Photography Tool: Tourist Remover

Have you ever found yourself waiting for passersby to move out of your viewfinder? Perhaps while trying to photograph architecture or other works of art? A free web-based filter allows you to remove tourists and other unwanted moving objects from your photographs. The aptly titled Tourist Remover even allows up to 100 MB of storage (and more with a paid upgrade).

Read more about how the tool works here. Happy 4th of July picture-taking!

Swahili Kingdom Images

ArchNet is very happy to announce a new collection of rare Swahili Kingdom images in its Digital Library, the James de Vere Allen Collection.

At present, this collection includes 185 black & white images of the Palace at Gedi, the Great Mosque of Gedi, the Kongo Mosque, the McCrindle house, and the Lamu cityscape, as well as other Kenyan sites.

Sourced from Mr. Allen’s archive, which he donated to MIT in 1988, the online publication of these images was made possible with the kind permission of the family of James de Vere Allen.

Bryn Mawr and Berlin State Museum Collections in ARTstor

Berlin State Museums

  • Greek, Hellenistic and Roman sculptures
    This first release of images from the Berlin State Museums includes 301 images of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman sculptures from the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Read more…

Bryn Mawr College

  • Classical Antiquity Lantern Slides
    The collection includes over 325 images — examples of classical architecture, architectural decoration, and sculpture – digitized from lantern slides held at the Bryn Mawr College Visual Resources Center. Read more…
  • Plans of ancient and medieval buildings and archaeological sites
    Through a partnership with ARTstor, the Visual Resources Center at Bryn Mawr College will be contributing a collection of site plans for key ancient and medieval architectural monuments and archaeological sites. There are approximately 8,000 black-and-white slides depicting archaeological and building site plans, particularly relating to the classical and ancient Near East, as well as medieval Europe. Read more…
  • Archaeological excavations from the Mellink Archive
    Through a partnership with ARTstor, approximately 4,000 images from the Mellink Archive at Bryn Mawr College will be added to the Digital Library. The images will depict archaeological sites in Turkey, including numerous images of sites that Mellink excavated herself. Read more…

Aluka, Digital Library of African Culture

From the Aluka website:

Aluka, a not-for-profit, collaborative and international initiative, announces the release of its online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. ‘Aluka’ is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave,” reflecting Aluka’s mission to connect resources and scholars from around the world.

Aluka’s partners have contributed materials ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides. The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes database links high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation. The Aluka digital library includes photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of African rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveller’s accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research.

This resource is available at the University of Chicago on a trial basis until December 31, 2007. Please direct comments to Rob Pleshar in the University Libraries or to the VRC.