Project Overview
For many years, the U.S. Lighthouse Society has been gathering an archive of data including photos, documents, and many other items of historical importance about all lighthouses in the United States. They needed a solid and functional website to house and present their data. The primary concern was to make it easy for researchers to find information about lighthouse history. We decided to organize the data into main categories: Places, People, Objects, and Vessels. Within each category there is a trove of associated documents, photographs, news clippings, etc. If you want to learn the history of a lighthouse, this is the place to visit!
Our Solution
Drupal was a great choice for this project. We made extensive use of views, but also we did some custom module development work with AJAX queries so that the data and queries don't put a huge strain on the server and database. Clicking into a place (for example), the visitor is presented with basic information. From there they can click to further view historical photographs, or news clippings, or see the people connected to the lighthouse through history.
The Website
