Second World War
The Letter That Shrank to Cross an Ocean
A rare surviving original V-Mail form and its delivered copy reveal how wartime letters were photographed, reduced and carried across the world. (AQOH-S004)
Featured Story
The Ship That Ended World War II
A commemorative launch cover for USS Missouri opens the door to one of the most symbolic naval stories of the twentieth century. (AQOH-S001)
Read story →
A Good Place to Start
The Letter That Never Arrived
A military camp letter returned from France during the collapse of 1940 (AQOH-S003)
World War Two
The Missing Airman of Stalag Luft IV
An airmail cover and newspaper clipping trace the wartime journey of Staff Sergeant C. L. Hester from Texas to captivity in Germany. (AQOH-S006)
Second World War
The German Letter from Belfast
A wartime letter posted in Northern Ireland in 1944, written in German and passed by a British censor. (AQOH-S005)
Document Library
Carey's World War Atlas
36 pages, browsable page by page in the original — part of our new WW2 Document Library.
Experiment
Multi-element Archive Item Viewer
A work-in-progress layout test, shown here while it is being developed.
Experiment
Map Animation Using JSON Data Sets
A work-in-progress layout test, shown here while it is being developed.
More Stories
Second World War
The Pink Card of Capture
A prisoner of war capture card records the moment a German soldier, Kurt Triebel, was formally registered in Allied captivity in June 1945. (AQOH-S007)
Second World War
Eric Dowdall Prisoner of War Cover
A prisoner of war airmail cover addressed to British prisoner Eric Dowdall at Stalag VIIA, Germany. (AQOH-S002)
Document Libraries
Full multi-page documents, browsable page by page in their original form.
WW2 Document Library
Carey's World War Atlas — and three more WW2-era documents
A collection of Second World War era documents, pamphlets and reports from the aqoHISTORY archive — browse each one page by page, in the original, and discover the stories behind them.
Browse the library →Experiments
Work-in-progress features and layout tests, shown here while they are being developed.
How it works
1. We start with an artefact
A letter, postcard, document or object that may appear ordinary at first glance.
2. We scan and digitise it
We create a high-quality digital record and extract the information hidden within it.
3. We use AI to analyse the data
AI helps identify the people, places, objects, dates and events connected to the artefact.
4. We uncover and tell the story
Research and innovative digital presentation features transform the extracted data into a rich historical story.
History in Reverse
Most history begins with famous events.
aqoHISTORY begins with an object.
aqoHISTORY begins with an object.
A letter returned to sender. A postcard carried across an ocean. A prisoner of war form. A commemorative cover tucked away in a drawer for decades.
Each item survived for a reason, and each has a story to tell.
That is the fascination of aqoHISTORY: uncovering the hidden story within the overlooked object.