About

Itinera presents the opportunity for academics, students, and enthusiasts alike to engage with the phenomena of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century cultural tourism through an innovative academic apparatus. Operated from within the Visual Media Workshop in the Henry Clay Frick Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Itinera is a map-based, interactive, digital resource that has been proactively developed to collect and present historical data within a richly and transparently structured visual context. Central to the idea behind Itinera is are the expanded possibilities the digital environment can offer in visualizing, understanding, and generating new insights in the fields of Art History and Cultural Studies. As a platform, Itinera has been designed to allow users people to better comprehend the interconnected circumstances that arose with greater mobility and access to cultures across the globe.

Itinera materialized over several years and through countless discussions within and outside of the Humanities Ccommunity at the University of Pittsburgh. As part of a larger consortium of Digital Humanities projects supported by the University, Itinera represents the deep commitment of the Department of History of Art and Architecture department to engage with scholarship across various fields of study. Like other intellectual endeavours, Itinera’s data is collected from credible documentation and sources. Unlike a published source however, Itinera continues to progress and evolve as new data is entered. Itinera does not make claims to be an encyclopedic authority, nor does it attempt to guide the user into a particular set of discourses. Rather, the project leaders acknowledge that while the complexities and controversies of this period are a vital aspect of study, it is the aim of Itinera to engage, interact, and support scholarly debates in an expanded, data driven setting.