The site combines Google Maps and Street View with historical photographs, making it possible to compare what a place looks like now to what it was like when you were a child or even way back in the 19th century. But, to make it work, everyone’s going to have to publish their old photos on the site.

The idea is as simple as it is brilliant: the Historypin.com website displays a world map from Google Maps. At the moment, the map has just under 20,000 pins on it. They mark places which can be seen in old photos. Street View allows you to compare the historical buildings and streets with what the place looks like now.

First traffic lights

There’s a photograph of Amsterdam’s Dam Square in 1897, for example, complete with horse-drawn trams and men in top hats. Another, this time taken in Eindhoven around 1929, records the first Dutch set of traffic lights. And what do you make of the pretty little white milk carts that were doing the rounds in Enschede circa 1965?

Historypin was set up three months ago by We Are What We Do, a global group aiming to allow ordinary people make a creative contribution to society and the environment. The group has produced the book, Change the World For a Fiver, made up of practical tips on how to make the world a better place, and the range of reusable carrier bags sporting the logo I’m Not a Plastic Bag. To launch Historypin, the organisation collaborated with the web’s biggest search engine, Google. The new site is designed to bring different generations closer together through the exchange of old photos.

Coronation

At the moment, most of the site’s photos are of Great Britain where Historypin was set up. There are hundreds of old photos of London alone, including some taken at the time of the coronation of George VI in 1937. Pictures of the rest of the world are steadily being uploaded. The Eiffel Tower in Paris and New York’s Time Square can both already be admired at different points in time. However, other parts of the globe have yet to be included.

So far, there are just a few hundred historical photographs of Latin America. They include a view of Buenos Aires by night in 1936 and another of a horse-drawn tram, captured on film in the Montevideo of 1910. Unfortunately, you can’t compare the views with those of today as the region, just like Africa, is not yet on Google Street View. At the moment, there are no photos of some African countries, such as Nigeria and Ethiopia. However, early 20th-century images of places like the bank of the Nile in Cairo can be admired.

Yet to be discovered

There are also very few photos of places in Asia, not even one of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, but there are a few of Bogor in West Java dating from 1930. Japan, China and India are among the countries which, as far as Historypin is concerned, have yet to be discovered.

For the time being, Historypin is mostly good for looking up nostalgic images of specific places. However, eventually the site should be able to be used as a digital time machine. Google Street View will allow you to take a stroll through Amsterdam in 2010 but, with a click of the mouse, you’ll be able to take a look at what it was like as far back as during the 19th century.

 Easter Parade in Fifth Avenue in New York (US), c. 1910

History

That’s the theory, but hundreds of thousands of photos will have to be uploaded before that becomes reality. Historypin has high expectations and already has ideas of how the site will be able to be used in school history lessons for example.

Images from Europe and the United States are beginning to stream in, partly because a number of historical archives are uploading photos. The rest of the world still has to catch up. The site could become a major internet institution, like the Wikipedia and Flickr sites. Whether it does or not depends on how enthusiastic internet users are in sharing their photographs.

Marco Hochgemuth
Radio Netherlands