The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuProjectsDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Follow the journey in real time
12021-01-21T14:35:14-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f592plain2021-01-21T14:42:48-05:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5To be part of the journey in real time, follow us @ImperiiaProject (#Russia1914) or read the initial tweet.
This page is referenced by:
12020-09-02T12:35:21-04:00Guidebook to a Lost Empire135a Twitter thread / timeline / map story mashupplain2021-01-22T10:02:58-05:00
This is a story unfolding - as of September 1, 2020 - on Twitter.
At its heart is a travel guide published in 1914 by the Karl Baedeker publishing house, called Russia with Teheran, Port Arthur, and Peking: A Handbook for Travellers.
If the Handbook is a series of itineraries, this "Guidebook" is a series of tweets. (...And maps. And historical sketches. And all sorts of other goodies.) As each tweet migrates here it receives a title and becomes an entry in the Guidebook. The entries populate the "tweetlines" that are at the heart of the Guidebook project. They contain images and/or hypertext that you won't find in their corresponding tweets. They also bear thematic tags: this means that if you tire of following a particular itinerary, you always have the option of clicking on a tag and exploring the set of locations that have that tag in common - it is simply a different way of navigating through the contents of the Guidebook.
To get your bearings, try asking yourself these questions:
How do I read the full text of an entry? Click on the title (in blue). You can go back and forth to and from entries to timeline, skim through the timeline, or page through the entries themselves (using the arrows on the left and right of any entry page).
Why are the entries arranged in this order? They are arranged according to the post time of each tweet. In other words, the tweetlines recreate the real time in which the story is being told. (It is also true that the tweets (and entries) are arranged in the order given by Baedeker's itineraries.)
How soon do tweets appear on this site? Some vague number of hours after posting.
