First World War data sources for the Europeana Challenge
In this guide we will point you to some of the re-usable material available through Europeana and the Europeana API focussed on the subject of the First World War. This has been written in support of the 1st Europeana Challenge, but of course is applicable to any project wishing to re-use this content.
The First World War has been a particular focus for Europeana through our highly successful Europeana 1914-1918 project. This project has actively sought contributions from the public across Europe, providing a unique resource from all sides of the conflict. This now amounts to over 14,000 stories and 140,000 items. Items range from diaries and personal photographs, to images of objects related to the conflict. Most material is available under an open license. The project has also been a focal point for sourcing rich and diverse collections from museums, libraries and archives across Europe.
Source: Bilder von meinem Vater Hermann Gebauer aus dem 1. Weltkrieg. Provided by Siegfried Gebauer CC BY-SA.
Here are a few examples to get things started:
Europeana 1914-1918 website
This site is the focal point for all WW1 related content. It allows you to explore both institutional and user submitted content. The user submitted content has primarily been sourced via collection days that have run across Europe, where people have contributed photographs, artefacts and stories, typically relating to their family history. There are also video interviews available.
Europeana Labs
On Europeana Labs we feature notable open datasets. For each there is a link to browse the collection and for developers our API console shows how to query the API to extract that content. For example these include a collection of 37,000 WW1 photographs illustrating the Great War at the eastern and south eastern front provided by the Austrian National Library.
Europeana API
The Europeana API provides direct access for developers to the complete data available through Europeana. This allows the creation of powerful, content rich apps and services. Indeed our own website runs on the API, and all the search methods are available for use.
Example WW1 themed API queries
- User contributed items
- Subject search across all collections
- Openly licensed content matching the date range 1914 to 1918
Find out more
- Read more about the API in our extensive API documentation
- Learn how to use the new media metadata methods to restrict searches to items with directly available media files such as images and audio; also to search by quality, colour, and a whole lot more!
- See how to ensure that you use content that is correctly licensed for your product
- Data is also available via a SPARQL endpoint and OAI-PMH.
Need help?
Full details for the entry criteria to the 1st Europeana Challenge can be found on the Challenge page.
If you have any questions or are seeking particular content, please email api@europeana.eu