New project aiming to bring Scarborough's history to life with an atlas asks for volunteers

Scarborough Atlas is a Scarborough Museums and Galleries (SMG) digital initiative, supported by Coventry University and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Local community researchers will work with researcher Yasmin Stefanov-King to create a series of themed digital trails to follow around the town, using archival assets from the SMG collections, including vintage photographs, oral history recordings and written reports to illustrate points of interest on the trails.

Six initial trails exploring Scarborough’s Old Town, crime, the seafront, historic pubs, the natural world, and ‘Scarborough at War’ are planned, with the public being asked to identify a theme for a seventh.

The scheme is also seeking stories from local people to enrich the trails, with volunteer ‘citizen researchers’ helping connect local and family stories to items in the SMG collections to locations along the way.

The ‘Scarborough at War’ trail will include never-before-heard recordings made in the 1970s by historian Dr Nick Hiley of survivors of the German Bombardment of the town in December 1914, which caused the first civilian deaths on British soil of World War I and sparked a huge military recruitment campaign.

Scarborough Atlas will use the same system as the very successful Layers of London. It’s hoped that the trails, which will also feature layered maps so that viewers can easily compare different period of time, will go live this summer.

Coventry University’s Yasmin Stefanov-King, the project’s researcher says: “History isn’t a dry and dusty thing: everyone has a history that is of value, and this is about capturing those moments. We want to break down barriers and bring social history to life.

“The trails will be sensory – people can go to places and, for instance, smell the sea air and feel the sand while they listen to real life stories. They will also be as accessible as possible for those with disabilities.”

Andrew Clay, Chief Executive of Scarborough Museums and Galleries, says: ““We are very excited about the Scarborough Atlas project and the partnership with Coventry University.

"Scarborough Alas will enable people to explore the history of Scarborough by following a range of fascinating trails that are populated with images of objects from the Scarborough Collection.

"At SMG we are committed to exploring new ways to access the hundreds of thousands of objects that are under our care. We call this democratising the collection. We would love to display more objects and pictures, but a shortage of display space prevents this. With Scarborough Atlas however, many of the glories of the Scarborough Collection can be enjoyed the world over at the touch of a button.”

Eamonn Byrne, Business Development Executive at Coventry University, says: “‘CU Scarborough and the Coventry University Group are extremely pleased and excited to be working on this ground-breaking project in collaboration with Scarborough Museums and Galleries.

"It will go some way towards bringing history to a new audience through technology in an interactive and immersive way, allowing people to truly engage with both history and the town.

“It is really important to us that the project doesn’t only help in creating a deeper connection for people with Scarborough as a town, but that it also helps people to connect to businesses and other community projects in the locality to ensure that the project has a legacy.

“It will be fantastic to see the local community get involved with the research for the project and have an input in bringing the project to life: there really is so much scope to this, we really look forward to what the future holds.”

Anyone interested in suggesting a subject for the seventh trail, contributing a story or other material, or volunteering as a citizen researcher can contact SMG on [email protected]