Sharing thousands of Welsh landscapes with Wikipedia
Collections / News and Events - Posted 19-08-2015
Several years ago the National Library of Wales digitised around five thousand paintings, sketches, engravings and prints of Welsh landscapes mostly dating from 1750-1850.
Many of these are accurate topographical representations which are of huge value to historians, conservationists and archaeologists, whilst others are romanticised artistic works which simply capture the beauty of the Welsh landscape and aspect of Welsh life in a time before the invention of the camera.
As Wikipedian in Residence, making this collection available to Wikipedians was one of my first priorities, and now the entire collection is being released into the public domain and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
Already these fantastic images of castles, high streets, churches, ruins, and more, are being added to Wikipedia articles.
Events will soon be held to make more use of these images on Wikipedia, enriching the history of Wales on the world’s most used encyclopaedia.
Browse through the images here and please let us know if you are interested in helping us by adding these images to Wikipedia articles.
A plan of a first bridge to be constructed between Anglesey and mainland Wales. 1820
Aberystwyth Harbour, c.1850