Today’s post comes from Kerri Young of Historypin, app developer on the US National Archives’ recently completed Remembering WWI tablet app. You can learn more about the app’s initial launch on the blog of the American Association of State and Local History.
The National Archives has collaborated with the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Museum of American History, and the National WWI Museum and Memorial to build the collection of primary source content available in the Remembering WWI app. Now, we also invite your local institution to contribute.
Why?
Remembering WWI is a national collaborative effort, aimed at helping teachers and local institutions easily explore a rich collection of WWI film and photo primary sources from the US National Archives (NARA) and aforementioned national partners. Collection-creation is at the heart of the app experience, where in addition to exploring teachers and institutions can reuse this content to create their own WWI narratives. By contributing your own content, you can help contextualize the experience of WWI at the local level and grow this national collection of WWI primary sources. Institutions who contribute their own materials will also be able to reuse NARA and other institutional content to enhance the narratives within their own in-app collections, for use locally in their own centenary programming or museum tours for example.
What kinds of materials can I contribute?
We currently have WWI-related photographs, films, and objects (photos of uniforms, equipment, etc) in the app. Other scanned materials, such as letters and other documents in your collection, are also welcome.
Where do I upload?
If you are interested in adding content to the app, you will need to upload through Historypin. You cannot upload through the app itself. Any material appearing in the Historypin Remembering WWI collection will appear in the app.
What are the steps?
1. Are you uploading large amounts of content? If yes, you’ll want to use Historypin’s bulk uploader where you can easily gather your photo or film data on a CSV. Contact Kerri at kerri.young@historypin.org for more information. If no, start at Step 2.
2. Create a free Historypin account. Go to Historypin.org to sign up and create a profile on behalf of your institution.
3. All content must go into a themed collection. We’re surfacing all featured content in the app as curated collections to make content easily discoverable. Before doing any uploading, first create a collection by going to the Historypin Remembering WWI collection and clicking “Add a Collection.” Once you’ve added details, click “Add a pin” from within the collection to start uploading. Note that those who choose the bulk uploader will go through a different process.
4. View your content in the app or on Historypin. As you add pins to your collection, they will automatically appear in the app. To view your collection in the app, download it here. Alternatively, your collection on Historypin is there for sharing as well!
More Resources
- If you would like help walking through this process, feel free to email Historypin Engagement Manager Kerri Young at kerri.young@historypin.org.
- For a great example of a local WWI collection on Historypin, check out Connecticut Remembers WWI, created by the Connecticut State Library as part statewide WWI centenary efforts.
- For more information on individual app features, check out NARA’s History Hub page for Remembering WWI.
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