Every walk in a strange city begins with buying a map. But the past is also a foreign country. Mapsplusmotion is making a digital historical atlas which shows at a glance how a city or country has grown and changed over the centuries.

The basis of every historical museum

Mapsplusmotion develops digital historical maps for museums and other heritage organizations at their request. The historical-geographical applications of Mapsplusmotion fit seamlessly onto Google Maps. With these applications we make interactive educational presentations and online applications which can answer the fundamental question of every visitor to an archive or historical/city museum: what does the city look like and what was it like in the past? At first sight a simple question, but in fact a difficult one to answer.

More than anywhere else in the world, culture and landscape are intertwined in the Netherlands. People made the flat Dutch land, with its polder towns and cities and kilometres-long dykes. Hundreds, if not thousands of polders; it just depends on which definition you use. This colourful patchwork is constantly subject to change. All these changes have far-reaching social, economic and cultural consequences. A digital historical map shows the spatial background from which the story of a city unfolds.

Looking at maps in a new way

The digital historical map continues a paper tradition - the historical atlas which literally maps time and space. With the advent of GPS and Google Maps, looking at maps has taken on a new dimension. We have become accustomed to reliable geographical and topographical information being constantly available. A logical next step is to make geographical information about the past available in modern media.

But old maps do not fit together seamlessly. Form, projection, typography and detail differ too much, which means that the information is too varied to compare quickly. Moreover, many historical maps, although beautiful, are not historically correct. Or they are only partly reliable. Looking at maps from the past requires structure and simplification. We therefore make new maps on the basis of historical maps and research, maps which do fit seamlessly together and that you can overlay on Google Maps.

How it works

The starting point for the digital historical map is a modern-day vector map based on geo-information. Series of historical maps are meticulously drawn, using a modern map of the Topographical Service (or an urban land surveying service) and research as a basis. In other words, information is removed and historical-geographical and topographical information is georeferenced and added. A new set of digital maps is created in this way; historical information is scientifically transformed into a new, accessible and clear map image. This set of maps is then integrated into an application based on Google Maps. The new digital historical map fits seamlessly into modern information media

Developments in the past can be compared in different periods, cities can be placed next to each other, and the present can always be called up with a transparency button. The application uses Google Maps, but adds a custom-made interface and a new ‘historical’ map image.

Tradition and innovation

In many ways the man-made Dutch landscape is the visiting card of the Netherlands: a structured landscape of dykes and polders. This man-made landscape is the result of constant innovation in the field of spatial infrastructure, from the West Frisian Circular Dyke, completed around 1340, to the construction of the Flevo polders in the 20th century.

This development can be seen on a digital historical map that the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen commissioned from Mapsplusmotion. The Netherlands has an exceptional international reputation regarding innovations in the spatial infrastructure and control of water and land. Like the art of painting in the 17th century, this is the Netherlands’ visiting card abroad. The story of the Zuiderzee is exemplary of Dutch innovation, as is the story of many Dutch towns exemplary of a tradition of planned urban development in a polder landscape. A well-made digital historical map shows that the contours of our living environment were already determined centuries ago. Streets often follow the pattern of medieval drainage channels and ditches.

Projects

Commissioned by the Museum Rotterdam, Mapsplusmotion has made an animation film about the history of the city. What did Rotterdam look like before the WWII aerial bombardment? Or in 1560? In the Hannemahuis centre for culture and history in Harlingen, an interactive programme lets you explore, with the help of our map, the oldest city in Friesland province. This map is linked to photographs from the collection. We have also made a map for the Historical Museum in The Hague showing the growth of the city. In 2009 we made a map of Manhattan.

Applications

- animation film as an introduction to a museum, archive or exhibition
- historical-geographical access to collections
- dynamic interface on website and image bank
- aid on the website of monuments and historic buildings trust or archaeological service
- interactive applications
- walks on your mobile
- printed material