Introduction

This research application for “Imagining a Nation’s Capital” at Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide presents georeferenced thumbnails of photographs in the Parker Collection at the position where the photographs were made, mapped onto historic plans of Rome from the nineteenth century. Users interact with the map using controls familiar from other digital mapping resources, such as zoom, drag, and pan, to survey the maps and images and analyze subjects of interest to photographers in addition to changes in these subjects over time.

Selecting one of the tools at the top right of the screen opens a modal window that allows users to search the collection by year, photographer, or subject and to filter the images that appear on the map. Clicking on a thumbnail of a photograph toggles a modal window that displays a high-quality archival scan of that image, with its title at the bottom of the screen. The image may then be enlarged or reduced using familiar scroll and zoom tools. In this single image view, the user may also click on the arrow to the right of the title to toggle additional information, including image summary, year taken, and related cataloging information.

The application supports all modern browsers and is designed to work across devices, scaling from very large to very small windows without compromising its search tools or image viewing pane. It is designed for use in tandem with the Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide scholarly essay “Imagining a Nation’s Capital,” which highlights key data and insights from the digital component.

About

The digital component of “Imagining a Nation's Capital” is a research application designed to simplify analysis of historic geospatial data to offer a comprehensive platform for creating, publishing, and sharing data between researchers and across disciplines. In this way, art historical research is given a new perspective on larger trends in the Parker Collection photographs taken in this critical period of nation-building in Italy.

Read the full article, analysis, and project narrative for “Imagining a Nation's Captial” on Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.

The research and article for the “Imagining a Nation's Capital” undertaken by Lindsay Harris, Andrew W. Mellon Professor-In-Charge, School of Classical Studies, American Academy in Rome, with software development by Luke Hollis, Owner and Lead Developer at Archimedes Digital, for publication in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.