Press releases/Mary Rose Trust donation
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This press release is currently a draft; it has not yet been released. Expected release 3 January 2010. |
January 3 2010, UK: The Mary Rose Trust, a limited charitable trust based in Portsmouth, England, have donated a number of photographs relating to the salvaged 16th century warship Mary Rose to complement a substantial rewrite and expansion of the Mary Rose article on Wikipedia, driven by the work of a Wikimedia volunteer from Sweden, Peter Isotalo. This image donation makes the Mary Rose Trust the first UK-based organization to make an image donation to Wikipedia.
The donation consists of 57 high resolution, previously unpublished photographs. The majority of these show artefacts from the Mary Rose, including weapons, tools and personal items, taken specially for this donation. Two photographs are of the final stages of the salvage operation on 11 October 1982.
Due to its recent expansion, the article on the Mary Rose will be linked to from the Did you know... section of the front page of Wikipedia on 4 January; this page routinely receives over 4 million visits a day. In addition, the article is on course to become a "Featured Article", and will once more be linked to from Wikipedia's front page at that time.
"Making content available on Wikimedia is a fantastic way to increase the visibility of our cultural heritage," Mike Peel, Chair of Wikimedia UK, says. "These images can now be seen by the millions of people around the world that regularly read and edit Wikipedia."
Previous donations of content to Wikimedia have been made by the Bundesarchiv and Deutsche Fotothek in Germany, the Tropenmuseum in The Netherlands, Regionarkivet in Sweden and Queensland Museum, Australia. This donation from the Mary Rose Trust is the first from a UK-based organization.
Wikimedia UK encourages more cultural organizations to partner with Wikimedia by making their images, audio recordings or videos available on Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia UK is currently organizing Britain Loves Wikipedia, a photography contest to be held in participating museums across the UK throughout February, with the resulting images being used to illustrate Wikipedia articles.
EDITORS' NOTES
About the Mary Rose:
The Mary Rose, once the pride of king Henry VIII's navy, was raised by the 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 and its contents were sealed off by layers of clay and sediment and thereby became a time capsule of 16th century Tudor England. The thousands of artefacts found in and around the ship when it was excavated and raised has provided important clues to the life of the men of all classes that served on her in the 1540s, about shipbuilding, naval warfare and countless other fields.
About the Mary Rose Trust:
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.
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/
- Mary Rose on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose
- All images in the donation on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mary_Rose_Trust_donation
- Cultural partnerships with Wikimedia: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cultural_partnerships
- Britain Loves Wikipedia: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Britain_Loves_Wikipedia
Contact details:
Michael Peel, Chair, Wikimedia UK
- Email: michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk
- Phone: +44 (0)7988 013 646
Charles Barker, Managing Director of the Archaeological Services, Mary Rose Trust
- Email: c.barker@maryrose.org