Using AI to improve old images of villages

The term “AI” is buzzing around everywhere these days. It can do so much, but it often seems incredibly complicated. Luckily, you can also use AI for relatively simple tasks.

An old book series by Lieve van Ollefen (1749-1816), titled “De Nederlandsche stad- en dorpbeschrijver” (The Dutch Village and City Describer), contains drawings of Dutch villages from the 1790s. Some images from this book can be found online, but they are often of bad quality, often very dark, with little contrast, or of low resolution.

Therefore, I had Ollefen's drawing of the village of Strijen polished by ChatGPT. The original oval, black-and-white image of Strijen had a resolution of 1326 x 1022 pixels and a dpi of 96. The prompt I used was:

“Can you improve upon this image, make it better, more contrast and give it some color? Remove the circle and make it rectangular. Remove the heraldic shield at the bottom. Thanks.”

Original image of Strijen	ChatGPT's image of Strijen

I am very pleased with the result. The only comment I have on the result is that ChatGPT did not extend the dike behind the fence on the right. 

Alas, the result isn't always this good. I tried to improve Ollefen's image of a nearby village, Numansdorp (Buitensluis), with Gemini's Nano Banana. Alas, the resolution of the original image was quite low, and Gemini changed the water behind the houses into land, while creating water in front of the image, where the text used to be.
I also tried to improve Ollefen's image of the village of Ammerstol with a lot of trees in it. Using ChatGPT, I included the question “Can you make the church in the background to the right stand-out a bit more?” The result was a church with a longer nave and a much higher and more pointed tower. It was no longer the church of Ammerstol.

If you have an original picture with sufficient resolution, and ask the right questions, AI can improve your old images of villages.

Sources: ChatGPT.com, Gemini.Google.com/app, nl.Wikipedia.org.

Cornelia van Holst (1774-1829) ended up in Antwerp

Cornelia van Holst was baptised on 4 February 1774 in Dordrecht, Holland. Her parents are Hendrik van Holst and Maaike van Vliet. Cornelia's maternal grandfather is Josua van Vliet (1710-1765) who had 3 wives in succession.

In Delft, in the old church, at the age of 25, Cornelia van Holst married Abraham Glimmerveen on 21 July 1799. Abraham was baptised in Delfshaven on 21 July 1773 as son of Quirinus Glimmerveen and Elizabeth van Vijfwijk. Witnesses were Reinier Glimmerveen and Geertrui van Vijfwijk.

The notice of marriage for Abraham Glimmerveen and Cornelia van Holst was in Delft on 6-7-1799.

Abraham Glimmerveen and Cornelia van Holst had the following children:

1. Abraham was baptised on 15-9-1803 in Dordrecht. He was likely buried there on 6-12-1803.
2. Elizabet was baptised on 5-10-1804 in Dordrecht. She was likely buried there on 2-4-1805.
3. Johanna was baptised on 15-4-1806 in Dordrecht. She was buried there on 17-1-1807.
4. Johanna was baptised on 14-10-1807 in Dordrecht. She was likely buried there 27-11-1807.
5. Quirijnis was baptised on 7-5-1809 in Dordrecht. He died there on 27-9-1870, aged 61.

Abraham Glimmerveen died in Delft on 1 July 1811. His widow Cornelia van Holst died, aged 55, in Antwerp, Belgium, on 26 September 1829 due to intermittent comatose fever ("fièvre intermittente comateuse").

Sources: WieWasWie.nl, RegionaalArchiefDordrecht.nl, StadsArchiefDelft.nl, OpenArchieven.nl, FelixArchief.Antwerpen.be. Further reading: Resources.Huygens.knaw.nl.