WhatWasThere was created in 2010 by the digital agency Enlighten (acquired in 2015) as a social good project with the goal of becoming the largest database of geographically tagged historic photographs in the world. We all believed it was a noble and worthy cause -- to help capture the history of everyday places before that history disappears and is no longer available.
We did not start this project with any goal of making money and used only internal resources, both people and money, to get the platform launched. As the months and then years marched on, we realized we couldn’t dedicate adequate resources to properly maintain and evolve the platform and were never able to determine a sustainable funding/revenue model. As such, the current site has basically remained the same for nearly 13 years.
Unfortunately, we are sad to announce that on December 15, 2023 the WhatWasThere website/platform will shut down. Registered users can go the Account page and download an XML file containing information about every photo they uploaded, if desired.
We know that many people and institutions found our platform useful, entertaining, educational, and addictive. As did we. I want to personally thank you for investing your time, energy, and passion into building out the WhatWasThere platform. Feel free to reach out to sglauberman@whatwasthere.com with any comments or questions you may have.
Best,
Steve Glauberman,
Founder, Enlighten