Hi all,
Since it hasn't really been mentioned, I just wanted to point out that this image, never before available to the public in high resolution, was uploaded to Commons as a result of our ongoing cooperative efforts with the US National Archives (i.e., my residency). Its copyright status was listed as unrestricted in the National Archives' online catalog, where the scaled-down image has been displayed for several years without (apparently) any incident. Of course, these copyright statuses can often use a second look, and I am happy for it to get the extra scrutiny at Commons, especially one as complex as this. I don't have any extra insight to offer copyright-wise, and am interested to see the community's decision.
However, I would also like to take the opportunity to talk about the broader effort here, which I think is more important than one image of Mickey Mouse from a war poster, as symbolic as that is. Beginning in July, I began an effort, in collaboration with NARA staff, to quite literally upload the entire National Archives library of digital content in high resolution. The National Archives—with billions of pages of records, tens of millions of photographs, and hundreds of thousands more sound recordings, videos, and artifacts—has hundreds of thousands of digital images in their catalog, nearly all of which is in the public domain. The 60,000 uploaded so far[1] include thousands more posters like the Mickey one from the WWII and WWI era; historically significant photography from Mathew Brady, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and other notable photographers; photos of Native Americans, of the Depression, of the national parks and the environment, of the Civil Rights Movement, of presidents and their activities, and of every US war from the Civil War to Vietnam, including incredible manufacturing and Japanese internment scenes from the home front in WWII; ultra high-res TIFFs (~150 MB) of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents; other textual documents, including historical maps, laws, court records, census cards, and the letters of diverse personalities, from Susan B. Anthony to Albert Einstein to Winston Churchill to Elvis Presley; and even other oddities like an ancient Roman bust, a Remington statue, ancient Chinese terracotta soldiers, a Diego Rivera painting, bullets and other evidence from the JFK assassination, a First Lady's evening gown, and a ceremonial Beninese wooden headdress(!).
This is a huge task, and it requires a community effort to help categorize images, to use them in Wikipedia articles, to transcribe them on Wikisource, and just generally show them some love. If finding Mickey Mouse in the National Archives means anything, hopefully it's that this is a diverse and significant, and sometimes surprising, collection that deserves more care and attention—especially since many cultural institutions, domestically and internationally, are following the project with interest. For more information, check out the partnerships page on Commons < http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:National_Archives_and_Records_Admi..., and its sister WikiProjects on Wikipedia and Wikisource, linked in the tab header.
Dominic
[1] See the upload feed at < http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListFiles&user=US...
.
Hello,
2011/10/24 Dominic McDevitt-Parks mcdevitd@gmail.com:
Hi all,
Since it hasn't really been mentioned, I just wanted to point out that this image, never before available to the public in high resolution, was uploaded to Commons as a result of our ongoing cooperative efforts with the US National Archives (i.e., my residency). Its copyright status was listed as unrestricted in the National Archives' online catalog, where the scaled-down image has been displayed for several years without (apparently) any incident. Of course, these copyright statuses can often use a second look, and I am happy for it to get the extra scrutiny at Commons, especially one as complex as this. I don't have any extra insight to offer copyright-wise, and am interested to see the community's decision.
However, I would also like to take the opportunity to talk about the broader effort here, which I think is more important than one image of Mickey Mouse from a war poster, as symbolic as that is. Beginning in July, I began an effort, in collaboration with NARA staff, to quite literally upload the entire National Archives library of digital content in high resolution. The National Archives—with billions of pages of records, tens of millions of photographs, and hundreds of thousands more sound recordings, videos, and artifacts—has hundreds of thousands of digital images in their catalog, nearly all of which is in the public domain. The 60,000 uploaded so far[1] include thousands more posters like the Mickey one from the WWII and WWI era; historically significant photography from Mathew Brady, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and other notable photographers; photos of Native Americans, of the Depression, of the national parks and the environment, of the Civil Rights Movement, of presidents and their activities, and of every US war from the Civil War to Vietnam, including incredible manufacturing and Japanese internment scenes from the home front in WWII; ultra high-res TIFFs (~150 MB) of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents; other textual documents, including historical maps, laws, court records, census cards, and the letters of diverse personalities, from Susan B. Anthony to Albert Einstein to Winston Churchill to Elvis Presley; and even other oddities like an ancient Roman bust, a Remington statue, ancient Chinese terracotta soldiers, a Diego Rivera painting, bullets and other evidence from the JFK assassination, a First Lady's evening gown, and a ceremonial Beninese wooden headdress(!).
This is a huge task, and it requires a community effort to help categorize images, to use them in Wikipedia articles, to transcribe them on Wikisource, and just generally show them some love. If finding Mickey Mouse in the National Archives means anything, hopefully it's that this is a diverse and significant, and sometimes surprising, collection that deserves more care and attention—especially since many cultural institutions, domestically and internationally, are following the project with interest. For more information, check out the partnerships page on Commons < http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:National_Archives_and_Records_Admi..., and its sister WikiProjects on Wikipedia and Wikisource, linked in the tab header.
Indeed, you are right. This is a great addition to Commons. I am going through it now, and I have questions.
In some cases, I found that there are better quality images than the ones we have. Where do they come from?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Baez_Bob_Dylan.jpg This version is of higher resolution than the original TIFF http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_Rights_March_on_Washington,_D.C...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie.jpg This version is of much better quality, but lower resolution, than the original TIFF http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie_(Shoots-the-Buffalo-Running)...
It seems that the TIFF is not directly available, or I am dumb http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=530875
In cases of art work, we have black and white images, where the original was in color. Would it be possible to have a color version? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Pilate_Washing_Hands_and_Feet%22,_...
Yes, always wanting more. ;o)
Dominic
[1] See the upload feed at < http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListFiles&user=US...
Thanks for helping this getting to Commons.
Best regards,
Yann
On 2 November 2011 00:40, Yann Forget yannfo@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
Indeed, you are right. This is a great addition to Commons. I am going through it now, and I have questions.
In some cases, I found that there are better quality images than the ones we have. Where do they come from?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Baez_Bob_Dylan.jpg This version is of higher resolution than the original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_Rights_March_on_Washington,_D.C...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie.jpg This version is of much better quality, but lower resolution, than the original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie_(Shoots-the-Buffalo-Running)...
It seems that the TIFF is not directly available, or I am dumb http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=530875
Yes, in fact, in *all* cases the TIFFs being uploaded are better quality than the ones we have. :-) As the Wikipedian in Residence, I have obtained the actual master files, which were never before made available to the public or on the online catalog. These are the files I am uploading, making Commons the only place you can find this NARA high-res content anywhere. I am also uploading a JPG version to go along with each TIFF. One consequence is that we'll need some help resolving the duplicates that this is generating, since there are thousands of the old scaled-down images on Commons and used in articles, but we can't replace them with superior quality versions until someone has gone through and made the matching edits (cropping, color correction, etc.) to the new ones that were made to the old ones.
In cases of art work, we have black and white images, where the original was in color. Would it be possible to have a color version?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Pilate_Washing_Hands_and_Feet%22,_...
That is the way that series was scanned. It is unknown why (these are from the '90s), but it should be noted that these are merely scans of prints of the original artworks, in any case. This set is also a special case, where they were donated to the institution; while NARA has a lot of graphic works (like the war posters), most of it is not purely artistic in origin, since they are US federal records.
Dominic
2011/11/2 Dominic McDevitt-Parks mcdevitd@gmail.com:
On 2 November 2011 00:40, Yann Forget yannfo@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
Indeed, you are right. This is a great addition to Commons. I am going through it now, and I have questions.
In some cases, I found that there are better quality images than the ones we have. Where do they come from?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Baez_Bob_Dylan.jpg This version is of higher resolution than the original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_Rights_March_on_Washington,_D.C...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie.jpg This version is of much better quality, but lower resolution, than the original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie_(Shoots-the-Buffalo-Running)...
It seems that the TIFF is not directly available, or I am dumb http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=530875
Yes, in fact, in *all* cases the TIFFs being uploaded are better quality than the ones we have. :-)
No. I just showed 2 examples of the opposite.
As the Wikipedian in Residence, I have obtained the actual master files, which were never before made available to the public or on the online catalog. These are the files I am uploading, making Commons the only place you can find this NARA high-res content anywhere. I am also uploading a JPG version to go along with each TIFF. One consequence is that we'll need some help resolving the duplicates that this is generating, since there are thousands of the old scaled-down images on Commons and used in articles, but we can't replace them with superior quality versions until someone has gone through and made the matching edits (cropping, color correction, etc.) to the new ones that were made to the old ones.
Most images need a restoration. But we can do that now that we have high resolution TIFF. Obviously it will take years to do all this.
In cases of art work, we have black and white images, where the original was in color. Would it be possible to have a color version?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Pilate_Washing_Hands_and_Feet%22,_...
That is the way that series was scanned. It is unknown why (these are from the '90s), but it should be noted that these are merely scans of prints of the original artworks, in any case. This set is also a special case, where they were donated to the institution; while NARA has a lot of graphic works (like the war posters), most of it is not purely artistic in origin, since they are US federal records.
OK.
Dominic
Yann
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org