Multimedia integration of cartographic source materials for researching and presenting phenomena from economic history

The article presents a framework for integrating historical sources with elements of the geographical space recorded in unique cartographic materials. The aim of the project was to elaborate a method of integrating spatial data sources that would facilitate studying and presenting the phenomena of economic history. The proposed methodology for multimedia integration of old materials made it possible to demonstrate the successive stages of the transformation which was characteristic of the 19th-century space. The point of reference for this process of integrating information was topographic maps from the first half of the 19th century, while the research area comprised the castle complex in Kórnik together with the small town – the pre-industrial landscape in Wielkopolska (Greater Poland). On the basis of map and plan transformation, graphic processing of the scans of old drawings, texture mapping of the facades of historic buildings, and a 360° panorama, the source material collected was integrated. The final product was a few-minute-long video, composed of nine sequences. It captures the changing form of the castle building together with its facades, the castle park, and its further topographic and urban surroundings, since the beginning of the 19th century till the present day. For a topographic map sheet dating back to the first half of the 19th century, in which the hachuring method had been used to present land relief, a terrain model was generated. The transition from parallel to bird’s-eye-view perspective served to demonstrate the distinctive character of the pre-industrial landscape