The SepiaTown Blog

Boston, Winter 1956

2012-01-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

Here's a great photo recently posted on Flickr Commons by the Stockholm Transport Museum. Were looking east down Winter Street from the northeast corner of Tremont and Winter Street. Many of the buildings in the photo still exist.

See it mapped on SepiaTown

A Trip up San Francisco's Market Street

2010-11-04T20:51:00.002-04:00

Several weeks ago the CBS program Sixty Minutes did a great segment on a historical film documenting a trolley car trip up San Francisco's Market Street just months before the 1906 quake.

We thought we'd join in the fun and highlight here the kind of virtual tour of old Market Street you can enjoy on SepiaTown.

Click on an image below to see it mapped on SepiaTown...

Powerhouse Museum's Virtual Tour of Old Sydney

2010-10-26T14:34:00.123-04:00

Move over NYC, we've got a new crown jewel in our bonnet – introducing Sydney, Australia on SepiaTown!

This summer we partnered with Seb Chan of Sydney's Powerhouse Museum (Australia's largest museum) to do our first mass-upload of images from a contributing cultural institution. The results are really fantastic. The Powerhouse's 500 quality historic images of the Sydney metro area and NSW combined with the unique SepiaTown platform have created a massively populated, brand new virtual tour of Sydney at the turn of the 19th century.

We are especially proud to have The Powerhouse Museum be our first mass-uploader; with this approach, they're blazing a digital trail that we hope other institutions will be inspired to follow. For those unfamiliar with the Powerhouse Museum: They are one of the foremost world-class cultural institutions using the latest technology and progressive web-ethics to share their collection in increasingly open, interactive, and interesting ways. Among their accomplishments:

They were the first museum to geo-code a substantial piece of their photo-archive.

They presented on their website one of the earliest (if not the very earliest) Google Maps mashups of historical photographs.

They were an early uploader to Flickr Commons, and an early adopter of Layar.

And, in the last month, they have joined a tiny group of pioneering museums that have released their own API -- granting developers true open access to their collection, and ensuring some really neat stuff will be made with it in the coming months and years.

Lost Signage in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island

2010-10-24T23:20:00.000-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

Nearly all the buildings in this 1945 photograph of Westminster Street still exist, yet the loss of signage has transformed the look of the street.

25 Early-Color, American, Photographs Mapped on SepiaTown

2010-10-22T11:58:00.007-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

Links to More photos...

Rutland, Vermont

http://www.sepiatown.com/812379-Vermont-State-Fair

http://www.sepiatown.com/812380-Ride-and-Freak-Show-at-Vermont-State-Fair

Brockton, Massachusetts

http://www.sepiatown.com/812352-Sylvia-Sweets-Tea-Room

http://www.sepiatown.com/812351-Postings-in-the-Brockton-Enterprise-Window

Caribou, Maine

http://www.sepiatown.com/812354-Trucks-at-Starch-Factory

Southington, Connecticut

http://www.sepiatown.com/812347-Queen-of-May-at-Beecher-Street-School

http://www.sepiatown.com/812356-Memorial-Day-Parade-Heading-North-up-Main-Street

http://www.sepiatown.com/812350-East-Northeast-View-from-the-End-of-Wall-Street

Melrose, Louisiana

http://www.sepiatown.com/812361-Crossroad-Store,-Bar,-Juke-Joint-and-Gas-Station

Campton, Kentucky

http://www.sepiatown.com/812360-Trading-Mules-and-Horses-on-%22Jockey-Street%22

St. Helena Island, South Carolina

http://www.sepiatown.com/812357-Fourth-of-July-Celebration

Romney, West Virginia

http://www.sepiatown.com/812376-Looking-East-from-the-Indian-Mound-Cemetery

http://www.sepiatown.com/812377-Looking-Southwest-Down-Main-Street

Beaumont, Texas

http://www.sepiatown.com/812371-Workers-Leaving-Pennsylvania-Shipyards

Kansas City, Kansas

http://www.sepiatown.com/812348-Assembling-B-25-Bombers-for-WWII

Lincoln, Nebraska

http://www.sepiatown.com/812375-Grand-Grocery-Co.-Corner-Store

http://www.sepiatown.com/812370-Looking-NE-Across-P-Street

http://www.sepiatown.com/812363-Southeast-Corner-of-10th-and-P-Street

Pie Town, New Mexico

http://www.sepiatown.com/812378-Main-Street

Cascade, Idaho

http://www.sepiatown.com/812362-Main-Street

Above are links to 25 color photographs taken by U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers between 1939 and 1944.

Here's the Library of Congress's description of these photographs...

"Photographers working for the U.S. government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) between 1939 and 1944 made approximately 1,600 color photographs that depict life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The pictures focus on rural areas and farm labor, as well as aspects of World War II mobilization, including factories, railroads, aviation training, and women working.
The original images are color transparencies ranging in size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known black-and-white FSA/OWI photographs, made during the same period."

Learn more about these photos here.

The Three Incarnations of Grand Central Station

2010-10-19T21:53:00.008-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

Many New Yorkers are unaware that two other incarnations of Grand Central Station preceded the current Beaux-Arts masterpiece. Above are four views of these buildings all from the same vantage point and all mapped on SepiaTown.

Fountain Square, Cincinnati, 1938

2010-10-18T23:30:00.002-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

The Sunday Re-Post: Eugène Atget's Paris on SepiaTown

2010-10-17T18:29:00.004-04:00

Eugène Atget, the great turn-of-the-century chronicler of Paris, is considered by many to be the first true modern photographer.

In 1898, at the advanced age of 41 (and with no former experience in the visual arts) he took up photography as a way to eke out a living by creating and selling straightforward depictions of city scenes and architecture for artists to use for reference. By the time he died in 1927, Atget had created over 10,000 images of the city and its inhabitants.

Atget's work was discovered and heralded by later generations of artists, who recognized that his photographs were much more than simple “documents for artists” (which is how Atget regarded and described them throughout his life).

We've uploaded to SepiaTown a small handful of Atget's photographs that the George Eastman house was good enough to share with the public via Flickr Commons. There's much more material where these came from, and we hope that many more of Atget's poetic images of old Paris will be brought to life in a new way as they are uploaded to SepiaTown.

Here's a sampling of Eugène Atget images on SepiaTown...

(click on any image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

We're really excited about this then/now view because it is the first evidence we've seen of the Google Street View Tricycles handiwork. In the coming months and years these tricycles will provide Google Street Views for new kinds of locations and the then/now view on SepiaTown will get more and more ubiquitous as a result.

A Virtual Tour of Ellis Island on SepiaTown

2010-10-11T16:46:00.001-04:00

Click on the image above to see it and over 25 other historic images of Ellis Island on SepiaTown (and more are on the way!).

Great Then/Now View of Historic Dorothea Lange Photograph

2010-10-09T17:43:00.001-04:00

(click image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

The Most Lopsided Game in the History of College Football on SepiaTown

2010-10-07T18:08:00.001-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

On this day in 1916 the Georgia Tech Engineers defeated the Cumberland College Bulldogs at Grant Field Atlanta in the most lopsided game in the history of college football. Final score: 220 -0.

10 Early Photographs Mapped on SepiaTown

2010-10-06T17:14:00.004-04:00

1826

First permanent photograph ever created.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1835
Photograph created from the oldest photographic negative in existence.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1838
Earliest photograph of a human being.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1839
Possibly the earliest photograph of London.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1841
Earliest photograph ever taken of the Czech Republic.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1846
Early photograph of Frankfurt, Germany.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1851
Early photograph of San Francisco.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1850s
Early photograph of New York City.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1862
One of the earliest known photos of a baseball game.

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

1863
American civil war photograph

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

Mapped, Historic, Dorothea Lange Photograph on SepiaTown

2010-10-05T13:14:00.001-04:00

(Click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

Sputnik on SepiaTown

2010-10-04T11:30:00.001-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

On this day 53 years ago the Soviet Union lauched Sputnik 1, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. See two mapped photos of the launch on SepiaTown.

45 Years Ago Today LBJ Signed the Immigration Act of 1965

2010-10-03T10:39:00.005-04:00

(click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

45 years ago today President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into the law the Immigration Act of 1965. The legislation abolished the 'National Origins Formula' which favored immigration from Northern and Western European countries and tightly restricted immigration from pretty much everywhere else; most notably Eastern and Southern Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. This change brought racial and ethnic equality to US immigration policy, and created large changes in the racial makeup of the United State in the proceeding 45 years.

The Act had wide support in Congress and was championed by the young Senator Edward Kennedy. The House of Representatives passed the act by a vote 326 to 69 (82.5%), and and the Senate passed it by a vote of 76 to 18. (Can you imagine what the fate and vote margins of a piece of pro-immigration legislation would be today).

During the signing ceremony on October 3, 1965 on the esplanade of Liberty Island, President Johnson stated...

"This [old] system violates the basic principle of American democracy, the principle that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man. It has been un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue to the faith that brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country."

Some Links
Another image from the signing ceremony on SepiaTown
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 Wikipedia Article
National Origins Formula Wikipedia Article

101 Years Ago Today the Twickenham Rugby Ground Hosted its First Match

2010-10-02T12:07:00.006-04:00

(Click on image above to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

101 years ago today the Twickenham Rugby Ground, now regarded as the home of English rugby, hosted its very first match (Harlequins v. Richmond - October 2, 1909).

Above is a photograph taken at the stadium following the Kings Cup match 10 years later.

Another rugby-related image on SepiaTown
A great, photo-filled website about the history of rugby.

Happy Birthday Yosemite National Park!

2010-10-01T10:16:00.002-04:00

Click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown.

120 years ago today, on October 1, 1890, Yosemite National Park was officially created by an Act of Congress. It was the third US national park created, preceded by only by Yellowstone (1872) and Sequoia (1890).

"The Scopes Monkey Trial" on SepiaTown

2010-07-10T22:45:00.002-04:00

85 years ago today the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" (officially, The State of Tennessee vs. Scopes) began in Dayton, Tennessee. Click on the image above to see a handful of mapped Scopes Trial photographs on SepiaTown.

Read about the trial here...

Lots of info and original documents at University of Missouri's Famous Trials Homepage

and here...

Scopes Trial Wikipedia Article

Morning Pic - Jakob's Square, Stockholm, Sweden, circa 1885

2010-07-06T07:24:00.004-04:00

(Click on image to see it mapped on SepiaTown)

The Nations of the 2010 World Cup Semifinal in Sepia

2010-07-05T23:35:00.010-04:00

Four historical views of the nations of the 2010 World Cup Semifinals. Click on any image to see it mapped on SepiaTown.

Palace of the People (Paleis voor Volksvlijt)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, circa 1890

Calle Rincón (Rincón Street)
Montevideo, Uruguay, 1900 - 1929

Leipziger Straße East From Mauerstraße
Berlin, Germany, 1909

La Plaza Mayor
Madrid, Spain, 1850 - 1899

And if you want to know where
our sympathies lie...

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-03T08:58:00.006-04:00

Let's celebrate America's promise...

Black and White Boys Fishing off the Kaw River Dam
Lawrence, Kansas , 1900 - 1929

but remember her flaws...

Rally Protesting the Integration of Central High School
Little Rock, Arkansas, 1959

(click on images above to see them mapped on SepiaTown)

147 Years Ago - The Battle of Gettysburg Began

2010-07-01T19:46:00.005-04:00

Dead Confederate soldier in Devil's Den, Gettysburg, PA, 1863.

See this image precisely mapped on SepiaTown....

See how this scene looks today on Panoramio

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/937478

Pic of the Day - Old Yankee Stadium from the Woodlawn IRT Tracks

2010-06-30T10:29:00.005-04:00

Great photo uploaded by the New York Transit Museum of the old Yankee Stadium as seen from the Woodlawn IRT.

Make sure to check it out the Google Street View, which was taken before the old stadium was demolished and the new stadium (on left) was completed.

Also check out youtube videos of the demolition (sniff, sniff!).

Two Perspectives of Alexanderplatz, 30 yards and 76 years apart.

2010-06-29T10:25:00.005-04:00

Alexanderplatz, 1903

Alexanderplatz, 1979

Few cities have reinvented themselves more over the past 100 years than Berlin. The comparison of these two images illustrate the dramatic nature of this transformation. Both photographs were taken from the same section of elevated U-bahn track over Rathausstraße (once called Königstraße), and both are looking more-or-less north-northeastward. (Click on images above to see page on SepiaTown).

Over 200 images of old Berlin on SepiaTown

2010-06-28T08:05:00.006-04:00

....and more are on the way.

Click on an image below to see its page on SepiaTown.

Alexanderplatz

Potsdamer Platz

Spittelmarkt

Leipziger Straße

Berlin Stock Exchange and the Friedrichsbrücke

Oranienplatz

Palast der Republik Youth Dance

Hitler Marching in Front of the Kroll Opera

The UK Suffrage Movement on SepiaTown

2010-05-20T19:05:00.020-04:00

204 years ago today (1806) John Stuart Mill, the great English liberal philosopher, radical MP, early critic of slavery, colonialism, and the inequality of woman, was born in the Pentonville section of London.

143 years ago Mill celebrated his 61st birthday by introducing an amendment to the Reform Act of 1867 that granted woman the full voting rights of men. It was the first time such a proposal had ever been made in Parliament. The amendment was rejected by a vote of 196 to 73. Mill's heroic act not only created an onslaught of criticism and satirizing, it cost him his seat in parliament three years later.

It would take 61 more years (1928), and acres of broken glass, till the woman of the UK won the full voting rights of men.

Some images on SepiaTown documenting that struggle

(click on image to see its page on SepiaTown)

Related Links:

More details of John Stuart Mill's support for woman's suffrage at charlespetzold.com
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2009/02/1859-Books-John-Stuart-Mill-On-Liberty.html

John Stuart Mill's Quotes
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

John Stuart Mill Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

'Woman Suffrage in the United Kingdom' Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_Kingdom

'Women Social and Political Union (UK)' Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Social_and_Political_Union

Grauman's Chinese Theater on SepiaTown

2010-05-18T13:03:00.002-04:00

(click image to see it and others on SepiaTown)

83 years ago today Grauman's Chinese Theater opened in Hollywood California (May 18, 1927).

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on SepiaTown

2010-05-16T23:48:00.013-04:00

67 years ago today the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising came to its tragic end and the Nazi's plot to deport and exterminate the remaining population of Warsaw's once vibrant Jewish community succeeded.

At the start of the Uprising in April 1943 roughly 63,000 Jews still remained in the ghetto. By May 16th 13,000 of those had been killed (many burned alive in fires set by the SS) and the other 50,000 had been captured and shipped to concentration and extermination camps, most notably Treblinka.

Read more about it here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising

See mapped Warsaw Ghetto and Uprising related images on SepiaTown...

(click on any image to see its page on the site)

Eugène Atget's Paris on SepiaTown

2010-04-09T16:20:00.005-04:00

Eugène Atget, the great turn-of-the-century chronicler of Paris, is widely considered to be the first true modern photographer.

In 1898, at the advanced age of 41 (and with no former experience in the visual arts) he took up photography as a way to eke out a living by creating and selling straightforward depictions of city scenes and architecture for artists to use for reference. By the time he died in 1927, Atget had created over 10,000 images of the city and its inhabitants.

Over 60 Images of The Cliff House and Environs on SepiaTown

2010-03-07T12:47:00.011-05:00

The Cliff House Project and SepiaTown have teamed up to bring you over 60 images of Adolph Sutro’s magnificent creations and environs along San Francisco’s northwest coast, including: The Cliff House, Sutro Baths, Ocean Beach, and the landscaped vistas of Sutro Heights.

Below is a sampling of the images. Click on an image to go to its page on the site.

Tip: for road-less environs like these we recommend you check out the 'satellite' mode in the google map window. This will provide you with the best look at the exact position of the mapped vantage points.

New Feature --Then/Now View!

2010-03-06T16:28:00.006-05:00

It's been a great 2 weeks since we launched, and we've been amazed by the positive response to the SepiaTown in what we consider to be its most simple and raw form.
We've been very busy behind the scenes though, mixing up new features in our laboratory, and we are very excited to announce a new feature that many of you have been requesting:

"Then/Now" view on the image results page using Google Streetview.

We think this will make your time travel experience even more cool, by giving you a way to see the differences and similarities between the images in our collection and the way they currently look on location.

One note: You may find as you search the site, images of places that are so remote or rural that there is no Streetview yet, or a Streetview that seems inaccurate. Google, like SepiaTown, is always updating and evolving its information, and we're sure these areas will soon be viewable.

Click on an image below to go to page, then click on the then/now link in the options menu over the map.

Sample Pages...

London

San Francisco

Paris

Amsterdam

And We're Off!

2010-02-20T01:24:00.001-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to SepiaTown, your ticket from here to then.

Grab a seat, pick a point on the planet, pop open a packet of pictures, and take a spin on our little time machine.

We hope you enjoy the ride, and we hope that you'll come back often to see new images as they're uploaded, to upload your own, and to experience our added features as we roll them out in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Eric Lehnartz
Eric Warren
Jon Protas