Dear Wiki Loves Monuments worldwide community,

We here in the United States have expanded the photo contest this year into a three-month "Summer of Monuments". Our special goal is outreach in the Southern U.S. states which currently have fewer historic places represented on Wikimedia Commons. There are some prizes for the best photographs, and for the institution that contributes the best collection.

Individual photographers from around the country are excited about Summer of Monuments and have already contributed several hundred photos. You can see many of them on Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wikipedia_Summer_of_Monuments.

So far we've met with enthusiastic responses from libraries, archives, historical societies, and historical preservation groups in the South. We are waiting to see what kind of collections can actually be uploaded, and hoping that this project serves as a springboard for larger institutional donations.

We have a page on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Summer_of_Monuments_2014 which can also be accessed from SummerOfMonuments.org. Please let me know your thoughts, comments, concerns, questions, suggestions, or exclamations about the project.

All the best,

Leo Zimmermann (678)-744-9663 Wikimedia DC