Create fast & light digital projects with natural markdown

Canopy provides a content-first approach to generating static websites and adding context to IIIF material from libraries, archives, and museums. There is no need to manage derivatives or complex backends. Just create markdown projects that are easy to build, maintain, and publish.

Build a static site from IIIF resources

Connect to cultural heritage material at any institution and generate a fully searchable, filterable, and browsable digital site highlighting items from IIIF Collections.

canopy.yml

collection:  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/collections/7ac5769f-a1d9-4227-a350-bf8bd8b1cddc?as=iiif  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/collections/94536627-cfdf-413c-852b-0cb16d986da3?as=iiifmetadata:  - Subject  - Date  - Language  - Genrefeatured:  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/works/4bdb5a22-6c7f-498d-8e6e-e49ea9bc4778?as=iiif  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/works/c26591b2-994b-4ba3-a87e-9124419fa91b?as=iiif  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/works/d4c62d7f-f50d-4b29-85e0-5d380675bec7?as=iiif  - https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/works/e0d60273-e64c-49d8-99dc-d1af8f4c6266?as=iiiftheme:  appearance: light  accentColor: indigo  grayColor: slate

An Indian hackeree drawn by Guzerat oxen : with the costume of different casts in Hindostan

Aurungabad, from the ruins of Aurungzebe's palace

A Bengal atlas: containing maps of the theatre of war and commerce on that side of Hindoostan. Compiled from the original surveys; and published by the order of the honourable the Court of directors for the affairs of the East India company

A house at Bankipore, the residence of Wm. Hunter Esqr.

A suttee : preparing for the immolation of a Hindoo widow

An Indian mausoleum in the Mysore, with a banyan tree

Baroche on the banks of the Nerbudda in Guzerat

A man and woman of Hindoostan with a temple for Hindoo worship

An Indian woman burning herself on the death of her husband.

A collection of original drawings to illustrate the costume and manners of the Hindoos

A map of China, Chinese Tartary, and Tibet, with the adjacent countries westward to the Caspian Sea

A view of Otaheite with several vessels belonging to that island.

An accurate map of the East Indies : from the latest improvements and regulated by astronomical observations.

A diversion of swinging, practised by the principal people in India

A new map of Turkey in Asia : with several additions

A view of the square sculptured columns of a pagoda or temple in Hindostan

Easily author rich scholarly content

Write your narratives as markdown, add rich components in the same document, and quickly publish your ideas with interactive image viewers, maps, and timelines.

content/corporate-empire.mdx

### Corporate Empire and Cartographic Authority By the early nineteenth century, the East India Company had transformed from  a trading enterprise into a territorial power, exercising corporate sovereignty across much of the Indian subcontinent. Maps such as this one helped naturalize that expansion by translating diverse political landscapes into legible borders, routes, and regions that could be governed, taxed, and defended. The atlas format reinforced these claims by presenting Company influence as stable geography rather than contested rule. <Image  src="https://iiif.dc.library.northwestern.edu/iiif/3/f0e6bb1d-f5a4-4b20-ad08-1ee9db915c9f"  height="400px"  isTiledImage  alt="Map of Hindostan (1811)"  caption="“Hindostan” from Pinkerton’s Modern Atlas shows the Indian subcontinent through a British colonial lens. Its borders, place names, and measurements reflect imperial rule and East India Company influence."/> This cartographic vision also reveals how knowledge production and imperial power worked together. By privileging standardized measurement, European place-name conventions, and administrative divisions, the map frames the subcontinent as a coherent space open to managerial control. Such representations supported both practical governance and public legitimacy, offering metropolitan readers an image of order and possession that obscured local authority, resistance, and the uneven realities of Company rule.

Corporate Empire and Cartographic Authority

By the early nineteenth century, the East India Company had transformed from a trading enterprise into a territorial power, exercising corporate sovereignty across much of the Indian subcontinent. Maps such as this one helped naturalize that expansion by translating diverse political landscapes into legible borders, routes, and regions that could be governed, taxed, and defended. The atlas format reinforced these claims by presenting Company influence as stable geography rather than contested rule.

“Hindostan” from Pinkerton’s Modern Atlas shows the Indian subcontinent through a British colonial lens. Its borders, place names, and measurements reflect imperial rule and East India Company influence.

This cartographic vision also reveals how knowledge production and imperial power worked together. By privileging standardized measurement, European place-name conventions, and administrative divisions, the map frames the subcontinent as a coherent space open to managerial control. Such representations supported both practical governance and public legitimacy, offering metropolitan readers an image of order and possession that obscured local authority, resistance, and the uneven realities of Company rule.

What is Canopy?

Canopy helps researchers, libraries, archives, and museums create polished digital projects with intuitive tools that showcase IIIF resources. It lets scholars and digital humanists curate works from many sources and add context and narrative. Built on IIIF’s decentralized and interoperable APIs, Canopy provides a customizable modern front end that needs no backend or database, allowing quick setup and low maintenance. The only requirement is access to IIIF Collections with the desired objects. In minutes, users can generate fast, lightweight static sites that are easy to host and draw on IIIF’s rich metadata and media.

Builds a static web site directly from IIIF Collections.
Generates a work page representing each IIIF Manifest.
Indexes Manifest metadata automatically for search and filtering
Provides clear, reusable IIIF-based components for presentation.
Supports Markdown authoring for contextual and scholarly writing.
Runs entirely without an integrated database or backend.
Produces fast, lightweight, low-maintenance sites that are easy to host.

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Highlighted items

This section features an organized selection of IIIF manifests referenced in this project. Each slider displays items matching the most common results for metadata labels such as Genre, Language, and Subject, linking resources across the project.