The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, holds one of the most fascinating collections of historical photographs from Tibet. Over 6,000 photographs were scanned and database records were created specifically for the website.
Working alongside professors and researchers from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, and the British Museum, London, the core data was created in FileMaker. I chose to migrate the data to MySQL for online use due to the complexity of the related databases and the need for more robust and powerful search functions than FileMaker could provide.
In addition to the web of links the research database created — photographs can be accessed through multiple navigation paths — there are complementary interactive Flash elements.
Interactive elements
I created Flash applications for the maps of Tibet and Lhasa, allowing users with no geographical knowledge to explore the regions of Central Tibet. There is also an advanced album function: using Flash, it was possible to allow users to create and lay out their own albums of photographs.
Recognition
The Tibet Album won the 2007 OxTalent award for innovative use of IT in teaching and learning. The site opened simple access to thousands of photographs via the web, giving the world a view of Tibet that has been largely lost to history.