[Foundation-l] Public domain Mickey Mouse. At last.

Wed Nov 2 04:40:12 UTC 2011

Hello,

2011/10/24 Dominic McDevitt-Parks <mcdevitd at gmail.com>:
> Hi all,
>
> Since it hasn't really been mentioned, I just wanted to point out that this
> image, never before available to the public in high resolution, was uploaded
> to Commons as a result of our ongoing cooperative efforts with the US
> National Archives (i.e., my residency). Its copyright status was listed as
> unrestricted in the National Archives' online catalog, where the scaled-down
> image has been displayed for several years without (apparently) any
> incident. Of course, these copyright statuses can often use a second look,
> and I am happy for it to get the extra scrutiny at Commons, especially one
> as complex as this. I don't have any extra insight to offer copyright-wise,
> and am interested to see the community's decision.
>
> However, I would also like to take the opportunity to talk about the broader
> effort here, which I think is more important than one image of Mickey Mouse
> from a war poster, as symbolic as that is. Beginning in July, I began an
> effort, in collaboration with NARA staff, to quite literally upload the
> entire National Archives library of digital content in high resolution. The
> National Archives—with billions of pages of records, tens of millions of
> photographs, and hundreds of thousands more sound recordings, videos, and
> artifacts—has hundreds of thousands of digital images in their catalog,
> nearly all of which is in the public domain. The 60,000 uploaded so far[1]
> include thousands more posters like the Mickey one from the WWII and WWI
> era; historically significant photography from Mathew Brady, Dorothea Lange,
> Ansel Adams, and other notable photographers; photos of Native Americans, of
> the Depression, of the national parks and the environment, of the Civil
> Rights Movement, of presidents and their activities, and of every US war
> from the Civil War to Vietnam, including incredible manufacturing and
> Japanese internment scenes from the home front in WWII; ultra high-res TIFFs
> (~150 MB) of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents;
> other textual documents, including historical maps, laws, court records,
> census cards, and the letters of diverse personalities, from Susan B.
> Anthony to Albert Einstein to Winston Churchill to Elvis Presley; and even
> other oddities like an ancient Roman bust, a Remington statue, ancient
> Chinese terracotta soldiers, a Diego Rivera painting, bullets and other
> evidence from the JFK assassination, a First Lady's evening gown, and a
> ceremonial Beninese wooden headdress(!).
>
> This is a huge task, and it requires a community effort to help categorize
> images, to use them in Wikipedia articles, to transcribe them on Wikisource,
> and just generally show them some love. If finding Mickey Mouse in the
> National Archives means anything, hopefully it's that this is a diverse and
> significant, and sometimes surprising, collection that deserves more care
> and attention—especially since many cultural institutions, domestically and
> internationally, are following the project with interest. For more
> information, check out the partnerships page on Commons <
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:National_Archives_and_Records_Administration>,
> and its sister WikiProjects on Wikipedia and Wikisource, linked in the tab
> header.

Indeed, you are right. This is a great addition to Commons.
I am going through it now, and I have questions.

In some cases, I found that there are better quality images than the
ones we have.
Where do they come from?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Baez_Bob_Dylan.jpg
This version is of higher resolution than the original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_Rights_March_on_Washington,_D.C._(Entertainment-_closeup_view_of_vocalists_Joan_Baez_and_Bob_Dylan.),_08-28-1963.tif

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie.jpg
This version is of much better quality, but lower resolution, than the
original TIFF
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washakie_(Shoots-the-Buffalo-Running),_a_Shoshoni_chief,_half-length,_seated,_holding_pipe_-_NARA_-_530875.tif

It seems that the TIFF is not directly available, or I am dumb
http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=530875

In cases of art work, we have black and white images, where the
original was in color.
Would it be possible to have a color version?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Pilate_Washing_Hands_and_Feet%22,_1964_-_NARA_-_558811.tif

Yes, always wanting more. ;o)

> Dominic
>
> [1] See the upload feed at <
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:ListFiles&user=US+National+Archives+bot

Thanks for helping this getting to Commons.

Best regards,

Yann