Good news for history nerds/hipsters who really identify with Luc Sante’s Low Life: The New York Public Library has released a snazzy new app that’ll show you cool historical photos when you check in on Foursquare. Pack your bags, because we’re going on a nostalgia trip.
The app draws on the NYPL’s Photographic Views of New York City collection, a huge cache of photos from the 1870s to the 1970s meant to “document the changing face” of the city. During a recent hackathon, a team rigged them up to Foursquare and its geolocation data.
Now, if you connect the two apps, when you check in it’ll show you any nearby snapshots from the past. It’s like Foursquare’s Time Machine, but for the kinds of people who take walking tours of the Lower East Side (i.e., this reporter). Can’t wait to contemplate what a pastoral paradise Queens once was while stuck on the N train!
Of course, this is contingent on being a dedicated Foursquare user, so if you’ve stopped checking in, it’s not going to do you a lick of good.
(h/t VentureBeat)
