Documenting America

This user participated in Wiki Loves Monuments 2016.

Originally, I wished to write and illustrate Wiki articles. Well, there is a conflict of personalities, over copyrights. This was after I discovered that most of my pictures would never survive me, as my family has no real interest in the visual arts, thus, I'm giving them to Wikicommons, so that whatever they may be worth, they at least will remain available for a few more years than my private ownership will provide. Maybe, they will be used in a photo essay some 5-80 years in the future.

Began posting January 2, 2001. Most won't be of use until 50+ years have gone by and urban restoration and reclamation have altered these places.

This user has been on Wikimedia Commons for 25 years, 4 months and 11 days

Glacial project

This project has changed since 2022 with a move to Puget Sound. The glacial history has been expanded beyond the Great Lakes, to the west coast. Puget Sound is a glacially modified area with cordilleran glaciers of continental size. Thus 3,000 feet (910 m) of undifferentiated till, is not ground to a loess and glacial flood channels form the valleys between mountain ridges.

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  Converted public domain, using current research maps to create a simplified map. It has less detail than the public domain (USGS) maps and emphasizes the information that is of more interest to the general public. Lakes Chippewa & Stanley
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  Using research reports, I've created simply maps to identify the topic of the article. Tinley Moraine
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  I've combined several maps, adjusting scales to create a composite for the area I'm working with.
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  Light blue is modern lakes, dark blue and light blue are the prehistoric lake. Purple is the modern lakebed buried under the ice sheet. Simplified version of USGS (Leverett-Taylor) Lake Warren Map 1908
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  Lake Whittlesey 1908 & Saginaw
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  Plate 16 - Glacial lakes Whittlesey, Sagniaw and Chicago -- Great public domain maps.
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  Plate 17 - Glacial Lakes Warren and Chicago (USGS 1915
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  Plate 21 - Lake Algonquin
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  Plate 27 - Nipissing Great Lakes
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  Lots of pubilc domain maps. Plate 53 - Lakes Duluth, Chicago & Lundy.

More modern vector (SVG) maps would be nice, but I'm not ready to learn that technology, when I can hack out the simple visuals for my articles. --Chris Light (talk) 18:56, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Master Project

Actually, I'm gathering information and images for a study on the Grand Kankakee Marsh. My problem is getting sidetracked into peripheral topics. I do that to insure that I've got a complete picture of the places, people, and events around the Kankakee River basin. But, it end up updating or creating articles and submitting images as I go.

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  Lockhart Phase of Lake Chippewa (glacial-13,000 YBP)
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  McCallum House NHR site, Valparaiso, Indiana
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  Elks Temple, Valparaiso, Indiana
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  City Hall, old Post Office, Valparaiso, Indiana
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  Historic Sheriffs House and Jail, Valparaiso, Indiana
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  Mound State Park, Indiana
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  Pokagon State Park
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  Pokagon State Park entrance
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  Lafayette Brewing Co., Lafayette, Indiana
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  St. John Episcopal Church, Lafayette, Indiana
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  Carnegie library in w:New Carlisle, Indiana
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  Carnegie Library, Cleveland, Ohio

Accidental Project

Looking at old books, I found an architecture book where the copyright has expired on the drawn and sketched images. It's a great reference for the field and the images add to the discussion. Thus, I've digitized them and posted them to commons. There are photos, which may be newer than the sketchs and by others than the author, which I've left alone.

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  Church of the Nativity, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, & Church at Qalblouzeh (Kalb Lose), Early Christian Architecture, History of Architecture, pg 260
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  Mastaba Tombs, Egyptian Architecture, History of Architecture (Fletcher pg 24)
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  Scottish Castles from History of Architecture, (Fletcher pg 520
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  Temple Plans - New Empire - Ptolemaic and Roman , Egyptian Architecture, History of Architecture (Fletcher pg 37)
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  Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium & Dutch Architecture, History of Architecture, pg 572
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  Stokesay Castle & Kenilworth Castle, English Mediaeval Architecture (Fletcher), pg 442
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  Abbay-Aux-Hommes (St Etienne) French Romanesque Architecture (Fletcher), pg 344
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  32 -Perspective View of the Seventh Pier of the Nave of Paris, Development & Character of Gothic Architecture, pg 65.
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  Fig 20 -Perspective View of one Double Bay of Senlis, Development & Character of Gothic Architecture, pg 47.
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  Fig 5 - Romanesque Pilaster Strip, Development & Character of Gothic Architecture, pg 11.

--Chris Light (talk) 18:57, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Editing Project

When Posting my images, I find that many highly visited areas have hundreds of images posted into a generic category. Many of these are National Park areas and the major cities of the U.S. and the World. I have problems finding images that I'm interested in when there is more than one page of pictures. I find it easier to search categories or groups of related images (topical groupings). Thus, I'll spend time making sub-categories, i.e., Category:Devils Tower National Monument. While I've gotten into differences with editors of categories (to whom I'll defer, once the difference is pointed out), I feel confident in creating categories as I've lived in several different parts of the country, and adjacent to numerous national park areas, let alone visited many. I'll always be glad to listen and adjust to the needs and ways of categorizing things.