Today, the National Archive of the Netherlands and Spaarnestad Photo announced a partnership to release more than 1,000 photos of politicians and political events in the Netherlands.  This generous release will provide photos for many related Wikipedia articles that once had no image to accompany the article.

Thanks to this cooperation between Wikimedia Nederland and Nationaal Archief/Spaarnestad Photo, hundreds of articles on Dutch politics will be provided with relevant and free photos from the actual time of the event or when the person was alive.

When an article is about an ancient topic, it is relatively easy to find an image for the article, because it is usually in the public domain. When the topic is recent, finding an image is often difficult.  One of the best ways to get a good photo is through partnerships like this.

One of the example images is this photograph of Queen Juliana, the mother of the current queen, walking her dog. This photo is a clear example of the saying “an image is worth more than a thousand words”. The image is such a clear illustration of who she was – irreplaceable with words.

Another example here is the typical “bordesfoto” (photo on the landing), which is the council of ministers and the Queen presenting themselves on the stairs in front of the royal palace to the press right after the ministers have been sworn in. This photo is the bordesfoto of the first cabinet Biesheuvel in 1971.

The images are part of the project “Beelden voor de Toekomst” (images for the future), where four major institutions cooperate to conserve and digitize the Dutch audiovisual heritage. The digitized material is made available as much as possible to the educational sector and the public.

I am very excited with this cooperation, and hope that soon more institutions will follow the example of the National Archive. Maybe just as exciting is that this release took place in the very center of political press in The Hague – Nieuwspoort. The release event was accompanied by a panel of former and current politicians amongst whom the former chair of the Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (House of Representatives/Commons), Frans Weisglas and former minister and UN high commissioner Jan Pronk.

I invite everybody to incorporate the images on their language projects as they become available in the near future on Wikimedia Commons.

Lodewijk Gelauff
Vice Chair of Wikimedia Nederland

The Wikimedia chapter in the Netherlands is organizing the photo scavenger hunt “Wiki Loves Monuments” in September. Take photos of national monuments, share them, and you may win a prize! Our sponsors have offered rewards like an iPad, an Android smartphone, WikiReaders and magazine subscriptions to a cultural heritage magazine.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2010.

With over 50,000 national monuments (“rijksmonument“) throughout the Netherlands, there are plenty of photo opportunities. These are buildings or objects of general importance because of their beauty, importance to science, or cultural history – like archeological sites in Drenthe, the canal houses in Amsterdam, and the Royal Palace in The Hague.

The Dutch language Wikipedia has worked hard to prepare for this project by building articles with lists of these monuments organized by municipality. The Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (National services for Cultural Heritage) provided additional data, such as the physical address of all the monuments. The next step is to complete every monument with one or more photos – Wikipedia volunteers already taken photos of over 12,000 monuments.

With this project, we tried to incorporate best practices from Wiki Loves Art/NL 2009 and similar projects in other countries. Uploading images will be possible both through a simplified uploading form on Wikimedia Commons, as well as with a Flickr group. Many cultural heritage organizations were contacted and asked to spread the word.

The contest is in September, and coincides with Open Monument Day on 11 and 12 of September, when many monuments open their doors to visitors which are normally closed. For more information, please visit our website at www.wikilovesmonuments.nl (in Dutch) and subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also join the Flickr group or our Facebook event if you plan to participate.

Lodewijk Gelauff
Board Member, Wikimedia Nederland

Leading up to the first-ever Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) Wiki in Australia this week, we’re pleased to share news from Wikimedia Netherlands about an exciting new partnership with their beloved Tropenmuseum, one of the largest museums in the country.  Their upcoming exhibition “Art of Survival, Maroon Culture of Surinam” will involve the uploading of over 2100 high quality images to the Wikimedia Commons.

Congrats to the volunteer organizers and the Tropenmuseum!

More from a release sent by the Netherlands chapter and the Tropenmuseum:

Tropenmuseum and Wikimedia collaborate on an exhibition
The Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and Wikimedia Netherlands will join hands to present an
exhibition Art of Survival about Maroon culture of Suriname. As part of this collaboration, the
museum will make approximately 2100 pictures available through Wikimedia Commons, the shared
image repository used for Wikipedia and related projects.

By involving multiple language editions of Wikipedia at the exhibition, the Tropenmuseum reaches
out to new audiences and invites them to add to the available information on the subject in the
online encyclopaedias. The Tropenmuseum will incorporate valuable contributions into its
exhibition when it becomes available through Wikipedia.

“The exhibition is about Maroon culture, and we hope that the exhibition and Wikipedia together
will provide audiences with information about the Maroon, their culture, and their history -
particularly in the languages of the countries where the Maroon live” says Susanne Ton of the
Tropenmuseum. “Of particular interest will be the contributions in the English, Dutch, Sranang,
French, and Spanish Wikipedias.”

“It is a novelty that a museum collaborates with an Internet community in this way”, says Gerard
Meijssen, who as a Wikimedia volunteer played a major role in the realisation of this partnership.
“Extraordinary information will be made available about the Maroon and it will be really interesting
to learn what extra material will become available through the Wikipedias.

“Cultural institutions, not only in the Netherlands but in the whole world, are becoming more and
more aware of the possibilities offered by the Wikimedia projects to give their collection a bigger
audience”, says José Spierts, chair of Wikimedia Netherlands. “We are really happy that the
Tropenmuseum is willing to play such a pioneering role and we hope that this example will be
followed by more initiatives aimed at making our cultural heritage generally available”. The
Tropenmuseum and Wikimedia Netherlands worked previously together in “Wiki Loves Art /NL”.
Forty-five museums opened their doors to volunteer photographers to make parts of their
collections available through Wikipedia.

The exhibition “Art of survival: Maroon culture in Suriname” will be on display at the
Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam from November 6, 2009 to May 9, 2010.

About Wikimedia Nederland

http://www.wmnederland.nl

Wikimedia Nederland supports within the Netherlands the activities and goals of the Wikimedia
Foundation – the non-profit organization which hosts Wikipedia and sister projects. Wikimedia aims
to make the sum of human knowledge available to every single person on the planet. To reach that
goal, Wikimedia cooperates with the volunteers on the Wikimedia projects (such as Wikipedia) and
by organising all kinds of activities and events.

About the Tropenmuseum

http://www.tropenmuseum.nl

The Tropenmuseum is part of the Royal Tropics Institute and presents, researches, and promotes the
exchange of knowledge between cultures. The museum pursues cultural exchange through
exhibitions, collections, expertise, publications, its historic building, and educational and other
activities. The museum is innovative in its choice of themes and presentation. It offers an
experience to a broad and diverse public, helps the appreciation of a cultural diversity, is
internationally active in culture and development, and fulfills an important educational role.
Digital image restoration is one of the many ways that volunteers contribute to the exhibition. This
digital restauration by Lise Broer of a picture of Granman Jankoeso of the Saramakaner Maroon
and his captains is an example.
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For more information:
* José Spierts, chair Wikimedia Nederland, +31 (0)6 50512514, josewmnederland.nl
* Anna Brolsma, Public Relations Tropenmuseum, tel. +31 (0)20 568 8422, a.brolsmakit.nl