Edinburgh Napier University

  'EverythingPast' is a global project that will link together and make accessible public, private and personal archive through a unique map-led interface. The website will create an unprecedented multi-dimensional window into our past.

‘EverythingPast’ will offer a searchable and easily navigable map of the world which could link a specific address (e.g., of a flat in a building) to archival records related to that address. People, institutions or geographical locations can be linked to relevant photographs, drawings, documents, letters, films, maps, architectural drawings, websites, written histories, reminiscences, and/or links to relevant articles or books.

Users can upload and link personal archive of family or local history to the existing ‘map’. Public and private archives can share digitised collections and point users to their catalogues or marketplaces.

‘EverythingPast’ will be a dynamically growing and potentially comprehensive repository for public and personal archive, and a rich and invaluable tool for academic, professional or amateur researchers, historians, or anybody interested in history.

We will creatively combine existing mapping, database and search-engine technologies. Data will be organised into lists, timelines, family-trees/albums and animated maps. We will also enable users to point their mobile phone at a building to access archive pertaining to that location.