[Wikimediaau-l] The A E "Bert" Roberts photograph collection

[Craig Franklin]

Hi All,

 

I'm pleased to announce that based on some contacts that I made at the
GLAM-WIKI conference back in August, and some onsite work that the Brisbane
Wikimedia community has been doing at the Queensland Museum (QM), the Museum
has commenced uploading digitized images from their "A E (Bert) Roberts"
photograph collection to Commons.  Bert Roberts was a coachbuilder from
Ipswich in the early 1900s , but also enjoyed photography and took
photographs of a wide variety of subjects, chiefly scenes of everyday life
in Queensland from the time.  While not famous for his photography during
his lifetime, after his death his collection of images came to be recognised
as providing a unique view into the society of the time.  His photographs
are the subject of a Queensland Museum exhibition, which chiefly resides at
their Toowoomba campus (the Cobb & Co Museum), but which presently has
travelled to Ipswich for a limited time.

 

So far, 21 images have been uploaded to Commons, but there are over a
thousand glass plate negatives in total that the Museum has.  You can see
what's been uploaded so far here:

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:A_E_%22Bert%22_Roberts_plate_glas
s_photo_collection

 

My request to all of you, basically, is to:

 

.         Categorise, enhance, and basically edit the file pages as much as
possible.

.         Look for appropriate pages on Wikipedia and other places where
this content can be used, and use it.

.         Spread the word that GLAM institutions are seeing the benefits of
making their collections available through Commons and other free media
repositories!

.         Watch out and make sure the pages aren't vandalised, and any
problems that crop up are dealt with quickly so that QM can concentrate on
providing us with free content, and not learning arcane points of Wiki-law.

 

Many of the original plate glass negatives held by the museum have not been
digitised yet, but if there is anyone who would be interested in
volunteering some of their time to learn how to do, and then actually *do*
the digitisation, there may be an opportunity to get in and do that.  If
you're interested (and preferably have some "serious" photography
experience), let me know and I'll pass your details on.

 

It's my hope that this will be but the first of many successful
collaborations between WMAU people and GLAM institutions throughout the
country.  I already have a couple of other collaborations cooking away here
in Queensland that will hopefully result in a win not only for the WM
projects, but also open access to cultural and heritage material in general.


 

If anyone has any questions regarding these particular images, please feel
free to ask me!

 

Cheers,

Craig Franklin

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