In the course of history, many archives have unfortunately been lost. Fortunately, there are now internet archives that digitally preserve a wealth of data, with the added benefit of being able to enjoy it at home. We would like to highlight some of the best online archives.
Just as you regularly back up your own photos and documents (right?), There are organizations, archivists and historians who constantly store digital copies of public information, often encouraged by the government.
The online archives created in this way can assist citizens in their search for certain information. The most difficult task for the archive managers is not so much collecting material, but setting up a clear structure so that visitors quickly find the needle in the haystack.
Hardly anything on the World Wide Web is really removed, and even though the European Court of Justice granted every European citizen the right to be forgotten by the search engines on May 13, 2014, the Internet archives are still striving to remember . Systematic preservation allows anyone to continue to consult, enjoy, and even hold politicians accountable for their cultural and political history.
The Internet Archive
The archive of archives remains for us The Internet Archive. American internet entrepreneur Brewster Kahle founded a non-profit organization in 1996 that aims to create “universal access to all knowledge.” It is a digital library full of websites, cultural products, books, software, video and audio that you can view and use for free. It is said that, despite the dizzying amount of material, they have so far managed to keep everything searchable for the visitors.
The Internet Archive houses more than 200,000 software titles, including from iconic systems such as Atari and Commodore; moreover, an emulation system allows you to play these games effectively. 20 million books and texts have also been archived and 4.5 million audio recordings, including 180,000 live concerts. In collaboration with third parties, people are even busy archiving old LPs.
We found the Video department particularly interesting, where you can watch propaganda films from World War II or comedy classics by Charlie Chaplin, for example. Currently, The Internet Archive records 70 TV channels per day, causing the TV database to grow explosively.
After some lawsuits, The Internet Archive has built in the ability to remove websites from owners who object to this filing. Meanwhile, the San Francisco archive places a constant backup to servers in Canada as Kahle is concerned about the unpredictability and legal censorship of the Trump administration.
Wayback Machine
At The Internet Archive is the Wayback Machine connected. Here, crawlers (search bots) and librarians store one billion web pages every week. The name Wayback Machine is well chosen, because this web archive does indeed serve as an internet time machine. As long as a particular site is not password protected, chances are you can visit the past of a web address at different times in time.
This time machine was originally designed to archive digital artifacts for researchers and historians, but of course it remains interesting to see what a web page used to look like. Another reason to visit this archive is to access a website that has already been closed and is therefore no longer directly accessible via your browser.
You can use the Wayback machine in a few ways, but the most common is through the search engine. Enter a URL in the search engine and you will receive the history of the searched website via the timeline. You open the calendar from the timeline. Only the days marked with a circle contain an archive.
A blue circle indicates that the archive can be opened. By clicking on such a circle, you will visit the website as if it were live today. The links often still work. See above an example of our own website, in 1997!
Memory of the Netherlands
The largest heritage bank in the Netherlands is Memory of the Netherlands. This digital treasure house has bundled the contents of more than 100 national archives since 2000. In addition, people respond to the interests of the general public by adapting the website to current events.
You can browse historical collections or search for material on a specific topic. The online archive also contains an educational section for which lessons have been developed for secondary education.
Also striking is the image bank with material from photos, sculptures, paintings, bronze statues, ceramics, modern art, drawings, stamps, posters and newspaper clippings. In addition, there are also video and audio clips to view and listen to.
Saved sounds
Often we only remember what outdated technology looked like. But how did the dial of a telephone, an antique cash register, a screaming 56K modem sound? The project Conserve The Sound tries to preserve sounds that we rarely or never hear again.
You get an image of the object along with a 30 second audio clip. The project also includes videos of people talking about their relationship to certain sounds. The videos are in German, but there is also English subtitles.
We find the same idea with it Museum of Endangered Sounds, a private project where sounds of dying electronics have found a place. Clicking on a rectangle starts the audio recording. That way you can mix up an impatient phone, a dot matrix printer and a rattling telex.
To go crazy, just like in the office!
Old Maps Online
Wondering what your region looked like in the 18th or 17th century? Or do you want to study a certain military map from the first or second world war? Old Maps Online is the ultimate source of free geo-information on the internet. The success of this portal lies in the combination of an impressive number of historical maps and the smooth technology that makes this site very user-friendly. The cartographic data comes from renowned online sources and the user interface is from a Swiss geomapping developer.
To find a specific map, first type the name in the search box. This will show the location on a modern map. In addition, ten, twenty or more historical maps appear.
By clicking on such a historical map, you will get information about the time and the makers. In addition, the web app marks the outline of the historical map on the modern map. Then you can open the historical map and zoom in on it.
In addition, there is a chronological filter, which makes finding maps from a specific era much easier. The Old Maps Online website is an open project, users do not have to register or log in.
Europeana
The European Union decided in what it called “The New Renaissance” that by 2016 the contents of more than 3,500 museums should be publicly available in the archive. Europeana. Funded by the European community, millions of items have now been collected in this portal, the head office of which is located in The Hague.
The site provides access to 57 million digitized objects, music recordings and multimedia collections and supports every European language. You can use the search engine or be guided by the virtual collections that take you through time and tell stories about migration, fashion, music, etc.… You can also browse the platform by time zone or country. With each object you read whether you can reuse it, reuse it to a limited extent or not reuse it.
Enough fun for a rainy Sunday, isn’t it?
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