Embedding historic maps

I am looking for solutions for embedding geolocated historic maps in an omeka site. We have used the Geolocation plugin for providing information about where certain items are on a current map of New York, but for several reasons an additional historic map that can be linked to items would be an excellent edition to the site: 1. the street layout of lower Manhattan has changed since the period which the Omeka archive covers, and 2. it would be useful for a visitor to the site to be able to see where things were in relation to each other.

I have done some experimenting with using MapLib map in an iframe on a simple page, but haven't found that it's a satisfactory solution for a number of reasons, not least because the site seems fairly unstable. It also doesn't play that nicely with Omeka.

Does anyone know of other possibilities?

Seth,

Yeah, this is good question.

The Neatline plugin suite will be released within a few weeks from Scholar's Lab may offer you some of that functionality that you're seeking. The Neatline Maps plugin will allow you to upload georectified maps and associate it with an item.

Have you tried layering with Google Earth? That allows for layering of historical maps on a current map, like the North Carolina Maps overlays: http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/interactive/overlay.html

You can add placemarks in Google Earth, which you can probably link to an Omeka item. I haven't tried this, but it may be worth investigating.

Hi Sheila,

It sounds like the Neatline maps plugin might do the trick. Do you know if it will have facilities for actually doing the georectification? or does that need to be done independently and then brought into the Omeka site using Neatline. Also, will Neatline allow multiple pins to be placed on the map to associate items with places on the map?

I haven't tried layering with Google Earth but will look into that as well.

Thanks for your help with this.