For Your ALA 2011 Pleasure: The Historic New Orleans Collection App!

 

So I never do this. I usually like to keep my work life and my writing life separate, but since so many of y'all are coming into town—and it is such an interesting town—I thought maybe you'd be interested in downloading The Historic New Orleans Collection iPhone App. 

I have a personal interest in this project, since my first project at THNOC (located at 533 Royal St) was to digitize some twelve-thousand—12,000!!1!—old photographs and even older drawings. I can't even tell you how cool the Charles Franck/Franck-Bertacci Collection is, just for a view into the past. So check it out today! Or go to the Louisiana Digital Library to see more!

 

HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS iPhone / iPad App

Discover New Orleans’s past as the "Historic New Orleans" app determines your location and shares photos from the 1920s through 1950s taken in the same spot.
With the "Historic New Orleans" app, you can:

• 
  
• Find over 350 historic photos based on your location
  
• Browse the photoset and zoom in for details
  
• Share the photos, complete with accompanying metadata
  
• Learn more by viewing each photo’s record in The Historic New Orleans Collection’s online catalogue
  
• Use the augmented reality Guide Me! function to find the site of each historic photo
  
• Use the augmented reality Guide Me! function and your phone’s camera to superimpose the historic view upon the present-day view, blend them together, and create an image that can be saved and emailed to friends
  

All photos are from The Charles L. Franck Studio Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection. Charles L. Franck (1877–1965) was a commercial photographer in New Orleans; his studio was purchased in 1955 by Albert Bertacci (1935–2005). Tens of thousands of photographs and negatives from the Franck and Franck-Bertacci studios, held at The Historic New Orleans Collection, chronicle the face and growth of Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, during the 20th century.