Cultural partnerships/Digital image restorations

Cultural partnerships
Content partnerships — Digital image restorations — Joint events

The Wikimedia movement has a growing pool of volunteer editors who will do high quality restorations of historic photographs, lithographs, etc. as a courtesy for institutions who release bulk material to Wikimedia under a free license. Examples of some of these restorations are below; click on the images for a higher resolution version with additional information.

See the section "Crowdsourcing the restoration and reuse of images" in the Jisc infoKit on Crowdsourcing for more information.

Examples

Altstadt (old city), Dresden. View from the War Ministry. This restoration was done in thanks to the University of Dresden library for their generous promise to donate a quarter million images directly to Wikimedia Commons. Left: Original version. Right: Restored version. Cropped, dirt and printer's mark removed, uneven ink application corrected, histogram adjusted and colors balanced. Selective denoising in sky. Image from the Library of Congress. Restoration by Durova. Featured picture on the English Wikipedia.

"The original sketch of Mr. Adams, taken when dying by A.J.S. in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington" "Sketch showing head of John Q. Adams as he lay unconscious in the Rotunda after suffering a stroke." Left: before digital restoration. Right: After restoration. Rotated and cropped. Dirt, creases, and stains removed. Corrected for scanner streaks in blue. Desaturated. Histogram adjusted. Image from the Library of Congress. Restoration by Durova. Featured picture on the English Wikipedia.

Illustration of a camera obscura from a 17th century "Sketchbook on military art, including geometry, fortifications, artillery, mechanics, and pyrotechnics". Left: before digital restoration. Right: After restoration. The file was rotated and cropped; stains, dirt, and ink bleed were removed; the color was balanced and the histogram adjusted. Image from the Library of Congress. Restoration by Durova. Featured picture on the English Wikipedia.

Map of California as an island. Ink and watercolor with pictorial relief. Left: before digital restoration. Right: After restoration. Dirt, scratches, and stains removed. Water damage corrected. Depigmented areas repigmented. Colors adjusted, with very extensive local adjustments to color balance, brightness, and contrast. Histogram not changed. Image from the Library of Congress. Restoration by Durova. Featured picture on the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

"Plantain Walk - Bookkeeper - Watchman and Hut - man with casks of water / greattoe in stirrup" Early landscape of Jamaica. watercolor, pencil, and black ink Left: before digital restoration. Right: After restoration. Dirt and stains removed. Histogram adjusted and colors balanced. Image from the Library of Congress. Restoration by Durova. Featured picture on the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.