I rebuilt the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica into a clean, structured, navigable site:
https://britannica11.org/
What it does:
– ~37k articles reconstructed from the original volumes
– section-level structure (contents are clickable within articles)
– cross-references extracted and linked
– contributors indexed and searchable
– original volume + page references preserved and shown while reading
– links to the original scans for each page
– ancillary material included (prefaces, abbreviations, etc.)
– topic index reproduced and cross-linked
– full-text search with article metadata (length, volume, etc.)
Most of the work was in parsing and reconstruction: headings, multi-page articles, tables, math, languages, footnotes, plates, and all the small edge cases that come up in a work like this.
The goal was to make something that feels like the original, but is actually usable.
I’d especially appreciate feedback on:
– search quality
– navigation (sections, cross-references)
– anything that looks structurally off
Happy to answer questions about the pipeline or data model
https://britannica11.org/
What it does:
– ~37k articles reconstructed from the original volumes – section-level structure (contents are clickable within articles) – cross-references extracted and linked – contributors indexed and searchable – original volume + page references preserved and shown while reading – links to the original scans for each page – ancillary material included (prefaces, abbreviations, etc.) – topic index reproduced and cross-linked – full-text search with article metadata (length, volume, etc.)
Most of the work was in parsing and reconstruction: headings, multi-page articles, tables, math, languages, footnotes, plates, and all the small edge cases that come up in a work like this.
The goal was to make something that feels like the original, but is actually usable.
I’d especially appreciate feedback on: – search quality – navigation (sections, cross-references) – anything that looks structurally off
Happy to answer questions about the pipeline or data model