Memories can come from more than photos and with The History Project platform you are able to incorporate a variety of ways to capture your meaningful history to build a rich and interactive story.

We recommend three ways you can add context and layers to your story that will make it more fun to walk down memory lane.

1. USE A VARIETY OF MEDIA TYPES

Photos
Writing
Audio Recordings
Videos
Music
Historical Events

Photos are usually the primary way people share events and tell stories. Try exploring the stories behind your photos using other media to help you trigger more memories and share more details. This can also help you make connections you had not thought about before.

Writing stories or adding notes to particular photos is a good way to layer in details to a story. Study the photo, let your mind wander, and then start writing down whatever comes up for you. Who is in the photo? Where was it taken? What do you remember about the moment that is captured in the photo?

When you write, your mind slows down because you are forced to follow through on one thought before going onto the next. Notice this process, go with it, see how you like the results. Once done with one thought, go back to the photo to see what else comes up. Think about what your kids, grandkids, or others would want to know about this moment in time. They want details, so do not hold back. The more you engage with the photo, the more you will recall.

Audio recordings and videos can help you retell your story or memory in a very different experience from writing about it. To hear a person’s voice or to watch them speak is a rich and valuable experience for family and friends. Try it out.

Music and historical events will help you continue to add layers to your stories. Try adding in music that resonated with you during that time or that was part of a particular event, and pull in pop culture facts and historical events that were happening in the world at that same time.

2. TAG EVENTS WITH KEYWORDS

Tagging your events and memories with common keywords allow you to discover intergenerational and time connections. Tags allow you to link together events and people to find similarities. For example, pulling together all the photos that were tagged “cousins” or “camping trips” or “wedding”.

To see photos across years, across generations, is truly satisfying. It can also bring forth connections you may not notice otherwise, which could lead to more stories to tell.

3. ADD GEOGRAPHY TO YOUR STORIES

The geography of your life. What an interesting way to think about your history. By adding geographic locations to your media, you can then see your history on the world map.

This allows for a unique perspective of your story, which could also lead to connections you may not notice otherwise. Once others start adding to your project, this only gets richer and deeper and you see your whole family’s relation to the big, wide world.

ABOUT THE HISTORY PROJECT

The History Project empowers families to connect artifacts and memories across media to build experiential stories that transcend generations. The History Project offers a set of mobile and online tools to intelligently collect, beautifully curate and delightfully collaborate in building your personal life story. Preserve and relive the memories that matter most through The History Project. For more details visit www.thehistoryproject.com.

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