Library.
The California Room’s content is being used as an example to other organizations who’d like to add to the project. Thus far, Historypin has designated us as “Top Pinner,” having added dozens of images. For a live demo of this project, check out the Historypin video.
For more about “Mapping the PPIE,” please click here. And as always, let us know what you think, in the comments.
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
