User:Victuallers/A History of "The World" in 100 Articles

=Caveat Emptor

This is a superseded version Victuallers (talk) 18:15, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

What "The World" looked like when we started. In just over nine years wikipedians had created 148 articles although thirty were just "stubs".

A History of the World in 100 Objects was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum. A History of the World in 100 Articles is a pastiche of this series that discusses the existing and potential collaboration between GLAM and WIKI expertise. Examples are shown where wikipedians are freely doing research that improve the public's interest and the information publically available on museum exhibits. On average museums do not have their artefacts on public display. Some exhibits are of both national and local importance and wikipedia articles can assist in allowing remote access to them.

I'm told that GLAM is not a term in common use. It stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. The 100 articles below are mainly from the Museum sector, but we will be discussing the 140,000 books we have archived and several paintings from a few galleries.

His name is Barnet Burns and he is my only "notable" ancestor.... and he isn't in the British Museum... more later

Articles

Making us collaborate

In January 2010 Neil MacGregor revealed the results of four years of planning and his the British Museum's collaboration with the BBC as he spoke for 15 minutes each weekday on the earliest objects that define us as humans." At about the time these were being broadcast in January 2010, the British Museum was being approached by Mike Peel and Liam Wyatt to investigate how Wikimedia UK could co-operate with the British Museum.

Neil MacGregor took four years to develop his series, the 100 articles below were identified in the last two weeks. The core of the choices are based on Neil MacGregor's objects that either were or inspired Wikipedia articles. Here we have five of the earliest objects that were chosen by the British Museum that were also described by wikipedians. Three of the five articles below existed before the GLAM/BM collaboration started in June 2010 and they would have been seen anyway, but over the next few months over 40,000 people would be reading about two of them. One was a prehistoric sculpture of two people making love - another was a prehistoric sculpture of two reindeer swimming. Which got more hits?

Surprisingly it was the Swimming Reindeer which had 5,000 people viewing it every hour it was on the main page.

Image	No. (100)	Object & comment	Date	Museum or Gallery
	1(3)	This Handaxe was found in Olduvai Gorge was the third of the "100 objects" but the oldest to have a wikipedia article written about it. The article on Handaxes was started seven years ago but it was improved by the GLAM/BM project.	September 2003	British Museum
	2(4)	The Swimming Reindeer from Montastruc rock shelter came originally from France and the article written about specially by the GLAM/BM project acheved over 30,000 views on one day. Some of the articles get 100,000 people looking at them in one day, but Sleeping Reindeer was only on the front page for six hours.	August 2010	British Museum
	3(5)	Clovis spear point had an article dating from six years ago, however the article on the city of Clovis in Arizona never used to mention that there were stone age implements named after it	May 2004	British Museum
	4(7)	Ain Sakhri lovers - This early sculpture achieved a lot of hits and some thought it was because of the subject, but another article about reindeer achieved may more hits.	23 July 2010	British Museum
	5(na)	Rock gong was not one of the "100 Objects" but it was one of the interesting objects seen and described to wikipedians on a tour of the museum. Unfortunately photography was not permitted so we have no picture, but nevertheless an article was written and over two thousand people read it.	2010	BM

Despite a "Bad First Date" ...

Delegates at the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention. Move your cursor to identify

The phrase a "bad first date" has been proposed to title the disagreement between the National Portrait Gallery and Wikipedia in March 2009. The disagreement focuses on whether it is possible to claim a copyright on a very good photograph of a public domain painting. Some argue that the "sweat of the brow" required to take a professional photograph justifies the protection offered by copyright law to original works. Wikipedia argues that if this argument is correct then the concept of public domain content becomes difficult to defend. It can be argued that the purpose of establishing a law that copyrights are protected for the authors lifetime plus 70 years, strongly implies that it was intended that no one would be able to claim copyright to those ideas after that date. The NPG were not alone and they were supported by the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies whose members deal in copyright and public domain images.

The picture shown is what is known as a template in Wikipedia. The template allows this image to be used over and over again in several articles. The image is important as this painting by Haydon recorded dozens of the leading anti-slavery activists of the nineteenth century. The people are from America, Barbados, South Africa, France and Jamaica. Users can move their cursors over the painting and find a fair sized article on the scores of notable people in the painting. It isn't possible to do this anymore on the NPG site as the images and the associated key cannot be read at the resolution available. The medium resolution images and the key to which person represents each person is only available at Wikipedia.

The examples below are five people from the painting. One is of interest to people from Sheffield, another is a man who split the early quakers from Manchester; another is a French intellectual; another is a Barbadian national hero and the last one is a businessman who sued (and won) a case against the British Government. They and their agents had robbed him of his right to live in Jamaica. In each case we have a very rare colour picture of these people which can only be seen by visiting the NPG. This could be difficult for many living in the provinces or Barbados.

More recently the BBC has announced that it plans to put the 200,000 paintings in public ownership on the web, although it is not clear under what license or at what resolution. The British Museum has committed itself to putting two million records and one million images online by 2012. Again it is not clear what the licenses will be or the resolution but their strategy for increasing income does not identify image licensing as a growth area.

Image	No.(100)	Object & Comment	Date	Museum or Gallery
	6(NA)	Mary Anne Rawson is notable in Sheffield. Here she sits with Lady Byron and a few notable women who were allowed to appear in this painting. The women were not allowed to be in the main hall. Some credit this move with helping to found women's rights movements in the United States.	7(10)	National Portrait Gallery and Sheffield Museums
	7(NA)	Isaac Crewdson - the only known colour picture of Isaac Crewdson. This article was written in support of the digital publication of his book at wikisource.	18 January 2010	National Portrait Gallery and Manchester Museum
	8(NA)	The "Most Excelent Samuel Jackman Prescod" is the first non-white politician in Barbados. This picture comes from the article that was inspired by the painting at the NPG. The NPG can also now include in their data a bit more about this National Hero.	??10	National Portrait Gallery and Museums in Barbados
	9(NA	François-André Isambert - The NPG records this person as "M.M.Isambert" - research for wikipedia links him to an important biography for this Frenchman. Currently you can find that this person is in the 1840 Anti-Slavery painting above. But you cannot identify where he is in the picture or why he was chosen to be in this picture which includes only the most important people at the convention. Wikipedia will allow you access to this information without an air ticket to London.	??10	National Portrait Gallery and Parisian Museums
	10(NA	Louis Celeste Lecesne - The NPG records this person as ""LC Lecesne" - his full name is Louis Celeste Lecesne. Lecesne is important in that he was exiled from his country and then successfully sued the British Government. He is also important as he employed one my few notable ancestors. Coincidentally I had researched Lecesne before I got an email from a very distant cousin in New Zealand who explained that we were both related to Barnet Burns. He was one of the first Europeans to be traditionally tattooed in New Zealand. Earlier he had also travelled to Jamaica where he worked for Lecesne.	???	National Portrait Gallery and Jamaica (and me)

The GLAM/WIKI "world" gets some "cities" ...ok articles

The cyberworld of information that makes up wikipedia relies heavily on the availability of images. Images should ideally have a license that allows them to be distributed with attribution and share-alike licenses. Wikipedia also requires that imafes and text are able to be used commercially. Wikipedia's information is intended to be used freely without the need to gain permission. If a printer in Africa makes money by printing text books then he is still free to use Wikipedia's information. The five articles below rely heavily on images taken from public institutions. Some institutions have the advantage of laws that presume the free and open access to a shared cultural heritage. Making things accessible (even) to the able bodied. Other institutions are being challenged by their historic obligations but some are succeeding to make thir information available (even if they have to use Nelson's blind eye).

	11(NA)	Sergeant Stubby - The Smithsonian Museum in America has also been collaborating with Wikipedia. Many of the articles written have been inspired by photographs. This article about the first dog to hold the rank of sergeant created a lot of interest.	??10	Smithsonian
	12(NA)	The Smithsonian had already release thousands of images to the net on Flickr.com. They managed to find extra information about the pictures they released and wikipedians and other researchers received the benefit of these historic images. Interesting there are images of Stanley and his child assistant Kalulu in the National Portrait Gallery but the copyright position is not made as clear. But the NPG's picture was also included.	2010	Smithsonian
	13(NA)	Howard Russell Butler is another Smithsonian image. This article inspired a more scientific article about a solar eclipse that Butler painted (there was no colour photography).
	14(NA)	William James Wanless was thought erroneously (aploogies victuallers) to be one of thousands of images released by the Library of Congress onto Flickr. 6,550 pictures were released where the only metadata was a title on the photo. Volunteers have documented many of these. This photograph inspired a Wikipediaarticle that was initially considered for deletion as not "notable". During the debate the article improved and it is now being considered as a "Good Article". The photo is now well documented and more importantly Wanless has been noted as an important missionary and surgeon who had hospitals named after him.	??	Library of Congress

MISSING ONE

The Back Stage Pass - the beginning of science and literature?

Five more British Museum artefacts that were chosen by wikipedia editors to have an article that were also chosen to be in "The History of the World in 100 Objects". The Minoan Bull Leaper is important as many of the wikipedians who attended the Back Stage Pass event saw this artefact and one decided that it deserved its own article. It was one of the first of the "100 Objects" to make the first page just days after the back stage pass. The last of the 100 objects (so far) to make the main page was based around Peruvian Textiles with were found on thousand year old mummies. A photograph of the distorted skull of one of these mummies got the article on to the main page for Halloween.

Image	No.(100)	Object & comment	Date	Museum
	16(12)	Standard of Ur from Iraq	September 2005	BM
	17(17)	Rhind Mathematical Papyrus from Egypt	August 2003	BM
	18(18)	Minoan Bull-leaper was the first of GLAM BM articles to be published that was classified as a "start". The article was one of dozens that appeared on the main page over the next six months. Thousands of people would have seen the title of the article and 4,800 people saw it on its first day.	10 June 2010
	19(19)	Mold gold cape from Wales	December 2007	BM
	20(24)	This unusual Peruvian Paracas Textile is thousand of years old and appropriately, and of necessity, is stored in low light conditions. The article about this object was on the front page at Halloween. Wikipedia has special occasions when the main page is devoted to one occasion. The important days are April Fools' and Halloween. Minor occasions, like the anniversary of the Hoxne Hoard being found. allows relevant articles to be featured on the main page.	October 31 2010	BM

Old world, new powers

The English Wikipedia started nearly ten years ago. In the wake of its success there have been other sister projects. There is a wikiversity, a wiktionary, wikipedias in dozens of language and wikisource that stores thousands of books, magazines etc and creates digital versions of their content. The British Museum had a portal on wikisource that gathered together biographies, books and other works relevant to the British Museum. These inspired new wiki articles and also added to the quality of those already available.

Image	Number	Object & comment	Date	Museum
	na	The Wikisource Portal to the British_Museum. This portal lists texts that are stored in wikisource and alist of relevant biographies.	2010	Source = Wikisource
	na	The British Museum Catalogue as the basis of a Universal Catalogue (from 1892)	2010	Source = Wikisource
	na	Robert Brown is just one of the interesting people whose biography is relevant to museums. Brown was a keeper at the BM and he discovered that it could be proved that atoms were moving.	2010	Source = Wikisource
	na	William Hookham Carpenter was a keeper at the BM. He interested me because he married a notable artist and had several artistic children including William Carpenter who has about 200 paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His paintings record life in India at the time of the British Empire and before the rebellions of 1857. The painting illustrated is by William Carpenter and is of an Indian court painter who is painting him (whilst his children use him as a climbing frame).	2010	Victoria and Albert Museum]]
	na	John Thomas Smith was a keeper of the British Museum and a noted illustrator and author. Two of his books are recorded at wikisource. The wikisource records inspired this article. One of the tasks that wikipedia has had to deal with is cataloging. Wikipedia differentiates between all the similarly named items. In this case we have one of the "John Smith"s	2010	British Museum

The world in the age of confusion

"The world in the age of confusion" was one of Neil MacGregor's titles for his "100 Objects". Here we are looking at "100 articles", and the "confusion" title needs no amendment. Wikipedia is formed from chaos. No one chooses what is going to be worked on apart from their own next edits. Editors are encouraged to to just do their best. Errors are amazingly caught by those who come later. Occasionally a project like the WIKI/BM collaboration can create some consensus and direction. The artefants below vary from a simple meat hook a carved stones brought from Greece which are given a special room at the BM.

Image	Number	Object & comment	Date	GLAM
	na	The Nereid Monument was the third article to make the front page after the BM had its backstage pass day.	???	British Museum
	na	The Little Thetford flesh-hook is another short article that was written concerning a simple bronze age artefact. The article achieved 3,500 views despite the lack of a drawing or photograph and it is still consulted several times a day.	June 2010	British Museum
	na	The Witham Shield was a very short article that was offered as a challenge to the group. The article was the start of a number of artefacts about shields thrown into water and nearly 5,000 people read the article	August 2010	British Museum
	na	The picture shows a small room where a group of wikipedians were taken as part of a back stage pass day. The Bassae Frieze was a specific request of the museum. The Bassae frieze is thought to be of great importance, but wikipedia only had a stub to describe it. Luckily over 70 photographs of the frieze were donated to wikipedia to illustrate this article.	???	British Museum
	na	The Ormside bowl is another article that was written concerning an Ango Saxon bowl. The article was the 3rd article in July.	July 2010	British Museum

Building an Empire of Featured Articles

The Brtish Museum made an unusual step of offerng five 100 pounds shopping tokens for the first five articles that achieved feature article status. Its a condition of wikipeda that no one gets paid for edtting wikipedia so this was a major step for both wikipedia and the British Museum. As someone who has observed ten well paid curators and ten wikipedian editors joining in collaboration with wikipediams worldwide to create Hoxne Hoard then I can tell you that 100 pounds is well below the UK minimum wage.... but it is slightly more that the wikipedian n residence was paid.

Image	Number in "100 objects"	Object	Date	Which gallery or museum
	33	The Rosetta Stone is Egyptan but is iconic to world culture. This stone allowed the world to read heiroglyphics centuriies after they were decoded due to a world wide intellectual collaboration that was solved by a Frenchman. How fitting that this object was one of the first new featured articles and few would believe that its first rendition was in Latin. Wikipedia is not translated into different languages but is rewritten for each language. English has over three million articles but there are millions of articles in other languages. There are also not only wikipedias in gaelic and other minority languages but there are even versions in dialects of Gaelic. This object was also used by the British Museum in deciding whether to collaborate with Wikipedia. "I looked at how many Rosetta Stone page views there were at Wikipedia - that's perhaps our iconic object - and five times as many people go to the Wikipedia article as to ours." said Matthew Cock of the Museum.	196 BC	British Museum
	nc. 40	The Hoxne Hoard was a group of objects that were discovered by a metal detectorist. The embarrassingly small article on this subject was set as part of the Hoxne Challenge. Ten well paid wikipedians gave up a days work to work with a similar number of curators. Interesting	196 BC	British Museum
100px	na	Lindow Man was a man found in a bog. There already was a "Good Article" on this man but in July this year the article received the accolade of being a featured article.	??	British Museum
	na	This article was about The Royal Gold Cup and it was the first British Museum article written by GLAM/BM and featured as the lead artcle on wikipedia's main page.		British Museum
	na	The Sweet Track was another collaboration between wikipedians and curators. Possibly an odd arteffact as the items in the museum are the remains of an ancient road or track.	2010	British Museum

Ancient pleasures, modern spice? - "Good Article"s on Wikipedia

The concept of "Good Article" is an assessment of an article's quality. Good Articles on Wikipedia are well written and have been through a review process. They will have no copyright issues, they will be well illustrated and structured and every major facet of the subject will have been addressed. There are only about 10,000 articles on the English wikipedia that are "Good Articles" (although there are an additional 5,000 which are in higher classifications).There were two good articles about British Museum artefacts in June, but over the next few months a number of new articles received this accolade. These articles are in the top 0.5% of articles by quality (1 in 226).

Image	Number	Object & comment	Date	BM website
	na	The Sutton Hoo hoard is a set of important artefacts to the British Museum and archaeology. The wikipedia description is now a "Good Article"	2010	BM and ...|
	na	The Parthenon Frieze is an important artefact to the British Museum and archeology. The wikipedia description is now a "Good Article"	2010	BM and ...|
	na	The Burney Relief was a "Good Article"	2010	BM |
	39	The Seax of Beagnoth was one of the first articles to be written and it seemed it would never make the modest requirements to be a "start" article. However the depth of the research revealed a "Good Article" that inspired links to similar items in Scandanavia.	2010	BM |
	39	The Admonitions Scroll from China was on the front page as is currently being evaluated as "Good Article". The article resulted fro a collaboration between a curator and wikipedians.	2010	BM |

The rise of world faiths - Wikipedia around the world

I have mentioned the British Museum's prize of 100 pounds for the first five featured articles, but I never mentioned that only one of the English Wikipedia's feature articles won a prize. The prize had specifically not been constrained to English as Wikipedia itself does not assume that its members speak English. One of the challenges of running wikipedia is the number of languages the project supports. The English, French and German wikipedias contain over a million articles. The Rosetta Stone won with a new "Feature Article" in Latin, there were two winning entries in Catalan and one in Spanish. None of the articles previously had a feature article in English, although an English "Feature Article" was written after the Latin one achieved its status.

Image	Number	Object & comment	Date	Museum or Gallery
	NA	in Catalan or Epifania which is a drawing by Michelangelo. This was the only winner of the FA prize that was not included in Neil, MacGregor's 100 Objects.	FA=2010	British Museum
	????	(Benin Bronzes) was the second Catalan Feature article. This object was in the "100 Objects" but it was not expected that its best description would be in Catalan.	2010	British Museum
	93	The was number 93 of the "100 Objects", but its only version at "Featured Article" standard is in Spanish.	2010	??
	????	was Rosetta Stone article was first written at "Featured Article" standard in Latin.	2010	??
	????	The Royal Gold Cup was only article written in English to win the British Museum prize. Wikipedia has recently become the largest encyclopedia ever written. However the previous holder was all written in a Chinese language. Wikipedia is not translated from one language to another but it is rewritten. It was a sign of the WIKI/BM collaboration's success that four of the winning entrants were not written in English.	2010	??

The Road to the National Helmet Week

"National Helmet Week" was a ttle that arose after the Wiki Britsh Museum got a thing about helmets. The Crosby Garrett Helmet was in the news so it seemed reasonable to attempt the most similar helmet in the Britsh museum. In the end all of the full face Roman helmets were described before other helmets were included. Surprisingly the most iconic helmet of Sutton Hoo was not started despite it being item 47 in the History of the World in 100 Objects. Just goes to show that you cannot micro manage voluntary effort, you can however support, inspire and guide it. However the Sutton Hoo article was substantially improved in 2010.

Image	Number in "100 Objects"	Object & comment	Date	Museum
	na	Meyrick Helmet was one of many that were created as the GLAM/BM project took an interest in helmets.| The image was obtained from a returned tourist in New Zealand	September 2010	British Museum
	na	Waterloo Helmet - This unusual helmet is described as unfortunate as it well agreed that horned helmets as seen on vikings are a historical invention, but then there is this helmet.	September 2010	British Museum
	na	Ribchester Helmet - The Ribchester helmet received attention because the Crosby Garrett helmet was in the news. This helmet is held in London, but there is also a copy kept at the Ribchester Museum. Obviously an article on this helmet is of interest to Ribchester and visitors to the British Museum	September 2010	Ribchester Museum & British Museum
		Newstead Helmet - Like the Ribchester helmet the Newstead helmet received attention because the Crosby Garrett helmet was in the news. It is interesting to note that this article does not have a picture of the helmet. Images exist on the web, but wikipedia has to have a formal release from the owner of the image.	September 2010	Edinburgh
		Crosby Garrett Helmet - The Ribchester and Newstead helmet received attention because the Crosby Garrett helmet was in the news. This article was published without a picture and received thousands of views. When the helmet was up for auction at Christies there were people there from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Without an prior agreement they took pictures and placed them on the web with the correct license. On the same day the pictures were added to the article and over the next few days over ???,000 people saw the pictures and the article. This helmet is now in private hands and could be never seen again. Daniel Pett has ensured that there always be pictures of this artefact for students around the world. Interestingly the Crosby Garrett Helmet created interest in its own article, but it also brought 1,000s of extra hits for the Ribchester Helmet, Newstead Helmet and the article on Crosby Garrett.	September-October 2010	Who knows?

Inside the palace....

These are five random articles that all appeared on the main page but each is relevant to the British Museum. The first two are from Neil MacGregor's 100 Objects. Each of these new articles is subject to the rising standards that are set for wikipedia articles. As Wikipedia comes up to its 10th anniversary we can see that it becoming more reliable. Wikipedia now expects article to have reliable sources and efforts are made to encourage editors to delete unsupported material.

The first article has taken nearly five years to be close to being a "Good Article", the secod of the "Lothair Crystal" was written more recently. However each is improving. Every few days each will receive an edit from either a human or a robotic editor. In return Wikipedia is increasingly accepted as sufficient in quality for particular uses. The BBC are now using wikipedia text on their web site to document the bigraphies of musicians. The British Museum has also linked a few of its articles to our best pages. However as has been noted by Sue Gardner... people trust wikipedia because we tell them not to. Wikipedia is not a reliable source and we continue to criticise our own content.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	GLAM
	51	The article on the Yaxchilan Lintel 24, Maya relief of royal blood-letting from Mexico has taken five years to gradually increase in quality.	November 2005	BM
	53	Lothair Crystal is probably from Germany. Its article had 3,000 readers on June 16th when it was the first of three articles on the main page from the British Museum's initiative this June.	June 2010	BM
	na	The Wandsworth Shield was the second shield article and it achieved 5,000 readers. For some reason the editors who had been interested in hoards became interested in shields.	August 2010	BM
	na	The Lycurgus Cup is an unusual piece of early glassware that is a different colour depending on how it is light. The article hit the main page in September.	September 2010	BM
	na	John Henning (1771–1851) is a minor article that was created because the BM still sells his work. He created models of the famous friezes in the BM which are sold in the shop as souvenirs. THis is a good example of how random the process can be. There are many more important subjects than Mr Henning and his son, but they were described because of their association with more importantBassae Frieze.	June 2010	BM

Pilgrims, raiders and traders - Hoards

It may have been because the BBC broadcast Neil MacGregor's episode concerning the York Hoard as item 56 of "A History of the World in 100 Onjects" on the 21st June that captured Wikipedians interest in hoards. Or it may have been the museums challenge to write a top class article on the work on the Hoxne Hoard, but a great deal of effort went into writing articles concerning hoards. The "Hoxne Challenge" teamed up wikipedians and curators for a day in the hope of creating a featured article. The article was deemed to be comprensive of the subject after a month and in November it was chosen to be the featured article on Wikipedia's main page.

Hoards are a good example of artefacts that have a wide interest. The prime British hoards make their way to museums in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh but there will always be a local interest. Hoards are now frequently found by metal detecorists.

The recent Frome Hoard article was found with a metal detector and the wikipedia article is illustrated with an authoritative sketch released by those working on this recent find. The icture was included because almost as soon as it was drawn it was loaded onto the web with a generous license. Conversely the Broighter Gold used to be in the British Museum but it ended up in Belfast. Drawings of the Broighter finds have been used as designs for coins from the U.K. and Eire, but the best images that were free to use tp explain to a global audience were from a report made at the British Museum over 100 years ago.

These hoards were found by metal detectorists. Not all curators understood initially the contribution that these people were making to finding artefacts. The Treasure Act and the work done by the Portrable Antiquities Scheme has made the people with metal detectors a valuable resource for archeology. The articles were helped a great deal by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The organisers arranged for the release of hundreds of images so they could be used by wikipedia (and anyone else).Could it be that wikipedians can make a similar contribution to metal detectorists in the future?

Image	Number	Object	Origin	Date	Museum or Gallery
	56	Apart from the Hoxne Hoard, the Vale of York Hoard was a rare inclusion into "A History of the World in 100 Objects". Before long a new article had appeared on Wikipedia called "List of Hoards in Britain" which broke down the known hoards into groups like Viking and English Civil War as well as using GPS technology to allow users to draw maps to find their closest hoard.	England	????	BM
	na	The Frome Hoard was in the news this year and pictures were appearing almost as fast into Wikipedia as they were into the news.	England	July 2010	List of hoards in Britain
	na	Shrewsbury Hoard	England	July 2010	List of hoards in Britain
	na	The Milton Keynes Hoard article illustrates how difficult it can get. There are many hoards in the area of Milton Keynes and this article aims to document them all.	England	July 2010	[[[List of hoards in Britain]]
	August 2010	The Broighter Gold or the Broighter hoard is discussed above. It is today in a museum in Ireland, but was once in the British Museum until the museum lost a court case over its ownership.	England	2010	Belfast

Status symbols

Status symbols is another name taken from 100 Objects. Again it suits these five objects which are all status symbols but from different times and different cultures.

Image	Number	Object Origin	Date	BM website
	57?	The article on the Hedwig glass beaker from probably Syria was intended to describe item 57 in the 100 objects list. However there are 14 museums at least with similar glass. So this article is not only of interest to theBritish Museumbut also the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Veste Coburg (Art Collections (Kunstsammlungen)) in Coburg, Minden Cathedral in Germany, Schloss Friedenstein museum in Germany, Halberstadt Cathedral, Germany, Krakow Cathedral in Poland, Wrocław (formerly Breslau) Museum inPoland and two examples in the Abbey of the Soeurs de Notre-Dame de Oignies, Namur, Belgium.	??	BM
	61	Lewis Chessmen were probably made in Norway and then found on the Island of Lewis. These chessmen are also shared between museums with several at the BM. This article is available in twenty different languages	??	BM
	na	Dunstable Swan Jewel is a jewel that was given by royalty to nobility to reward loyalty. This piece allows people to understand why the the presumed of the Battle of Bosworth has been moved. A similar piece to this in much poorer condition showed where a noblemen fought for his life.	2010	British Museum and Bosworth Field?
	na	Chairman Mao badge is a status symbol from a different culture. An artefact from thousands of milesw away allowed c. 4,000 people to read about this personality cult in China. The article still gets about 40 to 60 views every day.	2010	British Museum and schools?
	na	The Copper Bull is a very old sculpture. These items get a lot of interest when they appear on the main page.	2010	British Museum and schools?

Meeting the gods

"Meeting the Gods" includes Christ's thorn, Raphael's first wife, an "Empress" Pepper pot and some Celtic broochs.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	BM website
	66	The Holy Thorn Reliquary came from France and its article was one of the first improved by the GLAM/BM team. This time wikipedians were able to call on the expertise of the curators. The majority of the wikipedians who worked with the British Museum were surprised to find that curators liked being asked questions. They noted that telling us was more efficient. If their thorough opinion could be stored in Wikipedia then this may enable others to benefit from their expertise. This shows again how although Wikipedia and the British Museum can not agree on everything immediately, the overlap in our objectives is startling.	???	BM
	na	The drawing of Isabella Brant inspired another article that resulted from a collaboration between a wikipedian and a BM curator. The article was started in June 2010	June 2010	BM
	!!	Empress Pepper Pot was one of the items in the Hoxne hoard and was made into its own article.	???	BM
	70	Hoa Hakananai'a came from Easter Island	???	BM
	na	The Penrith Hoard was a late article on hoards	September 2010	BM

The threshold of the modern world (copyright issues)

Writing wikipedia articles about items from recent history can prove difficult. One of the issues is finding images that can be used. Copyright law is rarely clear in any country. When the images will be uploaded in one country from images "taken" from a museum in another country and then stored on servers in the USA and then made available without censorship to the web - then problems are predictable. One of the difficulties is that even where the law is clear the meta data or information on the information is vague. Copyright laws can be clear if the manufacture and use is in one country and the author has been dead 70 years, but frequently the work is anonymous or maybe its just too tricky to find an author. Judgment is frequently required.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	Museum of Gallery
	na	The Tree of Life is a sculpture commissioned by the British Museum from four artists who are based in Mozambique and are still alive. Under one rule this artwork is copyright until 70 years after the death of the last artist. Luckily Britain allows an idea called "Freedom of Panorama". This means that any 3D piece of art that is intended to be on permanent public display is not copyright. This does not apply to 2D pieces of art.	2010	British Museum and Mozambique
	na	Bishop Dinis Sengulane has his own article because of his links to art made from weapons in Mozambique. He found the funds to buy derelict weapons from the Mozambique civil war that were then given to artists. The resulting artwork included the Tree of Life and the Throne of Weapons which are in the British Museum. Currently Wikipedia's coverage is very good in the USA and the UK. Wikipedia is aware that this concentration of articles reveals a bias created by its existing editors. It is not always obvious that we need to create articles on African subjects too. Articles on people like Bishop Sengulane may encourage others to create a better representation of African subjects. After all if Wikipedia is to be used in other countries then it will need more than a biography of every minor baseball player or English aristocrat. We will need articles on Asian, Chinesse and African minutiae too. || 2010 || Mozambique
	na	The William Paul Gottlieb article records the life of a photographer was is known for taking photos of some the leading figures in the "Golden Age of Jazz". These pictures should remain in copyright until 2076 when he will have been dead 70 years. Due to his generosity in his will, and the assistance of the Library of Congress these pictures are available now. Many of the jazz "greats" are illustrated by one of his pictures.... and many of the less greats also have their portrait recorded in their article. Well done Mr Gottlieb	2010	Jazz biography
	na	The Ian Jenkins (curator) was written because this man unwisely gave us a tour of the British Museum. Was he notable enough to have an article? Well the queen gave hime an OBE only days later. This article did not make the main page due to not writing fast enough.	June 2010	British Museum
	NA	The picture shows a Maori Chief. He is in in European dress and he is carrying a weapon made from jade. The picture was placed on Flickr by the Museum of New Zealand and they invitingly say "Send us an email with a link to your site. We would like to know how you're using these images." I wanted to use the image but it also said "All rights reserved". Usually editors who want to move pictures into Wikipedia can use automated tools that check legality. These are not only easy to use but they also ensure that the attribution and audit trail are transferred. As the image was clearly out of copyright I had to transfer the image by hand. I also left a message for the museum noting my problem and also pointing out that other users may choose to ignore the audit trail if the license was over stated. A very helpful person changed the copyright to attribution and no derivatives. "No derivatives" is not acceptable to wikipedia as we expect editors to improve and exploit images so I again raised the point that the image was clearly out of copyright. I was told that I was correct and the museum liked to see its images on Wikipedia. However and conversely the images had been given to the museum on the condition that they were not modified. This is a real situation. I had to thank the museum for not giving up and for trying to do the right thing.. They could have kept to the letter of their agreement by keeping the images in a locked drawer. As it was they were looking at the dichotomy with Nelson's eye. New Zealand have legally recognised the need to release information under creative commons licenses. They have agreed that the "re-use of this material by individuals and organisations may have significant creative and economic benefit for New Zealand." (and other countries too). || ??? || Museum of New Zealand

The first global economy in pictures and text

In September the BBC broadcast the second half of Neil MacGregor's radio programmes. One of the first weeks was devoted to the emergence of the global economy in the time around the sixteenth century. Since June there had been a growing collection of new wikipedia articles on these objects. However there wwere many gaps. In September, for the first (and only) time, Wikipedia had five consecutive articles to support the programmes.

The new articles were not written from the programme transcripts, but they were researched independently and therefore brought new facts to the publics notice. They brought the same objects to different people. The articles were written and usually published before the radio programmes were broadcast. Over ?, 000 people saw these five articles on Wikipedia. The articles were made possible by obtaining pictures from photographers around the world who were willing to release their pictures to the public.

The radio programmes are not just listed to in the UK. The programmes are available as a free download and half of the downloads are to ouside the U.K. The benefit of having these programmes distributed outside the UK must be very similar to the benefit of publishing articles on these artefacts. Luckily the funding sources for the radio programmes were able to see that the benefit of a museum's collections is not measured purely by counting visitors.

The philanthropists who contributed to the collections in today's Galleries, Libraries, Art Galleries and Museums did not predict that their gifts would be available without borders, but it is difficult to see that they would have disapproved. It is still reasonable that writers and artists should be able to profit from their creativity, but it seems difficult to believe that works given into public ownership were not intended to be shared with as many people, and at the lowest cost, possible.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	Museum or gallery
	75	Dürer's 'Rhinoceros' from Germany was item 75 in the "100 Objects"	???	BM
	76	The early clockwork Mechanical Galleon (or Nef) is also from Germany. It was collected by an M.P. and antiquarian from Wales. The Wikipedia article was able to link to a biography of the man who originally commissioned the piece in Saxony.	2010	BM
	77	Benin plaque: the oba are Nigerian rulers shown with European traders. The plaques are made from brass which the Europeans gave themn in exchange for their slaves.	< 2010	BM
	78	Double-headed serpent from Mexico. This turquoise sculpure was probably given to Cortes when he invaded Mexico.	2010	BM
	79	The Kakiemon elephants from Japan are an example of use of porcelain outside China.	2010	BM

Tolerance and intolerance...

Five random articles that are either about British Museum artefacts or in the case of James Conder his article was created to complement another (Condor lived on top of a hoard in Ipswich).

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	GLAM
	na	The Ipswich Hoard is a hoard which was just one of the hoards found in Ipswich which we found as we tried describe the one we had found in the BM	2010	BM and Ipswich
	na	James Conder has a type of coin named after him. When this coin collector died they later discovered an important hoard under his house that he had never discovered	2010	BM and Ipswich
	na	Harpy Tomb is a substantial article that appeared on the main page on 18th June and was seen by 5,500 people.	June 2010	BM and Turkey
	na	Ethnography at the British Museum is a substantial article that describes the evolution of this subject at the BM. This article did not appear on the main page.	June 2010	BM and Turkey
	na	Herculean Sarcophagus of Genzano is an article that describes a Roman sarcophagus that describes It features the Twelve Labours of Hercules. This article did not appear on the main page.	2010	BM

Exploration, exploitation and enlightenment

All five of these articles were created this year as a result of the collaboration with the British Museum. However the Hawaiian helmets involve numerous museums and the final painting is in the National Maritime Museum.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	GLAM
	86	The Akan Drum is from Africa and was found in the USA. It is thought to be the oldest artefact of African-American creation in the world. I received a moving email from an American of Akan leneage who said that this item was the first solid evidence he had that the Akan people were ijn Virginia at the time of his ancestor.	2010	BM, America and Africa
	87	The Hawaiian feathered helmet from Hawaii was the 87th object in the "100 Objects". However trying to write an article on the feathered helmet was tricky. It turned out that the British Museum has quite a few of these helmets. Moreover many museums in Europe, Honolulu and New Zealand have variations on this theme. The intriguing story of where the helmet that was given to Captain Cook weeks before he died was to involve investigation of defunct museums and emails to America. (It was decided that the New Zealand claim to Cook's helmet was correct).	2010	BM, Vienna, New Zealand and Honolulu.
	na	The Celtic broochs article was inspired by the Penrith Hoard article. At one timme it was an article about penannular brooches but the subject expanded. Here an article's scope is now academic in size. A feature article with this scope would need to be comprehensive.	2010	various.
	na	The Tregwynt Hoards is a minor hoard that is one of the few found in Wales. However it is the first hoard found from the English Civil War and it gives an incite into how the Civil War "of England" affected Wales.	2010	various.
	87	The The Death of Captain James Cook in Hawaii was painted by Johann Zoffany. The intriguing story of where the helmet that was given to Captain Cook before he died was to involve investigation of defunct museums and emails to America and this painting. Zoffany borrowed te hat to complete this painting. So the National Maritime Museum gained an article.	2010	The National Maritime Museum

Mass production, mass persuasion

The first two of articles were based on objects numbered 91 and 93 in the 100 objects. Probably only the chronometer and the Japanese print were in mass production, but the other three were all involved in persuasion of some type.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	GLAM
	91	The Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle is an early and important chronometer that was started in June.	June 2010	BM
	93	Hokusai's 'The Great Wave' from Japan was item 93 and this article was a feature article in Spanish.	c. 1829–32	BM
	na	The Tomb of Payava	2010	BM
	na	Valerie Flint was a British scholar and historian, specialising in medieval intellectual and cultural history who was born in Derbyshire. This was not on the main page.	2010	BM
	na	The Thetford Hoard has not appeared on the main page as it has been a slow burn of an improvement. In June this article was a "start" and now it is assessed as a 'B' after input from a BM curator and several wikipedians over several months.	2010	BM

The world of our making

The last five of the articles are again an eclectic group. There is a Russian plate and the Throne of Weapons which are two of the last "100 Objects". The Guisborough Helmet and Hippika gymnasia appear like a encore for National Helmet Week but its pure chance. Both articles are written by a new editor who published his articles last week. He had seen the helmet in the British Museum and I'd like to tell you that he was inspired by the 100 Articles shown here, but actually ... he's from Guisborough. Lastly we have the choice of the 100th Article. Neil MacGregor put his 100th Object out to public debate and Ive given you also a choice of articles.

Image	Number	Object & Origin	Date	Museum or Gallery
	96	Russian Revolutionary Plate from Russia	2010	BM
	na	The Guisborough Helmet gained an article this week from a new Wikipedian. This was a late entry for "National Helmet Week" but showed that there are new editors out there.	This week!	BM
	98	Throne of Weapons from Mozambique was inspired by the work of Bishop Dinis Sengulane	2001	BM
	na	The recent Hippika gymnasia article is also from a new Wikipedian. This article describes the ancient sport of Roman cavalrymen. The article is able to call on images and research developed during "National Helmet Week". Wikipedia has lots of small articles that support more important articles. The British Museum's articles has expanded by over 100 articles, but the quality of the articles still remains varied. The Rosetta stone will always command top importance and with luck a top quality article. Other artefacts and people are notable, but they do not demand the same level of detail. (Although they sometimes get a disprortionate level of interest).	This week!	BM
	100	Solar-powered lamp and charger from China	2010		=The 100th Article The choice of the 100th article should sum up these 100 articles. The first choice offered is a solar lamp. This continues to mimic the 100 Objects as that was the public choice there. The second choice is an article about the British Museum's totem pole which an article that would again describe a highlight of the museum's collection. The third and fourth coice are much more ambitious. The third choice is for GLAM delegates. Can one of you create The last choice is to publish an article on the National Portrait Gallery's painting of the "1840 Anti-Slavery Convention" in collabration with the NPG. This would make an excellent second date as I believe we may have close to 99 other NPG articles that would create 100 Articles for the NPG.

Attribution

Much of the material used here is unsurprisingly taken from Wikipedia. There is grave danger of missing someone so I will not attempt a list, but all the audit trails should be in place. Do click on one of these articles, pictures or references and go and find out who helped to create what you see here.