Shortcuts: WP:HIST WP:HISTINFO

Welcome to the Historical information WikiProject. We are a group dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of historical information (in articles not about history).

(For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProject and the Guide to WikiProjects.)

[edit] Getting help

For help adding historical information to an article, make a request here. Be sure to provide a link to the article you want help with.

You might also check the list of project participants to see whether someone has expressed an interest in your specific topic.

[edit] Goals

Wikipedia has a large number of articles that, for one reason or another, lack historical information. Not articles about history that lack information, but articles about all sorts of things that should also include an historical element but do not (or do scarcely).

Wikipedia is edited by a great bunch of people living in the twenty-first century. As such, there is a bias toward current information, and against historical information. Of course, a good encyclopedia article should have both.

The dual goals of this WikiProject are:

• to identify articles that lack historical information and
• to add the historical information.

Contents 1 Getting help 2 Goals 3 Scope 4 Guidelines 4.1 Cities, towns, communities 4.2 Products, tools, inventions 4.3 Geographical features 4.4 Peoples and languages 4.4.1 Literary traditions 4.5 Anatomical features and medical conditions 4.6 Concepts (including mathematical objects and schools of philosophy) 4.7 Organizations, companies, nations 4.8 Modern books, works of art, films, games, computer programs, musical pieces, etc. 4.9 Older books, works of art, musical pieces, etc. 4.10 Scientific discoveries: planets, periodic-table elements, etc. 4.11 Individual dates, numbers, letters, phones, etc. 5 Open tasks 5.1 Of immediate concern as we get this WikiProject running 6 Participants 7 Featured content 7.1 Candidates 8 Resources 8.1 Templates 8.2 Edit summary 8.3 Userbox 8.4 Categories

[edit] Scope

• Virtually any article that's not specifically about an event or person from history can potentially fall under the scope of this WikiProject.
• Everything changes over time. People forget this when writing.

[edit] Guidelines

If you see an article that lacks historical information, the best thing to do is, of course, to be bold and fix it.

Barring that, add the template {{histinfo}} to the article's talk page. Adding this template to the talk page causes the following box to appear there:

This article lacks historical information. Please add it if you can. For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.

If you have specific ideas about what the article is missing, you can add them as a parameter:

{{histinfo|Some ideas go here.}}

This yields:

This article lacks historical information. Specifically: Some ideas go here.  Please add it if you can. For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.

If the article has multiple issues, you may prefer to use Template:Articleissues.

{{Articleissues|histinfo=y|Other issues go here}}

See Template:Articleissues for detailed guidance.

[edit] Cities, towns, communities

For example, U.S. community entries based on U.S. Census data generally lack any historical information. All one has to do is pick a town, do some research, and write a historical sketch. (Examples: Ballantine, Mont.; Cusseta, Ga.; Perry, Ga.)

Notable communities may include housing estates, housing projects, some subdivisions, and other unincorporated communities -- not to mention ghost towns. Historical background on all these are less likely to be online, so offline local research may be needed.

[edit] Products, tools, inventions

An article on a product (manufactured item) or invention should include information on when (and where and why and how) it was first made and how it has changed over the years. Pretty good example articles are Brick, which traces the development of bricks over many centuries, and Semaphore (communication), which does the same for semaphore. A pretty bad one is Lever, which says only that levers were used in ancient Egypt and written about by Archimedes.

[edit] Geographical features

An article on a geographical or topographical feature (river, mountain, or the like) should include information when it was discovered (by Westerners or altogether), how it has affected life (e.g., by erupting or overflowing), and how it has changed over the years (as by erosion). Pretty good example articles are Yellow River, which discusses how the river has changed course over the centuries, and how those changes affected people's lives; and Lake Champlain, which discusses how the lake was used in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. A pretty bad article is Great Smoky Mountains, which has virtually no history at all.

[edit] Peoples and languages

[edit] Literary traditions

National literary traditions need historical development. See e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Poetry.

[edit] Anatomical features and medical conditions

[edit] Concepts (including mathematical objects and schools of philosophy)

[edit] Organizations, companies, nations

• Research institute is a stub with many articles linking to it. What it most needs is historical background beyond the minimal account it now includes.

[edit] Modern books, works of art, films, games, computer programs, musical pieces, etc.

[edit] Older books, works of art, musical pieces, etc.

[edit] Scientific discoveries: planets, periodic-table elements, etc.

• Virtually none of the scientific discoveries listed in Category:Biology include provenance of the discovery; the researchers or papers. I've been adding it as I go along working on individual scientist biographies but someone going through the biology articles systematically would probably be better. --lquilter 22:50, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Individual dates, numbers, letters, phones, etc.

[edit] Open tasks

Here list specific pages that need help, and what's wrong with them. Other articles that need help are at Category:Articles lacking historical information.

[edit] Of immediate concern as we get this WikiProject running

[edit] Participants

Please feel free to add yourself here, and to indicate any areas of particular interest.

1. Spool 26 (talk · contribs) -- History of World Religions & Religious Sites.
2. msh210 (talk)
3. Badbilltucker
4. User:Resources of Sheboygan Club
5. Alarob, interested in everything, but a student of the colonial Americas, especially the North American Indians
6. syrenab, currently actively expanding history of prisoner of war and prisoner-of-war camps Southeast.
7. user:Arthur Ellis British history, military, Cold War
8. Natalie US history, specifically the first half of the 20th century
9. J. D. Redding Most history; Science and technology; Mostly Western and Middle Eastern; Weak on Asian
10. DGG 04:15, 1 June 2007 (UTC) science, literary authors, UK history
11. rzafar
12. JPmaverick
13. Leobold1 (talk · contribs) US History, WWII Pacific
14. Cigrainger, currently studying and researching Islamic history (particularly Islamism and modern fundamentalism), American foreign policy, world intellectual history, and world political history.
15. BrianKnez, 4 years of Medieval Studies, focusing on northern Europe. Also experienced with Mongols, 19th century Europe and Colonies, WWI, and history of blacksmithing from antiquity until 1920's.
16. Ryan LaRocca,
17. Saukkomies, interested in many diverse subjects, but specializing in the earth sciences (including climatology, astronomy, geology, oceanography, and paleontology), and the social sciences (including history, anthropology, sociology, human geography, political science, economics, and archaeology). I have state teaching certificates for secondary schools in both of these subjects, and have published articles in peer reviewed journals. Just ask me for help if you have an article in one of these areas with which you need some assistance.

[edit] Featured content

Add here any articles we worked on significantly which then made it to featured status.

[edit] Candidates

And add here any articles we worked on significantly which are candidates for featured status.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Templates

• {{histinfo}} — placed at the top of an article page — yields:

This article lacks historical information. Please add it if you can. For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.

{{histinfo|Some ideas go here.}} yields:

This article lacks historical information. Specifically: Some ideas go here.  Please add it if you can. For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.

(Except that those references to the WikiProject are links rather than boldfaced non-links.)

The link what links to or includes the template histinfo can help see pages that include the template: an alternateive to checking the category.

[edit] Edit summary

• When adding the {{histinfo}} template, you can use the following edit summary:

 This article needs historical information. See [[WP:HIST]]. 

• When actually adding historical information, you can use:

 Adding historical information. [[WP:HIST|You can help!]] 

[edit] Userbox

Show you're a member of this WikiProject! (This also helps attract more members.) Use {{user histinfo}} on your user page; it displays

	This user is a member of WikiProject Historical information.

on your page and adds you to Category:WikiProject Historical information participants.

[edit] Categories

{{histinfo}} automatically categorizes the page into Category:Articles lacking historical information.