Talk:James Lorin Richards

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Photo Deleted In Error[edit]

On 7/22/12 my photo of JL Richards was deleted in Commons by Fastily. I believe this was done in error. This photo (JLrichards-1.jpg) clearly falls under Public Domain - PD-Pre-1978 and was tagged accordingly.

In addition:

  • 1) the photo was taken around 1900
  • 2) the photo has no copyright notice
  • 3) the book "James Lorin Richards, the Story of a New England Industrialist" has no copyright notice or date
  • 4) Abbey Press of Boston is defunct
  • 5) the author, William Thomas Cloney Jr., a Northeastern Univ professor, died in 2003
  • 6) this was a family photo provided to Northeastern University, at the request of President Ells in 1948
  • 7) I am JL Richards (1858-1955) Great Great Grandson and am knowledgeable on this subject

There are no photo credits, no dates, no copyright of any kind in the entire book.

I have attached below the original scan of the first pages of my copy of the book "James Lorin Richards, The Story of a New England Industrialist". This is the photo in question and title page. As you can see, there is no copyright notice. Please click on this link-

Photo & Title Page - Original Scan

I have also included a digital file of the book scanned by Google for the University of California. Google digitized considers the entire book in the Public Domain. I've attached a link - check the upper left corner under "About this Book" It reads

Copyright Public Domain - Google digitized

James L Richards The Story Of A New England Industrialist - Digital Scan

I referred this question over at Wikipedia Commons on 7/23 and got several comments

Wikipedia Commons Responses

One of the respondents, Carl Lindbergh agreed with me and supports undeletion. 

Now I'm stuck and don't know how to proceed. This is also my first article. Please help! Thanks.

Jtlanghorne (talk) 18:25, 1 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You need to contact the deleting admin, in this case Fastily. Mdann52 (talk) 18:45, 1 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Article has biased point of view.[edit]

I believe that this article is biased in favour of James Lorin Richards. For one of the "10 most important businessmen both in the greater Boston community and in America", this page is certainly short, and lacking in references.

I am a relatively new user, and am uncertain as to how to approach fixing this issue. If someone more experienced could help me, that would be great.

DXsmiley (talk) 10:51, 2 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hey DXsmiley,

Thanks for reading my article.

As its author, I certainly understand your concern. Richards was probably the most important man you never heard of because so little was written about him. Much of his family didn't know either. You see, he was my gg grandfather. So I spent over a year researching before I posted this, my first article. Richards was probably the most prolific businessman of his age, yet few knew of him as he avoided the spotlight, preferring to get things done in boardrooms, though innovation, communication and hard work. He owned several beautiful summer homes on Chapoquoit Island in West Falmouth, MA on the cape. There are stories of how he would leave Boston in his huge yacht, take the Cape Cod Canal and arrive with his 3 man crew, tie up to "Big Pier" at the mouth of the West Falmouth harbor, and spend the weekends there entertaining dignitaries, etc. During these trips he may have passed two or more coal colliers owned by his firm Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates, going up to Boston. My grandfather remembers Joe Kennedy Sr. coming to visit from their summer home on Martha's Vineyard, by boat of course.

Richards home in Newton is registered with the US National Register of Historic places, James Lorin Richards House. Once when he had surgery, the Boston Chief of Police cordoned off his road to help him recover without traffic noise. Richards personally saved Northeastern University from bankruptcy. I have a copy of the letter from then president Speare thanking him. Richards Hall is named in his honor.

Only one book was ever written about him. At the urging of president Speare, the head of Northeastern's English dept pinned him down. "James Lorin Richards, The Story of a New England Industrialist". Cloney, William Thomas Jr. (1948). Boston Mass: Abbey Press. The eBook is available here James Lorin Richards : The Story of a New England Industrialist It is short but an amazing read. Be sure to read the testimonials in the back.

The links at the bottom of the article tell the whole story, so much better than I could. But if I didn't at least start the article his legacy would have been lost forever, and I wasn't going to let that happen. I agree, it's a skeleton now. I was hoping others might add to the article, including Northeastern business students.

One of my favorite stories is how he took roughly 35 independently owned unregulated Boston gas companies and managed through diligence, commitment and overwhelming obstacles to bring them all together under the Boston Consolidated Gas Company, and was so deeply concerned with customer service, he required every single complaint that came in to be put on his desk for follow-up. If memory serves, this was all done as a personal request by Robert Winsor, friend and head of the Boston investment banking firm Kidder, Peabody & Co. Both were at the forefront of industrial consolidation during the period leading up to the Great Depression.

Try to take a little time re-reading the article, especially the "external links", and grasp all his business involvements, and innovations that went along with his reputation: for example, right in the middle of the country's first major depression, because of his financial acumen, in July 1932 he was asked to sit on the advisory board of the country's first mutual fund that was in dire straits after the market crashed (Massachusetts Investors Trust). He was a brilliant bond salesman, taking JP Morgan to task by oversubscribing bonds in the bailout of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He was also the first to recommend employees have representation on company boards, something simply unheard of back then. The list goes on and on.

Adding it all together within the context of one man's accomplishments in his 96 years, hopefully you can see that is why the Boston Herald deemed Richards one of the 10 most important businessmen both in the greater Boston community and in America.

Jtlanghorne (talk) 22:48, 24 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Removing the neutrality banner[edit]

How do I go about removing the neutrality banner at the top of my article? I’ve done a major overhaul of the page, adding 6 sections, expanding the headings, adding pictures, references and details. There is still more to be researched, but have I justified his reputation with enough new content now to remove the banner? Thanks.

Jtlanghorne (talk) 18:02, 23 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]


I haven't heard from anybody, so I'm reaching out further into the Wikipedia community. After reviewing the various way to get neutrality banner removed, and seeing that the editor who added the tag DXSMILEY hasn't responded in well over a month, I'm requesting additional help. Thank you!

Jtlanghorne (talk) 18:16, 24 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, for the banner to be removed you should quite simply remove any peacock terms such as "At a very early age he displayed exceptional business skills and a hearty work ethic." - The entire article must read as neutral, check good or featured biography pages and ensure you adhere to the BLP policy. Hope this helps. Alex J Fox(Talk)(Contribs) 19:00, 24 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Help me![edit]

Please help me with the removal of the Neutrality banner. After reading Alex's helpful guidelines, I've done the best I can to edit the article to read as neutral as possible. Thank you!

Jtlanghorne (talk) 21:56, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently your best isn't good enough. I'm having to do a ton of cleanup as it is. Primefac (talk) 22:07, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Primefac and will leave the cleanup to them. Just to provide a random example: "Among the dozens of accolades he garnered from the New England business community - too many to repeat here, one in particular stands out." That is not the tone we'd expect from an encyclopedia article. And that tone is prevalent. Huon (talk) 22:45, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I agree as well. Another problem is that many of the assertions are unreferenced. If not much has been written about the man, and if the article is mostly being written by a great-grandchild, then the risk of original research creeping into the article is worth considering. Every claim about his life should be referenced to a reliable published source. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 19:35, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I’ve gone ahead and removed the neutrality banner. After reading all dxsmiley’s concerns, I completed a major overhaul of the article, adding 6 sections, expanding the descriptions, adding pictures, adding more accurate references and details. I’ve solicited help from the talk page and and gotten solid advice from several other Wikipedia authors. I had the article discussed in the tea room. Many authors have weighed in, reviewing the article in full, then cutting, revising, and organizing. What you have now is nothing close to the original piece. Therefore, I believe i’ve satisfied the requirements and now have a solidly neutral article. And I want to thank everyone for their contributions.

Jtlanghorne (talk) 18:30, 4 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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