An alternative tablet app interface

During our design discussions about the Grand Emporium of the West tablet app interface, the question was raised: What if we used a historical image, with some added colorization and animation, as the territory upon which people touch?
That started multimedia designer Marsha Matta on a quest to experiment with such an image, to see what could be done. The full animation is only available in the app, and it shows a gentle transition between the images below. But here are screen shots that demonstrate the preliminary results, beginning with an original drawing, created by George Gibbs, in about 1850:

This would be the start state of the app:

It would gradually colorize into this:

Then the colors would fade on anything that wasn't touchable.

So each of the colorized pieces above could be touched on the tablet app, triggering the media box that contains the text, audio, video, animations and such, plus the rest of the button functions. What do you think?