Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2018 in the United States
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The Wiki Loves Monuments 2018 has come to an end! The United States has over 10,000 entries from almost 2,000 people - thank you to everyone who contributed!
Check out the winners here. |
Welcome to
Wiki Loves Monuments 2018
in the United States
A campaign to improve our coverage of U.S. historic and cultural sites
throughout the month of September.
Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photo competition where participants capture cultural heritage monuments and upload their photographs to the Wikimedia Commons under a free license for use on Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects.
Anyone is welcome to contribute to the project by uploading photos they've taken of registered cultural and historical sites throughout the United States. Once September is over, the best photos will win cash prizes and will be submitted to the international competition!
How to Participate • Rules • Finding Sites to Photograph • Contest and Judging • Other Ways to Contribute • Contact • Press • Winners
How to participate
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Step 1: Review the rules below. |
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Step 2: Don't have a Wikimedia Commons account yet? Create one - takes just a few moments! |
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Step 3: Find registered historical and cultural monuments in the United States. Check our guides and lists below!
Hint: Photos of all historical sites are valued, but photos of more uncommon and less-photographed sites will do better in judging. |
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Step 4: Take photos of the monuments. Try different angles! |
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Step 5: Classify your photos. Record the site's name, the registry it's on, the monument number/ID (if applicable), description, and date of photo. |
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Step 6: Upload your photos to Wikimedia Commons during the month of September. Give each photo a title that identifies the subject, and mention the site's registration in the description. Use our upload portal to be counted towards this event! |
Questions? Leave a message on our talk page or shoot us an email at wlmUnitedStates
gmail.com
Rules
There is no limit to the number of photos a participant can submit.
To be counted for the contest, all photos must be your own work.
Entries must feature a site that is identifiable and registered as a historical or cultural site by some authoritative organization (whether on the federal, state, or local levels). See our lists below for examples, and feel free to ask if you're not sure!
All photos must be uploaded during the month of September (starting 12 AM ET), though the photos may have been taken at any time. The contest ends at 1 October at 0:00 (Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone; UTC-10).
All photos must be licensed under a free license.
Be aware of the limitations of copyright and freedom of panorama in the United States (see below).
Digital manipulations must not deceive the viewer. Correcting flaws and some color adjustments is generally acceptable, provided it is limited and well-done.
Copyright notes[edit]
In the United States, you may freely take photos of buildings, but not copyrighted artworks and sculptures. See our page on freedom of panorama for more information. Permanently installed artworks may be photographed if they were installed before 1923, or installed before 1978 without a copyright notice.
Check out Cornell's guide for more details and an easy-to-read table.
Applicable templates:
- For public artwork installed before 1923, use {{PD-US}} or {{PD-1923}}.
- For public artwork installed between 1923 and 1977 inclusive, use {{PD-US-no notice}} or {{PD-US-not renewed}}.
Finding sites to photograph
National Register of Historic Places[edit]
Click a state below to get the NRHP lists for that state:
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the federal government's official list of historic places that are deemed worthy of preservation, of which there are over 80,000. A good chunk of them already have photos, but that doesn't mean you can't take more of the same monuments - and many are still missing!
- United States National Register of Historic Places listings by state
- Interactive map of NRHP sites by state (Zoom in to an area to load markers. Red marks are sites that do not already have a photo; green marks already have photos, but photos of these sites are just as welcome!)
Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks[edit]
The American Society of Civil Engineers maintains a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in the United States. There are currently 266 sites.
Daughters of the American Revolution Sites[edit]
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) organization maintains a list of historic sites and properties . These sites are of historic value and have had DAR involved in some way (erection, ownership, etc.). Their website contains lists of sites sorted by state.
State-level and local sites[edit]
In addition to nationally-designated sites, explore what your state may offer in terms of listings! Most states have their own state-wide historical societies, many of which maintain listings of historical and cultural sites. Likewise, many counties and municipalities may also have their own lists of historical and cultural sites.
The following are some guides by state and localities so that people may easily find lists of sites to photograph.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- United States Virgin Islands
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Contest and judging
At the end of the month, a panel of judges will select their top ten best photos from the United States competition using the criteria below. See our judging page for more information.
Criteria[edit]
- Composition
- Technical quality
- Originality
- Potential usefulness and value of the image to the Wikimedia projects (see project scope)
Prizes[edit]
All ten best photos will be awarded monetary prizes as follows, in addition to a certificate and t-shirt.
- 1st Place: $500, in the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing.
- 2nd Place: $350, in the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing.
- 3rd Place: $200, in the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing.
- 4th - 10th Places: $50 each, in the form of a gift card of the winner's choosing.
Organizers of this event are ineligible to win the contest. Winners of the national contest will be notified via talk page message and e-mail. If you do not have your e-mail added and/or enabled, you may do so here.
Finally, the United States' top ten photos will be submitted to the international Wiki Loves Monuments jury. The international jury will determine the winners of the international competition and award their prizes.
Other ways to contribute
Contact
Wiki Loves Monuments 2018 in the United States is organized by Wikimedians from around the United States.
Questions? Press? Need to contact us for any reason?
- Shoot us an email at wlmUnitedStatesgmail.com
- Post on our talk page
- Reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook
This year's organizers include:
Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States is organized solely by volunteers. The organizers reserve the right to modify the contest rules, prizes, and eligible entrants at their discretion. None of the rules on the official contest pages create legally binding relations or contracts with the event organizers.
| WLM competition by year |  | |
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| Contest pages | ||
| For local organisers | ||
| Lists of monuments by continents | ||
| Documentation / how to.. | ||