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Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Archives Week Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

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When and Where
When:21 October 2019
Time3pm - 8pm
Where:Central Library,
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Collection, 2nd floor

To celebrate New York Archives Week as well as the recent digitization of neighborhood newspapers by the Brooklyn Collection, we are holding a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on the theme of Brooklyn history. We will also be accepting submissions through a Google Form through October 15, 2019.

We’ll work to improve representation on English Wikipedia of Brooklyn local history topics, using recently digitized newspapers from the Brooklyn Collection alongside other reference materials and digital resources. Our goal is to improve articles highlighted for improvement by WikiProject New York City, in addition to other stub and start-class articles about Brooklyn.

No experience editing Wikipedia is required but please bring a laptop, if you have one! There will also be a limited number of laptops available for those who don't have their own. Experienced Wikipedians will be around to help out, and we’ll be starting the edit-a-thon with a brief tutorial to cover the basics.

All attendees are subject to Wikimedia NYC's Code of Conduct.

Please Note: The main entrance to the library will be closing early in preparation for an event, but the Edit-a-Thon is still on! If you arrive after 5pm, please use the Eastern Parkway entrance. There will be signage and escorts to help you find your way.

About the Brooklyn Collection

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Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Collection documents the history of Brooklyn from pre-colonial times to the present. A unique resource for the study of Brooklyn’s social and cultural history, the Brooklyn Collection is a distinct division of Central Library, and is BPL's only collection of archival and rare book material. Founded in 1997 as a small book collection attached to the Library’s History Division, it has become the world’s largest public archive for the study of Brooklyn’s social and cultural history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Documenting every aspect of the borough’s past in a variety of media, our holdings include more than 5,000 books, 200,000 photographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps and atlases, directories, prints, illustrations, sheet music, posters and ephemera. Our holdings are continually growing, and contemporary news items related to Brooklyn are added to our files daily.

The Collection documents the ongoing life of the Brooklyn community through exhibits, programming and outreach efforts.

Articles to Create/Edit

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Archivists hard at work at BPL

Articles to Edit

Historic Houses


Cemeteries

  • Cypress Hills National Cemetery -- this article needs more sources for verification.
  • Green-Wood Cemetery -- this article needs more sources to verify the history (which is largely taken from an internal planning document that paraphrases Green-Wood's own annual reports) as well as an expansion of the "description" section
  • Old Gravesend Cemetery -- founded in the 1850s, this is believed to be the burial place of Lady Deborah Moody. The article is a stub. Read about the cemetery, and Brooklyn Collection sources on it, in this blog post.


Beer in Brooklyn

  • William Ulmer_Brewery -- this article needs lengthening. Check the digitized newspapers
  • Piels Beer -- this article needs more sources for verification. The digitized newspapers will be useful. We also have an ephemera file for "Breweries: Piel Brothers"


Historic Police Stations


Articles to Create

Buildings

  • Alku and Alku Toinen -- on the National Register of Historic Places, these 1916 apartment buildings built for Finnish immigrant community are first purpose-built housing cooperatives in New York state. Photo shows Alku Toinen ("Beginning Two") -- view on Wikimedia Commons
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden Laboratory Administration Building -- a New York City Designated Landmark
  • Howard Colored Orphan Asylum -- material available in digitized newspapers, in reference books, and in digitized photographs.


Religious Buildings

  • Bushwick Avenue Central Methodist Episcopal Church -- on the National Register of Historic Places, this is an Italian Renaissance Revival church built in first decade of 20th century, when Bushwick was growing rapidly. -- view on Wikimedia Commons
  • Congregation Chevra Linath Hazedeck -- on the National Register of Historic Places, this synagogue completed in 1932 reflects era when Brooklyn was becoming one of the world's major Jewish population centers. [View on wikimedia commons].
  • Fourth Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church -- on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 4616 Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, this 1890s church was a focal point for development of Sunset Park; also a well-preserved Akron Plan church
  • German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church -- on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 195 Maujer Street in Williamsburg, to provide German church services for a growing German population in a predominantly Dutch and English neighborhood.
  • Greenwood Baptist Church -- on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 461 6th Street, this Gothic Revival church built in 1900 was designed by architect Adolph F. Leicht


Outdoor Spaces

  • Canarsie Park -- a public park in Canarsie


Transportation

  • Jay Street Connecting Railroad -- check digitized newspapers for source material


Brooklyn Public Library branches

  • DeKalb Branch -- a New York City Designated Landmark
  • Park Slope Branch -- a New York City Designated Landmark
  • Williamsburgh Branch -- a New York City Designated Landmark

Wikipedia Resources

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Other Resources

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Participants

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