The Vineyard Gazette announced Thursday the launch of the Time Machine, an interactive online tool that lets users browse historical articles, photos and videos from the Gazette archives.

Available on the Gazette website (at vineyardgazette.com/timemachine), this is the first showcase in a multi-year effort to digitize the Gazette’s extensive archive of Martha’s Vineyard history.

In addition to a multimedia timeline presenting major events from Martha’s Vineyard’s past, the Time Machine includes some of the most popular collections of articles and photography from the Gazette’s files. These collections include Hurricanes and Storms, Presidential Visits, Steamships and Ferries and the History of the Gazette. The topical timelines will be expanded and new ones added over time. The Gazette welcomes suggestions from the public for new collections.

The Time Machine also houses historic film clips of the Vineyard, gathered as part of the Gazette’s Historic Movies of Martha’s Vineyard Project. That project is aimed at preserving old film footage of the Island by converting it to digital format.

The core team responsible for creating the Time Machine included Paul Schneider, editor of Martha’s Vineyard Magazine; Hilary Wall, librarian; Sara Brown, news editor of the Vineyard Gazette; Graham Smith, website manager; Steve Durkee, director of design for the Gazette; Susan Catling, special projects coordinator; and Tom Dunlop, co-founder of the Historic Movies of Martha's Vineyard Project. Invaluable assistance was also provided by Alley Moore, Alyssa Lodge, Laura Brown, Nicole Mercier and David Foster.
 
Some photography appears courtesy of the Duncan Caldwell/Harris Collection, Jeffrey Serusa, Martha's Vineyard Museum, Nantucket Historical Society and the U.S. Coast Guard Station Menemsha. Special thanks to photographers Alison Shaw, Peter Simon, Mark Lovewell, Ivy Ashe, Ray Ewing, Jaxon White and Timothy Johnson.
 
The Time Machine utilizes open source software developed by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University.