Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Erie 1912 Panorama

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[edit] Erie 1912 Panorama

Reason

I like the photo. It has had compliments before. Overall, a nice detailed photograph (considering its age) and fairly large.

Articles this image appears in

Erie, Pennsylvania, History of Erie, Pennsylvania

Creator

Haines Photo Company

• Support as nominator — ​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 12:40, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
• Support + Comment Would it be against WP or FP standards to edit the stitching out of the panorama? SingCal 16:28, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • In my opinion, yes, because it would lessen the historical and enc value of the image. If it was a panorama you shot yourself, of course not. Zakolantern 17:42, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
• Support Unusual to see a panorama this old. Good enc value, for the details of a town a century ago. ~ Veledan • Talk 21:13, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose Historical value does not exceed low technical quality.--Svetovid 00:10, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
• Comment. Actually, panoramas of this type were pretty common. Here are a few examples: [1], [2], [3], [4]; you can find hundreds more of varying quality by doing an LOC search. Obviously they are stitched by hand and will not be up to our digital standards in that regard, but I'm sure some thorough searching could find some that would have high encyclopedic and visual value. I would say look for ones that are high-res (and sometimes the downloadable tiff file is somewhat higher-res than the image on the index page), early (the earliest are late 1890s as far as I can tell), have good focus and condition, and are of places we have good articles on (and show interesting things), and don't worry about the stitching. Many of them are labeled, which can be very interesting as well. Chick Bowen 04:46, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose Well... it's old, but it also deals almost solely in things that could be found today, if not in that arrangement. It's encyclopædic for Erie, of course, but, well, you don't see the trains, can't make out the details of the few people, there's no vehicles on the street. You can see old buildings of that sort - with the painted advertisements of that era slowly fading on their sides - in any American city, and train tracks of that sort in any British one. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the image: it's a great find for Erie-related articles. But it doesn't really transcend Erie-related articles. Adam Cuerden ^talk 06:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

• Actually ,there are vehicles. I see a couple horse-drawn vehicles, an early automobile (possibly a Model T) and in the distance are some streetcars. Also, its going to be impossible to get a photo from this era and see a lot detail of anything that is moving because of the long exposure time. --​​​​Dtbohrer​​​​^{talk•contribs} 10:41, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

True, but they're so small and blurry that it's hard to get excited about them. Don't get me wrong: it's a great image of Erie. But I can't really see someone using it as, say, a desktop wallpaper, or wanting a print of it for their wall, or being strongly emotionally moved by it - but that's true for most FPs. Adam Cuerden ^talk 06:55, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

If I might make a suggestion: Erie was a big rail town until standardisation really took hold sometime after 1858, right? Well, I work a lot with newspapers from the mid-1800s, and there's some really excellent engraving work in them, particularly the illustrated weekly newspapers (Illustrated London News, etc. I'm sure that America had a few.) I'll bet if you look in American illustrated newspapers and periodicals for 1858 you could find some great engravings of the standardisation riots. Adam Cuerden ^talk 07:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose per above.--Mad Max 21:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
• Support -- A striking historical image. By today's technology, we'd be able to make a better image, but that preserved style unto itself has inherent historical value. --Midnightdreary 18:38, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Not promoted MER-C 06:38, 24 July 2007 (UTC)