Welcome, Wikipedia Affiliate

We are very pleased indeed to announce the appointment of Gary M. Greenbaum as Wikipedia Affiliate at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Mr. Greenbaum is an experienced Wikipedia editor and administrator who, under the username “Wehwalt,” has taken over a hundred Wikipedia articles to Featured Article status. Mr. Greenbaum has frequently contributed significantly to history-related Wikipedia articles on such topics as President Nixon’s Checkers speech, William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold speech during the 1896 presidential election, and the life and career of the Civil War abolitionist congressional representative Thaddeus Stevens.

During his one-year affiliation with RRCHNM, Mr. Greenbaum will conduct scholarly research using the library resources of George Mason University in order to improve the accuracy and reliability at least 25 Wikipedia articles on historical topics, especially articles on historical figures with a Virginia connection such as Harry F. Byrd. Mr. Greenbaum will work in consultation with Professor Mills Kelly during his affiliate year.

The Wikipedia Affiliate position at RRCHNM has been created in partnership with The Wikipedia Library project, whose mission is to help active Wikipedia editors gain access to the vital reliable sources that they need to do their work. The University of California at Riverside is also planning to host a “Wikipedia Visiting Scholar,” and we hope that other universities will join this effort to improve Wikipedia’s reliability and accuracy by helping to provide Wikipedia editors with access to scholarly resources.