Wikipedia talk:WikiProject United States

Main pageTalkEmbassyRequested
ArticlesMembersPortalRecognized
contentTo doHelp

Welcome to the discussion page of WikiProject United States

Andrew Mellon Building, 1785 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC

I am a retired British Diplomat. In December, 1940 my father, a British Civil Servant working for the Air Ministry was transferred from the British Supply Board to Canada in Montreal, Canada, to the British Air Commission in Washington DC. That Commission, headed by Sir Henry Self and later by Sir Richard Fairey (of Fairey Aviation) occupied the whole of the Andrew Mellon building. My father's office was in what had been the main bathroom of Andrew Mellon's apartment.(the bath taps, which had reputedly been gold plated, had been removed!). He worked there until his section needed more room and the Commission acquired an annexe at 1520, 18th Street. My father's office was on the top floor of that building and that floor was used by the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate which had British inspectors stationed at all the industrial installations in the USA making aircraft and aeronautical equipment for the British Government during the war. Winding down the Commission's activities took a long time after the war and my father was in charge of winding up the activities of the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate. He completed that task in March, 1946 and returned to the UK. Unfortunately, I do not know either when the British Air Commission first occupied the Andrew Mellon Building, nor when they vacated it. It had already been occupied by them for some time when we arrived in December, 1940 and was probably still occupied by them until late 1945 or early 1946. No doubt the lease records held by the owners will give the actual dates.

I attended High School at Western High School, Washington, DC, and graduated from there in June, 1943, at the age of 16. I then went to George Washington University, but was forced to abandon my studies there in May, 1945 and return to England to do military service. ( I served 3 years in the RAF, finally being demobilied in 1948. I then studied for, and successfully took, the competitive examinsations for entry into the British Civil Service, joining the Foreign Service in February, 1950. I retired from that Service (which had been renamed the Diplomatic Service) in 1987 at the age of 60, having served in 11 different countries, including 3 years as Special Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei. See also the British version of Who's Who. ) During my High School summer vacations, like many American schoolchildren, I got a job. I worked in the mail room of the British Air Commission for 8 weeks in 1943 in the Andrew Mellon Building.

The existing Wikipedia article on the Andrew Mellon Building makes no mention of the wartime role of the building. I hope I am not alone in thinking that that should be remedied.

You may not know that there were so many British Government missions in Washington DC during the war that part of K street West of 18th Street NW was nicknamed "Little Whitehall" from the number of British missions which had offices on that street. It might make an interesting topic for research, perhaps as part of a broader look into all the foreign missions in Washington during World War II. It ought to include the struggles between the unofficial De Gaullist mission and that which backed General Giraud as being the true representatives of Free France.

86.17.101.206 (talk) 11:38, 10 August 2015 (UTC)Eric V Nelson eandmnelson@ntlworld.com

You and other editors can put this information into an article, providing WP:Reliable sources can be cited. This does not, alas, include anyone's unpublished personal memories. Jim.henderson (talk) 22:07, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Knowledge of local governments in Alabama?

I've been working on List of cities and towns in Alabama trying to get it up to featured status. I'm wondering if anybody has knowledge on the specific role of local governments in Alabama. It seems most of the documents I can find give most of the local governance power to the county. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Mattximus (talk) 01:05, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

"-American" or "-Americans"

FYI, there's an RFC going on at WP:VPR the Village Pump, concerning article naming for using "XYZ American" or "XYZ Americans" as the title of these ethnic articles -- 67.70.32.190 (talk) 05:37, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Confusing lists in Culture of United States

There is someone removing redirects and pointing all the articles about Art in the United states to a bunch of circular lists that they have created.

• Art of the United States was a redirect to Visual art of the United States
  • It essentially lists every artist in that article and links to
  • Colonial American Art which is a list
  • 18th-century American Art which is a list
  • 19th-century American Art which is a list
• Previously American art went to the disambiguation page American art (disambiguation) but it is now redirected to Art of the United States

The major articles Visual art of the United States, Music of the United States, Cuisine of the United States are being unlinked and added to the bottoms of these pages as misc "See also" articles.

Dunno if anyone cares, just pointing it out.--Savonneux (talk) 12:25, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, this is a problem. I have restored some of the old links and redirects, but not tackled the period lists, which something needs to be done about - perhaps just deletion. WP:FORK applies. Wikiproject Visual art certainly care - that should have been notified, & I will copy all this there. Johnbod (talk) 12:22, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Wasn't sure where to go. I mostly just do cleanup.--Savonneux (talk) 12:43, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

United States v. Washington Featured Article Candidate

United States v. Washington is undergoing evaluation for possible promotion to Featured Article at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/United States v. Washington/archive1. Feel free to stop by and assist in assessing this article. GregJackP Boomer! 17:22, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

For translation purposes: Bilingual glossaries of terms related to US History and Government

Dear Wikipedians,

If you want to translate material about the US government and history into: Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish: I found some glossaries: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/bilingual_glossaries.htm - I hope they may be useful in your efforts to translate WhisperToMe (talk) 16:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

confuse

peace be upon those who follow guidance. 151.248.26.18 (talk) 00:30, 3 September 2015 (UTC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Young_Allee 151.248.26.18 (talk) 00:30, 3 September 2015 (UTC)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Allee these two article are about the same peson-as i saw-, even not i suggest to make a disambiguation.

Two different people. One is the grandson of the other. — Maile (talk) 23:03, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Need to upgrade importance of Coastal erosion in southeast Louisiana article

For the life of me, I cannot understand why low importance is being placed on the Coastal erosion in Southeast Louisiana article, as indicated in the template, when so much is at stake for the survival of my region. Sorry folks, but that that is unacceptable. How would you feel if your state lost 30 football fields a day? I'm sure that if it happened to any other state, it would get a higher level of importance. The Louisiana wetlands serve as a critical barrier against storm surges during hurricanes and tie into the ecosystem of the whole nation. Keep in mind that New Orleans sits at a crucial strategic point the mouth of the largest river of commerce in the world and has a tri-axial port: 1) sea port 2) North-South river port, and 3) an east-west port, the Intercostal waterway, which runs East and West. What do you think Jefferson had in mind when he bought Louisiana? In his writings he said that the primary reason was to gain access to the port of New Orleans. But, our region is threated and needs more than this kind of lackluster response. Upgrade the article's importance please! Garagepunk66 (talk) 01:29, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Well, Animalparty is the one who put that assessment there. However, there's nothing to stop you, or anyone else, from editing the talk page and upgrading the importance. — Maile (talk) 22:56, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

@Garagepunk66: The importance scale is somewhat subjective, and anyone is free to reassess. Per the WikiProject US importance scale: The criteria used for rating article importance are not meant to be an absolute or canonical view of how significant the topic is. Rather, they attempt to gauge the probability of the average reader of Wikipedia needing to look up the topic (and thus the immediate need to have a suitably well-written article on it). Thus, subjects with greater popular notability may be rated higher than topics which are arguably more "important" but which are of interest primarily to students of the United States. One rule of thumb I use "how likely is this subject to appear in a book on X", with X being the Project title. I have no qualms with Coastal erosion in Southeast Louisiana being a Mid level importance. Note that I ranked the article for the United States project, leaving WP Louisiana assessed; it probably merits a higher priority on the Louisiana sub-project. --Animalparty! (talk) 23:16, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Incomplete section on unicameralism

This section on unicameralism in the U.S.A. is incomplete in that it speaks only of present-day unicameralism and says nothing of states and territories in the U.S.A. that had unicameral legislatures in the past. Michael Hardy (talk) 03:18, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Task Force K-Bar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_K-Bar

The image with the text "US Navy SEALs from Task Force K-Bar in Afghanistan, 2002." is incorrect. This is not an American soldier, in fact, it is a Norwegian Special Operator from FSK or MJK. Not only have I seen the image before somewhere in a Norwegian setting, but you can see it on the camouflage pattern he uses (partrol hat, jacket and chestrig) which is exclusively used by Norwegians.

He even uses the standard Norwegian "GRU (Grunnutrustning)" (chestrig setup).

The desert-pants however, are similar to what US (and other) forces use. It's not unusual that NORSOF use American and British gear, but the other way around REALLY is.

Even the headpiece is consistent with both form and color of the standard Norwegian Armed Forces "balaklava".

The fact that this article was actually made by US military personell is really embarassing. Get your facts straight.

Sorry for the bad English. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.97.234.98 (talk) 22:52, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Please post this message at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history. That would be the best place to get a response on this subject. — Maile (talk) 23:00, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

US Navy renames

See WP:RM/C#September_11,_2015 for several USN renames that have showed up -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 04:56, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

1969 Greensboro Riot

  I was actively involved with this event and severely dispute a number of the events as contrived in this article. I was a member of the Greensboro Youth Council and Claude Barnes served on the committee I headed. This article is very incomplete, does not convey a number of related issues, and generally is lacking in factual recollections both pro and con related to this incident.