For this project, I decided to reverse engineer Photogrammar. Photogrammar is a web-based visualization tool that allows users to see photos taken between the years 1935 and 1943. The platform has over 170,000 photographs that were taken by the FSA and OWI agencies, which are owned by the U.S. This particular site sparked a great interest in me, as I enjoy looking at how small towns have evolved throughout the years. One thing I do when I procrastinate is go to Google Maps Street View and view images from my hometown from different years in which they were taken.
The goal of this website is to display photos taken between the years 1935 and 1943 across the United States. This was during the time of the great depression and World War 2. The academic fields I see related to this website are history, photography, architecture, and agriculture. There are many components to this website. There are two interactive maps, one that focuses on cities and states, and the other that focus on counties. The website also has a search bar to filter out by state, county, city, photographer, etc.
Below is an image of the website
There are two main sources for this tool. As mentioned above, the photos used for this tool are from the Farm Security Agency and the Office of War Information, which are part of the United States Federal government. The website is managed by the University of Richmond, with the main contact being Lauren Tilton.
There are several ways in which the data is processed. Each photograph is part of a section. For instance, each photo is assigned a photographer, city, county, state, and much more. This allows the users to have the ability to filter each photo by photographer, county, state, etc.
The way data is presented in many ways. First, there are two interactive maps that users can use to explore the United States. There is also a search bar to filter out by specific location and photographer.
One question that arose from this website is what the inspiration was for the creators when designing this website. I look forward to continue exploring this website and finding more digital tools used in the humanities.
