Not Your Ordinary Map

One of the greatest parts of living in Madison is the beauty of the city. Not only is Madison an isthmus, providing an abundance of natural beauty, but the architecture and character of the city is unique as well. I'm amazed at how the landscape of the city is always changing.  If you've ever lived in an university town I'm sure you're familiar with the construction and renovation projects that are constantly reshaping the campus.

The  University Archives here in Madison offers users the chance to freeze time and catch a glimpse of the Madison of the past. They have done this by creating an account on Historypin.

Historypin was created by the not for profit company We Are What We Do, and works in conjunction with Google. What this means is that anyone can can upload photos, enter the photo's date and location if they know them, and anchor the photo to a Google map. Here's a great example of how the University Archives have used an image of Lathrop Hall from the 1930s and placed it in a modern Google map.

One of my favorite features of the this map view is the user can "Fade" the image out to see what the modern intersection looks like.

The University Archives also has photos besides the UW campus posted on Historypin. Below is a 1959 photo of The Winter Palace in Leningrad, Soviet Union.

So how does all this cool stuff relate to the Wisconsin Idea? Well, the University Archives is doing a lot here to provide a service to the citizens of Wisconsin and beyond. The features of Historypin translate to many different types of users, including academic researchers interested in architecture or city planning, genealogist wanting to visualize where their families lived or attended classes, students working on projects or preparing for a field trip to the University, and enthusiasts of the University wanting to relive their own experiences in Madison. Each type of user may find different reasons to utilize a tool like this.

Currently the University Archives has just three collections on Historypin. I think as they are able to add more collections to this site that excitement and use will grow. So check it out for yourself!. Just go to the University Archives Images page and click the Historypin button, then you're ready to view some wonderful photos from the archives collections.

Or, go the the Historypin Channels page and enter "UWMadArchives".

[Post created by Laura Farley]