The database is populated with data extracted from a single source: Mes loisirs ou Journal d’événemens tels qu’ils parviennent à ma connaissance, a personal journal containing day to day observations of Paris by Prosper Siméon Hardy, published in 1789.

We’ve situated the data from the Journal in the context of space and time, using a map of Paris from the 18th century, the Plan de Paris, created by Edme Verniquet.

Here, we offer some examples, as video clips, of how to use this map to explore Paris in the 18th century.

From that work, we have extracted data about places mentioned, organized by the date of the journal entry. Those data can be searched using the search tool associated with the map.

In addition, we have indexed the people mentioned by Hardy, and we’ve cross-referenced those people with places, so that if a person is mentioned as having been present at a place, those people will be displayed on the map at that location.

The full text of the journal can also be searched by keyword, and in all cases, the results of a search can be viewed either on the map itself, or in text form.

We’ve also added bitmap layers (additional historical and modern maps), and vector layers (features of interest such as hydrological, urban and social information), and data layers (like all people mentioned in the journal).

That work is ongoing, so there are as of now only around a hundred person-place connections, and only a handful which have been verified.

As we add new connections within the Journal de Hardy, and as we add more sources beyond the Journal, the spatial search for people will become more and more richly populated.