“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” – Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill looked back to long before his own time to see ahead
To interest more people in history, and how it affects them, Ptara has started a timeline project. The first year we are dealing with is 1812, which has its two hundredth anniversary in 2012.
Contributors write, draw, or are interviewed about their local area, something that interests them, or their area of expertise.
So far we’ve had a range of interesting projects:
We had a vegetarian, under the pseudonym Triceratops, tell the story of an early Vegetarian cookbook.
We had a retired man who has heritage and work experience in three continents submit us a story about how the Portuguese Monarchy became Brazilian.
We’ve had professional writers tell stories about the Brothers Grimm and the discovery of dinosaurs.
And, we’ve made a short video on the different causes of the war of 1812.
In addition, we are interested in other stories that may not fit into a timeline, from how we compare to the Conquistadors to the friendship between nations.
We are interested in hearing new voices, and we’re looking for more information about subjects from the move of Cambodia’s capital to the census in China to the creation of the first “Mangas”. Stories on Egypt, South Africa, Prussia, Indonesia and Ethiopia are also in development, and more on any other parts of the world are welcome.
In addition to this, Ptara’s core writers have worked on a variety of stories from deadly riots in Edinburgh, to an old man being put on the pillory, to a love story involving a death sentence and capture by American “pirates”, to the lack of sports pages in the old newspapers.
There are more stories on the way, and we welcome guest bloggers and guest artists to send their contributions.
Especially interesting would be any story that could cross over into today’s climate. One of our first timeline stories was about a bank bailout that never happened.
If you’re interested, email us vasco.desousa@ptara.com at or contact us through LinkedIn.
