MTL Archives
One photographic collection. New ways to explore a city.
MTL Archives turns Montréal’s public photographic datasets into a searchable website, an interactive collection explorer, a daily location game, and opportunities to discover and order prints.
Provenance connected the underlying data and built these experiences while keeping the original sources accessible.
One source collection.Several ways to search and browse it.
- 01
Reconcile
Download, normalize, deduplicate, and retain the municipal source identifiers.
- 02
Enrich
Keep source metadata separate while adding OCR, generated descriptions, and derived search fields.
- 03
Index
Create text and image representations for semantic search and visual similarity.
- 04
Serve
Make the collection available through public search, visual browsing, and editorial workflows.
Digitizing a collection did not make it easy to search.
Montréal’s open photographic datasets contained streets, aerial surveys, civic documents, and other historical imagery, but metadata quality varied across the collection.
Many records could be found only if someone already knew what to search for. Missing descriptions, duplicates, document formatting, uncertain locations, and separate image files limited search and browsing.
The work retained source identifiers and original metadata while adding a separate layer for search and browsing.
Search, explore, play, and discover photographs to print.
The site includes search, visual similarity, a collection explorer for browsing related images and visual connections in 2D or 3D, a daily location game, print ordering, and editorial workflows.
The same material also supports editorial stories that bring individual photographs to new audiences. Each experience offers a different reason to discover and return to the collection.
The interface is specific to Montréal.The workflow can be applied to other collections.
MTL Archives is specific to one city and its collections. The following work can be adapted elsewhere:
- 01
reconcile inconsistent source data,
- 02
preserve authoritative identifiers,
- 03
add generated information as a separate layer,
- 04
test retrieval rather than assuming a newer model is better,
- 05
provide more than one way to search and browse the collection,
- 06
and measure how those interfaces are actually used.
For another institution or design team, the interface and outputs may be different. The workflow starts with the collection and its intended use.
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From a collection to a conversation.
Photographs also become social stories. People recognize places, share memories, and contribute local context. It is another way to encounter the collection, beyond the website and explorer.
Meta Business Suite, January 1 to September 25, 2026. Rounded figures. Views are not unique people or website visits.
Saint-Hubert, 1937
A street photograph becomes a neighborhood story. Comments recall local shops and memories of the street.
Watch the reel ↗Visuals from MTL Archives reels. Photographs: Archives de la Ville de Montréal.