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PhillyHistory.org Augmented Reality App Now Available for Android

By Deb Boyer Published in

Vol. 6 Issue 2, April 2011

Visitors to Philadelphia now have an opportunity to view the city in a completely new way. Ever wondered what Market Street looked like in the 1800s? Curious as to how Broad Street has changed over time? Finding the answers to those questions is a bit easier thanks to the newly released Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application!

The opening screen of the application provides options for launching the images, viewing the credits for the project, or finding info on using the app via the help page.

The PhillyHistory.org AR app is now available for free download in the Android Market (simply search PhillyHistory.org). Download the app to gain access to nearly 90,000 historic images from the PhillyHistory.org database via your smartphone. Choose to view the whole collection or a select 500 images chosen by the PhillyHistory.org team. These images have been more accurately “pinned” in space and use absolute rotation so that they appear overlayed on the current urban landscape. After downloading, you can also read more about the project on the credits page or get additional info on the help page.

As we mentioned in the last Azavea Journal the AR project is funded by an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant awarded to the Philadelphia Department of Records to research augmented reality technology. While the initial grant stated that we would provide AR access to 500 images, we chose to make the whole collection (with the exceptions of maps and images without locations) available in the app. We’ve also collaborated with the editors of the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia and Dr. Amy Hillier from the University of Pennsylvania to provide added contextual information for twenty of the images. The result is a layered experience that provides access to a variety of historical images at locations around the city.

The PhillyHistory.org AR app is built on Layar, a mobile augmented reality platform developed by a company located in the Netherlands.

Three icons indicate the different types of images available in the app.

If you do not already have Layar downloaded to your phone (a free download), the app will prompt you to download the platform. While this platform gave us a great starting framework, we also conducted some significant research of our own in a variety of AR-related areas including building data services and placing 2D photos in 3D space.

We’ve been documenting our research on the Azavea Atlas and Azavea Labs blogs and will also be producing a white paper with more information on our development process and research findings. You can sign up to receive that white paper at www.azavea.com/augmented-reality.

The Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application is currently available in the Android Market at no cost with Apple iPhone access coming soon. Let us know what you think!

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Augmented Reality: PhillyHistory.org Meets the 21st Century

By Deb Boyer Published in

Vol. 6 Issue 1, February 2011

An artist’s interpretation of the PhillyHistory.org augmented reality application.

As we announced recently in the Azavea Atlas blog, we’re currently hard at work investigating mobile augmented reality and its use with historical photographs. The Philadelphia Department of Records recently won an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to research augmented reality (AR) technology and create a smartphone prototype that will enable users, via their smartphones, to view historic photographs from PhillyHistory.org as overlays on the current landscape. If the research proved successful, users would be able to point their smartphones, using the camera view, at a building or other location and see historic images of that same location. The photos would be accompanied by descriptive information from PhillyHistory.org with additional explanatory text provided by local historians. This combination of technology and history could be a powerful tool for showing the lengthy and interesting history of Philadelphia.

Software developer Erik Osheim gives us a peek into the initial design for the application.

But how to make it happen? Intended to fund research into innovative uses of technology in the humanities, a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant was a great way for the Department of Records to experiment with augmented reality. Would AR be a useful method for showing the history of Philadelphia and enabling users to see the connections between the past and the present? Is AR technology advanced enough to make this type of application possible? Can the historic images really be represented as overlays (i.e. 3-D objects pinned in space)? Would the screen size of a mobile device be too small to properly display an image and text? Are smartphone networks fast enough to load all this information? Would the phone be able to pinpoint a user’s location accurately enough to load images of that location even in a crowded urban setting where GPS coordinates can be incorrect? Would this work? If we build it, will anyone actually use it?

The grant gave the Department of Records and Azavea a chance to discover the answers to these and other questions while making use of the wealth of resources available on PhillyHistory.org. The website currently features over 93,000 historic images and maps from five Philadelphia organizations, giving us plenty of materials to use in the project. We’re excited to be working with the Department of Records on this project and are learning much about iPhones, Android phones, Layar, gyroscopes, and everything else involved with mobile augmented reality technology. Our research findings will be published in a whitepaper to be available for free download later this spring.

Experimenting with the prototype application

While the grant only called for research into a prototype, we believe that we will be able to release an application for public use. The completed Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application will be available at no cost for both iPhone and phones running the Android platform.

While the application is still in development, we’re hoping to have it ready for release in the next couple months. Until then, visit Azavea Labs to read more about the development process or Azavea Atlas to learn about other augmented reality projects in museums around the world.

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PhillyHistory.org Adds Historic Images from the Free Library of Philadelphia

By Deb Boyer Published in

Vol. 5 Issue 2, May 2010

PhillyHistory.org, the Philadelphia Department of Records’ historic photo and map website powered by our Sajara product, now features two new groups of images from the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Historical Images of Philadelphia collection includes over 170 photos taken throughout the city during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With images of everything from Memorial Hall to the hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty, the Centennial Exhibition collection contains 1,600 beautiful photographs documenting America’s celebration of 100 years of history and progress.

Since the geographic search option on PhillyHistory.org is such a popular feature, we wanted to geocode the Free Library images as well. This proved to not be so straightforward for the Centennial images. The exhibition was located in Fairmount Park, an area that has changed dramatically since 1876. To find the coordinates of the original locations of the Centennial buildings, we needed to georeference an historic map of the Centennial grounds. By overlaying the historic map with a current street map in ESRI’s ArcGIS and finding a few buildings and intersections that still existed to serve as anchor points, we were able to create a new image that showed the locations of the historic buildings. We then found the coordinates for specific buildings and used them to geocode photos of those buildings, making the images searchable by location.

Including collections from multiple organizations in the system is something that we’ve always hoped to be able to do. When PhillyHistory.org first debuted, it contained a few thousand images from the collection of the Philadelphia City Archives. Over the next couple years, the Philadelphia Water Department contributed 1,500 historic images, the Department of Records provided 4,800 property maps, and the Free Library added nearly 200 historic maps dating from the 1850s and 1860s. The addition of the Free Library images provides PhillyHistory.org users with even greater access to the historical resources of the city.

Of course, including the collections of various organizations in a single database is not as easy as signing an agreement and uploading some images. Institutions have different needs ranging from collection size to collection management processes to available metadata. We built Sajara, our geographic digital collection management system, to accommodate these different needs by a series of features that enable watermarks, metadata and activation of features (like commenting, photo print sales, licensing, etc.) to be configured on a collection-by-collection basis. Web-access prevents the necessity of installing software at different offices, and a system of roles and levels of access ensures that while multiple organizations may have their data in the same database, they have the ability to manage only their own collections.

The result is a database that enables several organizations to pool their resources and increase public access to their collections. Rather than switching from website to website, users can visit PhillyHistory.org to view amazing images and maps from three separate organizations. And we are now working with additional institutions to add their images in the future.

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Data on Mortgages, Deeds, Sheriff’s Deeds, Property Types, etc. at Your Fingertips: Philly LandStat Released to the Public

By Chip Hitchens Published in

Vol. 4 Issue 3, July 2009

"The Philadelphia Department of Records has released LandStat to the public, allowing anyone to access more than 650,000 individual pieces of property transaction data within the city. "

Have you ever wondered which zip codes in your city have the most real estate transactions? Or maybe you’ve wanted to know which city council district has the most vacant land? Whether you are a city planner, a real estate investor, or a curious citizen, The Philadelphia Department of Records‘ ‘Philly LandStat ‘ website allows you to access more than 650,000 individual pieces of property transaction data within the city. When we first announced the application in October 2008, it was only accessible from the City’s internal network. The Department of Records has recently released the application (which has just been updated with the latest real estate data) to the public.

LandStat incorporates information on property transactions from the Department of Records’ ParcelExplorer and PhilaDox applications and presents it in an interactive web application. Individual records from those applications were placed into ZIP Codes, City Council districts, wards, U.S. Census tracts, and blockgroups using the Unified Land Records System (ULRS) — winner of the Public Technology Institute 2008 Technology Solutions Award (Web & EGovernment category). Once aggregated to these districts, the resulting dataset could then be fed into Azavea’s Kaleidocade Indicators Framework (KIF) software for publication and analysis over the web, covering such categories as mortgages, deeds, condominiums, the Real Estate Transfer Tax, and property type.

2008 Residential Parcels in Philadelphia’s City
Council District #10.

Kaleidocade enables the end user to create thematic maps, chart trends over time, get detailed reports on specific geographic areas of interest, and perform complex analysis through a straightforward interface using only a web browser. Releasing the property data through KIF, rather than as a flat text file or raw database, gives those interested a set of easy-to-use tools to quickly and easily visualize the various datasets. Users can focus their queries on individual geographic areas or specific types of transactions, or take a step back and look at the data in a larger context, depending on what types of questions they’re trying to answer. It’s the hope of the project that as those answers are sought, a level of knowledge is gained that otherwise might not have been possible by simply looking at a listing of the facts and figures on their own.

To try LandStat, just point your browser to: http://www.phillylandstat.com. Registration is free, and will create an account where all of your searches and reports will be saved so that you can return to them later, but it’s not a requirement.

For more information on Kaleidocade, please contact Chip Hitchens at chitchens@azavea.com.

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PhillyHistory.org Makes it to the iPhone

By Michael McLarnon Published in

Vol. 4 Issue 3, July 2009

"We've recently decided to make some inroads to learning about and implementing mobile phone technology for several of our software applications."

Left to Right: PhillyHistory as seen on an iPhone; detail view of an historic photo; map view of historic photo search.

An increasingly hot topic in technology lately is that of mobile versions of web applications. It seems that everyone is carrying a BlackBerry, SmartPhone, or iPhone these days, and wants to be able to access all their information on the go. In response to this trend, we’ve recently decided to make an investment in learning about and implementing mobile phone technology for several of our software applications. I recently attended a workshop on iPhone development at the 2009 Museums and the Web conference, and decided that working on an iPhone-specific application would be a great way to get started. We decided to start with the Sajara-enabled PhillyHistory.org site.

Basically, developing for iPhone can take one of three forms:

Adjust an existing site. Essentially, you simply need to make sure that your current site looks good on the iPhone.
Create an iPhone specific web application. Create a new web application, but tailor it visually and functionally to the iPhone’s layout and interface.
Create an iPhone application. Write a full application (in the Objective-C programming language) and publish it through the App Store.

Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, but we decided to go with the second option, since it allows us to have a very sleek interface, without the difficulty of rewriting the application in a new language and the overhead of publishing it to the Apple Store. The main disadvantage to creating a full iPhone application is that it means that we won’t have access to the iPhone’s location SDK.

Once we chose a development route, we needed to start thinking about the user interface from a functional standpoint. I first decided to remove some of the more advanced features (such as keyword and topic searching) of the PhillyHistory site, and focus on what Sajara does best: geography-based searching. iPhone UI design generally follows a simple ‘screen-per-function’ guideline, so I decided to include three ways of accessing a geographic search: by neighborhood, by text location, or directly by map interaction.

All three tasks eventually take the user to a map view, which includes the Sajara geographically-based asset search, and shows markers for the results. The map view uses the OpenLayers API for displaying the map and markers, with some hacks and modifications for allowing the user to more easily drag the map around and zoom in and out on the iPhone. Each time the user pans or zooms the map, the new map extents are used to request a new search. Since I was mostly focusing on the redesign of the user interface, I left the logic behind the search mechanism unchanged from the logic that runs the full PhillyHistory site.

From the map, a user can select one of the markers to get the details for that asset. This screen shows the asset’s image, title, date, and other related data.

Developing the Sajara iPhone web application was fairly simple from a technical perspective. The constraints of having a small screen and keeping a touch interface in mind did make the project interesting. Additionally, one of the big advantages of developing a web app for the iPhone is that there is only one target platform, which greatly simplifies testing.

We look forward to continuing to brainstorm about possible ‘next steps’ in expanding our collection of mobile Sajara apps (and beyond). The next steps for this application and research, specific to Sajara, might include:

Enhancing the map interface to allow for pinch zooming
Supporting other devices, e.g. BlackBerry
Allow other types of searching (keyword, year range, etc.)

To experience the PhillyHistory iPhone app, please go to http://www.phillyhistory.org/i

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Azavea Newsletter Puzzle: Philadelphia Public LandStat Application

By Deb Boyer Published in

Vol. 4 Issue 3, July 2009

Map generated in the LandStat application

We’re excited to help make Philadelphia land records information available through the newly public LandStat application. Want to learn more about LandStat? Head to http://www.phillylandstat.com to check out the database and find the answers to this month’s puzzle.

On the welcome page click ‘Mapping and Analysis’ (click on ‘Register’ only if you want to save your work). In Step 1: ‘Select a Geographic Area,’ select ‘All Ward’ from the menu. In Step 2: ‘Create a Project,’ select ‘Property Type’ in the drop down menu under ‘Select a Category.’ A list of available indicators will appear. Select ‘Parcels, Residential, Count’ and click ‘Add.’ Then select ‘Parcels, Commercial, Count’ and click ‘Add.’ In Step 3: ‘Name the Project,’ give your project a name and click ‘Save’ to view the results. The resulting information can be viewed in five ways: map, table, statistics, scatter, or rank.

1. Click ‘Map’ to view the number of residential parcels displayed by city ward. In the mapping features on the left, click on ‘Search’ and enter 340 N. 12th Street (Azavea’s office address) into the box and click ‘Find.’ Then click on the ‘Map Breaks and Colors’ menu located in the same column. What is the range of residential parcels for the ward in which Azavea is located? Hint: It is the smallest range.

2. Click on the ‘Statistics’ tab to view a variety of statistics related to residential and commercial parcels in your project. You can now compare the two indicators you chose for your project: select ‘Parcels, Commercial, Count, 2008′ from the ‘Indicator 2′ drop-down menu. What is the minimum number of commercial parcels in any ward?

3. Click on the ‘Table’ tab to view the number of residential and commercial parcels in each ward. In Ward 15, what is the number of commercial parcels and the number of residential parcels?

Again, be the first to send in all 3 correct answers and receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble! Send your answers to info@azavea.com

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LandStat Helps Philadelphia’s Department of Records Get the Big Picture on Real Estate Transactions

By Chip Hitchens Published in

Vol. 3 Issue 5, October 2008

"[The] new application...helps city staff visualize and interpret Philadelphia property information"

Continuing our commitment to the Philadelphia Department of Records, we have recently rolled out a new application to help city staff visualize and interpret Philadelphia property information. The new application, called LandStat, is powered by the Kaleidocade Indicators Framework (KIF) to represent aggregated data on such topics as mortgages, deeds, foreclosures, real estate transfer tax, condominium declarations, and property types. By counting, averaging, or adding up records in a particular ZIP Code or census tract, areas can be compared to each other at a glance.

Map describing mortgages in Philadelphia in 2007.

The data used in LandStat has quite a lineage. Azavea previously worked with the Department of Records on the ParcelExplorer application, which combines property transaction and other information from the City’s PhilaDox document recording system with parcel-level data from other agencies as well as a series of historic and contemporary maps. Using the Philadelphia Department of Technology’s Unified Land Records System (ULRS), also developed by Azavea, we were able to enhance the real estate transaction data by performing a series of “point in polygon” operations to determine in which ZIP Code, City Council District, ward, US Census tract or blockgroup each document and property was located. In order to convert that data to something compatible with KIF, we then created an aggregating tool which took the sum, count, or average of each indicator in each of the different geographies and created a KIF database.

Block group report generated by LandStat.

As with other applications using Kaleidocade, LandStat’s data can be viewed in a map, with geographic areas color-coded to indicate different ranges of values. Being able to see hot spots or areas of inactivity quickly and easily can inform decisions and inspire ways of thinking that might not have been possible by viewing the same data in a spreadsheet. LandStat also enables users to create scatter plots, view a statistical analysis, create tables with specific ranges of data, or rank top and bottom locations for a particular indicator. Detailed reports can also be created for an area of interest. LandStat will round out the city’s already advanced suite of land analysis applications.

LandStat is currently available from the City of Philadelphia’s internal network, although the Department of Records may elect to make it available to the public at some point in the future. Please contact Chip Hitchens for more information on LandStat or KIF.

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Tracking the Fraud-ulators with GIS

By Robert Cheetham Published in

Vol. 3 Issue 1, February 2008

"...it will be an important new tool for the City, legal professionals, and law enforcement to fight property fraud."

Photo courtesy of PhillyHistory.org, a project of the City of Philadelphia Department of Records.

As if declining home sales, a credit squeeze and predatory lending practices were not enough, there has been a substantial rise in mortgage and deed fraud throughout the boom and bust of the real estate market. While this trend has been most apparent in the hottest real estate markets, Philadelphia’s homeowners have not been spared from this crime. The methods run the gamut from simple to complex, seemingly innocent to downright treacherous. But the outcome of what is known as ‘property conveyance fraud’ is often the same — a homeowner is bilked out of their equity or the deed to their home. The City of Philadelphia has been combating this phenomenon with a multi-agency task force organized by the Philadelphia Bar Association. The Property Conveyance Task Force is an ad hoc committee of City agencies, law enforcement officials, title insurance companies, non-profit legal assistance organizations, and the district attorney’s office. The group meets every few months to discuss and share information on fraud schemes and develop strategies for detecting and mitigating the damage.

The task force has made progress in terms of developing strategies, but the most serious impediment remains the lack of information available to all members of the group. Azavea was asked by the City’s Department of Records — where deeds and mortgages are recorded as legal documents — to help develop a GIS-enabled fraud tracking system. The result is a set of web-based tools that use ESRI’s ArcIMS map server and the City’s web services API’s to enable all members of the task force to register fraud reports, search the results, and subscribe to geographic alerts. While it will not be available to the general public, it will be an important new tool for the City, legal professionals and law enforcement to fight property fraud.

If you are interested in learning more about the effects of property conveyance fraud, there was a series of articles in the New York Times last year that may prove interesting:

“Mortgage Fraud Is Up, but Not in Their Backyards“

“New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners”

“Fraud Cases Are Rising, F.B.I. Says”

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PhillyHistory.org Resonates with Thousands of Philadelphians and Gets its own Exhibit

By Rachel Cheetham-Richard Published in

Vol. 2 Issue 4, August 2007

"This site is one of the most terrific things I've seen out of those who care about the history of this city." PhillyHistory.org user

PhillyHistory.org did it again! People are going nuts over it. It even received at Best of Philly! 2007 Award for best local website.

On top of that, Azavea, the City of Philadelphia Department of Records, and The Art Institute of Philadelphia partnered to organize an exhibit of more than 80 photos from the site. From images of trade, commerce, education, municipal services, arts and entertainment to photos of men and women actually building the city, the exhibit reflects the vitality, vibrancy and development of Philadelphia over the past 150 years. Images dating from the late 1800s, some never before seen by the public, are on display. “Philadelphia Stories: The Building of a Great American City” is free and located at the Art Institute’s 1622 Chestnut Street gallery until August 31.

Local press and TV covered the event heavily, which attracted droves of people to the gallery. Visitors were mesmerized, amused and moved by photos as varied as that of the “Rat Patrol”, the site of City Hall without the iconic building on it, men building the sewer system in mud up to their eye brows, and a worker seated next to William Penn’s head before the statue was lifted on top of City Hall.

Commissioner Joan Decker

Rachel Cheetham-Richard and Governor Rendell

In her address, Commissioner Joan Decker said: “Voices and stories of the Philadelphians who helped shape our city can be heard through these images. It is our hope that it will inspire more Philadelphians to explore this historical treasure-trove and offers glimpses of both the heroic, tragic and everyday facets of the city’s long and rich history.”

Governor Rendell stopped by the exhibit opening reception on August 2 and picked two photos of the construction of City Hall as his favorites. Between a few hand shakes and camera flashes, he even took the time to chat about the project with us!

PhillyHistory.org is powered by Sajara. Stay tuned for next issue’s news about a mobile version of the software!

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ParcelExplorer Enables Historic and Linen Maps to be Searched and Accessed Online

By Michael McLarnon Published in

Vol. 2 Issue 4, August 2007

The images above each show the same property outline with a different historic map in the background. In order from left to right: 1942 Land Use Map, 1859 Hexamer Locher Map, and the linen DOR Parcel Records Maps

If you have ever been involved in any activity pertaining to land parcel research or assessment, you know that flipping through linen registry maps –Philadelphia has 5,500 plus of these– can be a tedious endeavor. ParcelExplorer enables users to view the City of Philadelphia Department of Records’ current land parcel map layers and ato see scans of the original linen maps on which the records are based. Not only can these scanned maps be shown but potentially any scanned map could be included as possible background layers.

We recently added the ability to include several types of historical maps in the application. Specifically, we received three sets of digitized historic maps from the Philadelphia Free Library (scanned by The Athenaeum of Philadelphia). One of these sets of maps was the Hexamer-Locher atlas created in 1857-60, which was used as a fire insurance atlas. The other two sets of maps are Philadelphia land-use maps, from 1942 and 1962. (for more information go to http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/). These historic maps add valuable data to the results generated from a search for the history of a particular parcel.

Along with the addition of historic maps, there are some other changes coming up that we hope will make the site even easier to use. Currently, payment for registration to the application is accepted by check only, and registration can only be paid for in six-month intervals. Plans are in the works to accept payment by credit card, which will make the subscription process instantaneous. Additionally, for users who access the application less frequently, the Department of Records will be offering payment for subscription based on hourly and daily usage.

For more information click on “Demo Button” or “Fact Sheet” at: http://citymaps.phila.gov/ParcelExplorer/

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Department of Records ParcelExplorer

By Michael McLarnon Published in

Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2007

"ParcelExplorer enables public end-users to enter an address or registry map number and view property records...of the paper-based registry maps."

The Philadelphia ParcelExplorer application, as a project for the Department of Records, is one of Azavea’s latest web-based applications. Unique in the U.S. and already more than 100-subscribers strong, ParcelExplorer enables public end-users to enter an address or registry map number and view property records information including scanned version of the paper-based registry maps.

Additionally, users are able to measure parcels and lines; add annotation to the maps; display a printable copy; display condominium information; and display parcel history.

Registry maps, or land parcel record maps, have been kept in Philadelphia for a long time, but have only been recently digitized by the City’s Records Department. Digitizing the data means that they are much easier to organize and keep updated, but there was a desire to keep scans of the original maps, which were recorded on linen, so that they could be viewable along with the digitized data. The ParcelExplorer application solved this problem by enabling users to use scans of the originals as background to the digitized map (learn more).

There are several new features to be rolled out soon, most notably the addition of historic maps from the Philadelphia Free Library. These include the Hexamer-Locher Philadelphia maps made between 1858 and 1860, and land-use maps from 1942 and 1962. The historic map scans were made and contributed by the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Another recent improvement is the addition of links to historic photos at PhillyHistory.org. Now, when you look at a parcel or historic map, you can find historic photos nearby.

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PhillyHistory.org Launches New Blog

By admin Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 1, Fall 2006

Need a new blog to add to your favorites’ list? Each week Azavea interns highlight discoveries from the Philadelphia Department of Record’s PhillyHistory.org website in a new blog located at www.phillyhistory.org/blog. The blog contains weekly articles that bring alive photographs that showcase Philadelphia’s rich social and cultural history. They narrate the stories that lie behind these fascinating photographs, providing those interested with links to further resources. You can read entries from the blog, which was recently featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer Online, at www.phillyhistory.org/blog.

Azavea has been working in collaboration with the Philadelphia Department of Records developing the PhillyHistory.org website. The site includes a growing database of over 50,000 historic records, of which more than 15,000 have scanned images. The site’s GIS functionality enables users to locate photographs within a certain neighborhood, within a radius of an address, near a particular intersection, or by a place name like “City Hall.” One of the most important aspects of historical preservation is fostering interest in our past. Philadelphia is one of the most historic cities in the country, and we are proud to lend a hand in preserving its history for the enjoyment of generations to come.

Recognize the header image? The photo is from the www.phillyhistory.org website, taken in December 1906, the photography was titled ‘Compulsory Education-Newsboy.’ To read more about the image, check out the PhillyHistory.org blog, click here. You can also buy historic Philadelphia photographs taken since 1890 online at www.phillyhistory.org.