The Urban Archive app will be popular with anyone interested in the history of New York City. Hopefully the idea spreads to other cities soon.
Andrew Davis shares news of a new app called Urban Archive that gelocates historic photos of New York to your mobile phone. So, imagine walking past Grand Army Plaza, with a view out to the Manhattan Bridge, and receiving a push notification from your phone that opens an image taken a century ago.
Working with Brooklyn Historical Society, the New York Public Library, and the Museum of the City of New York, Urban Archive has made accessible over 2,500 images from all five boroughs (sorry New Jersey). The newly formed nonprofit’s ambition is to create apertures into the city’s urban history in a multi-dimensional digital platform that both informs and entertains the public.
The app also includes walking tours and a side-by-side photo generator. Currently the archive includes 2,500 images from all five boroughs, but the Urban Archive is sorting and geotagging some 50,000 additional images and seeking more.
FULL STORY: New app transports you through NYC’s historic cityscape with archival photos
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