Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States is back for 2017! Join us for the competition through the month of September.

Photo of Crystal Mill in Crystal, Colorado has won 11th place the Wiki Loves Monuments 2016 International contest! Learn more about the photo here, and more about the other winning photos in the International contest here. For more information on the winners of the 2016 United States National contest, please visit this page. Congratulations to all!

Welcome to

Wiki Loves Monuments 2016

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 Wikipedia. For the first time in several years, Wiki Loves Monuments is back in the United States, and we want you to be a part of it. Anyone is welcome to contribute to the project by uploading photos they've taken of 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! In addition to taking photos, we also encourage editors to write Wikipedia articles on historical sites and monuments as part of the event.









How to Participate Step 1: Review the rules below, and ask questions if you have any. Step 2: Don't have a Wikimedia Commons account yet? Create one - takes just a few moments! Step 3: Find historical and cultural monuments in the United States. Check our guides and lists below! Step 4: Take photos of the monuments. Try different angles! Step 5: Classify your photos. Record your sites' names, descriptions, and dates for when you upload your photos. Step 6: Upload your photos to Wikimedia Commons during the month of September. Use the upload links on this page to be counted towards this event! Questions? Shoot us an email at wlmUnitedStates

Finding sites to photograph [ edit ]

National Register of Historic Places [ edit ]

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!

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 263 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.

We're starting to develop guides by state and localities so that people may easily find lists of sites to photograph. Don't see your state and want to create a guide? Go for it! Feel free to copy the formats of existing guides.

Rules [ edit ]

To be counted for the contest, all photos must be your own work. You are welcome to upload properly-licensed free photos by others for the event, though they won't be able to win.

Entries must feature a site that is identifiable and recognized as a historical or cultural site by some authoritative organization (whether on the federal, state, or local levels). See our lists above for examples, and feel free to ask if you're not sure!

All photos must be uploaded during the month of September, 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).

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}}.

, 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}}.

Contest [ edit ]

See /Judging for more details

At the end of the month, a panel of judges (to be announced) from several U.S. states will select their top ten best photos. Photos will be judged by their artistic qualities, perspective, encyclopedic value, and photographic quality.

All ten best photos will be awarded a certificate. The top three contenders in the United States will also receive the following prizes:

Best image (1st): $150

Best image (First runner-up): $75

Best image (Second runner-up): $75

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 (up to 2,000 Euros).

Other ways to contribute [ edit ]

In addition to uploading your own photos of historic and cultural sites here is a list of some of the other great ways to help contribute to our coverage of monuments and sites in the United States! Note that the types of contributions listed below are not qualified for the contest or prizes; they are, however, greatly valued and kept track of.

Organizers [ edit ]

Wiki Loves Monuments 2016 in the United States is organized by Wikimedians from around the United States. Support has also been provided by the Ohio Wikimedians User Group.

Questions? Press? Need to contact us for any reason?

Shoot us an email at wlmUnitedStates

Post on our talk page

Personally reach out to one of our organizers:

Information about the international organizers can be found on the official website.



