Talk:Press releases/Mary Rose Trust donation
Here is my version of the press release:
The first UK-based organization to donate content to Wikipedia
The Mary Rose Trust became the first UK-based organization to donate content to Wikipedia. With a donation of 57 high-resolution images relating to the salvaged 16th century warship Mary Rose, The Mary Rose Trust breaks new ground for British museums and archives. These pictures are previously unpublished and most of them are specially taken for Wikipedia, to coincide with a newly improved version of the articles about the Mary Rose.
Mike Peel, Chair of Wikimedia UK, explains:
- This was very much a result of the substantial rewrite and expansion of the article, and the Mary Rose Trust recognizing the quality of Wikipedia, and its reach, he says.
The donation was negotiated with the Mary Rose Trust by Wikipedia user Peter Isotalo with help from the British and Swedish chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. Some of the images have been digitally restored by Durova, a Wikimedia volunteer.
The photographs can be found here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mary_Rose_Trust_donation
(see comment below)
More information
About the donation
The donation consists of 57 previously unpublished photographs. 55 of these show artefacts from the Mary Rose, including weapons, tools and personal items, taken specially for the Wikipedia donation. The final two are photographs of the final stages of the salvage operation in October 1982.
About The Mary Rose Trust
The Mary Rose, once the pride of Henry VIII's navy, was raised by the Mary Rose Trust from the bottom of the Solent just off Portsmouth in 1982, 437 years after it accidentally foundered while engaging a French fleet. The project of salvaging the ship was a major undertaking and proved to be a milestone within the field of maritime archaeology. When the Mary Rose sunk, it became a time capsule of 16th century Tudor England. The thousands of artefacts found in and around the ship when it was raised and excavated provided important clues to the life of the men of all classes that served on her in the 1540s, about shipbuilding, naval warfare and various other fields.
The Mary Rose Trust is located in Portsmouth, England, where the salvaged ship is on display.
About Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a free image and media file repository, and is a sister project to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It was started on 7 September 2004, and is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It currently contains over 5.5 million freely licensed images and media files. Other large donations have come from various other institutions in other countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
About Wikimedia UK:
Wikimedia UK is an independent organisation that supports free and open knowledge throughout the United Kingdom, including promoting and supporting the projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
About the Wikimedia Foundation:
The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is the US-based non-profit organisation that operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world. These include Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most-visited websites, and Wikimedia Commons.
Further information:
- Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/
- Mary Rose Trust: http://www.maryrose.org/
Contact details: Michael Peel, Chair, Wikimedia UK
- Email: michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk
- Phone: +44 (0)7988 013 646
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(explanation: Where the previous comment is, I am thinking about whether to put in some reference to the NPG thing, or not. The plus side is that it will probably increase the chances of getting in the newspapers. The down side is that it may lead to unwarranted negative publicity. Any thoughts about that?
//Lennart Guldbrandsson, chair of Wikimedia Sverige, writing as 83.248.146.182 23:46, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
Style guide
I've applied some of the rules from Wikinews' style guide, mainly the "spell all numbers of 20 or less". Obviously I've left as UK date-format; I corrected the date in the image caption to match this. Good to see the month spelt out; makes it unambiguous to an international audience. --Brian McNeil / talk 01:35, 3 January 2010 (UTC)