Thursday, February 28, 2019

The People's History Map of Paris


The history of the world is so often told through the stories of the rich and powerful. Libération has decided that it wants to tell the story of Paris' workers, peasants and insurgents. They have therefore released an historical map of Popular Paris from 1830 to 1980.

Paris has often been the center of popular movements and protests. From the French Revolution of 1830, through the student and workers protests of May 1968, right up to the recent gilets jaunes protests, the streets of Paris have often been the battleground of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. Libération's interactive map features many of the popular protests which have occurred in Paris over the years. The map also documents locations which have been important in other ways to the lives of the people in Paris since 1830.

The map allows you to filter the historical incidents and locations shown on the map by historical period. It is also possible to filter the popular historical events on the map by type of event. These include (but aren't restricted to) popular insurrections, social experiments, occupations, and organizations, meetings & events. The red dots on the map indicate locations which still exist. The white dots show places which no longer exist or which have been transformed since the mapped incident. If you select one of the dots on the map you can read about why the location is important to Paris' popular history.


If the workers of Paris have often been ignored by history then so have the works of Paris' female artists. The creators of Le Matrimoine Parisien have therefore decided to make the female artists of Paris more visible by showcasing their work on an interactive map.

Le Matrimoine Parisien plots culturally important locations in Paris which have been contributed by the city's female artists and architects. The map includes five different categories of female cultural contributions to the French capital. They are: architectural structures, paintings, sculptures, workshops, and places of art & culture. If you have a particular interest in one or more area of culture then you can filter the categories shown on the map from the menu. All of the mapped cultural locations shown on the map are free to access.

The map was created by students at the École du Louvre. However anyone can submit locations to the map of cultural contributions to Paris made by women. The only other requirement (besides being related to female artists) is that the locations must be free to visit. If you follow the Le Matrimoine Parisien Twitter account you can also receive daily updates and insights into the lives and works of female artists in Paris.

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