Here at the HINT project, we've put a lot of effort into improvements to the HSP image viewer. The ability to annotate graphic images has been getting the most attention, but we'll also soon be unveiling a new viewer feature that has the power to turn your world upside-down.

That's right, we're getting a rotate tool!

Several cartoons in the HINT project are actually intended to be rotated. For example, "Jeff. Davis Going to War/Jeff. Returning from War" is a two-in-one image. To get to the punchline, you need to turn the page upside-down.

Jeff. Davis going to War./Jeff. returning from War (1861), call no. Ba 612 J 35

This cartoon from the San Francisco Wasp contains two vignettes that comment on immigration. Readers would hold their magazines one way to view "Reception of European Emigrants Twenty Years Ago" and another way to view "Reception of Asiatic Emigrants in the Present Time." To do the same in a digital environment, however, requires the use of special controls.

"Reception of European Emigrants Twenty Years Ago/Reception of Asiatic Emigrants in the Present Time," Wasp, June 15, 1878. Balch Institute broadsides (collection #3213).

With the ability to rotate images within the HSP image viewer, users can come closer to experiencing these images the way they were meant to be experienced—interactively.

We're looking forward to sharing many more rotate-able cartoons with you in our exhibit website, Politics in Graphic Detail.