Talk:William Goldman (photographer)

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 19:57, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

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Woman inspecting photographs by William Goldman

Photograph by William Goldman

• ... that in the 1890s, William Goldman secretly assembled a collection of photographs of the prostitutes of Reading, Pennsylvania?
  • ALT1:... that William Goldman's photographs of the prostitutes of Reading, Pennsylvania, offer insights into fashion, interior decoration, and social conditions in the 1890s?

• Reviewed: Savannah darter

Created by Philafrenzy (talk) and Whispyhistory (talk). Nominated by Philafrenzy (talk) at 12:09, 5 December 2019 (UTC).

• Two very interesting hooks. They are cited offline so they are AGF. There are no copyright violations, QPQ is done, sources look reliable, article is stable, has no outstanding tags, and complies with MOS. The only concern (though not a requirement or issue for this DYK) is the statement "Census records do not show that he married or had children." This can be borderline original research because the sources you use are primary. If you were to find a third-party source that confirms that, you should be fine. Otherwise, you're interpreting the sources yourself. Anyhow, great article and very interesting read. MX (✉ • ✎) 17:24, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. I found a book source confirming he never married and moved the censuses to external links. Philafrenzy (talk) 22:38, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

P.S. I really hope we will use the first image. It's the key one in the article in my view as it clearly shows how the women were in on what he was doing and that the images were once gathered in albums. Philafrenzy (talk) 09:16, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

• ALT0a ... that in the 1890s, William Goldman, a freemason and pillar of the community, secretly assembled a collection of photographs of the prostitutes of Reading, Pennsylvania?

I am suggesting ALT0a, but it would need a cite for the "freemason and pillar of the community" bit. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 07:28, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

I could substitute "fraternalist" for pillar of the community on the basis of the many fraternal organisations he was a member of, but I am not sure that it needs amending at all. Philafrenzy (talk) 09:15, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

Thoughts further improvements

When you consider the times, it is a minor miracle this collection survived in any form. I would expect that in almost every instance when a collection of photos like these were found, they were destroyed to prevent a scandal. (I wonder if the chain of ownership could ever be reconstructed.) I would also expect that even if he did not write a will, there was a probate of his estate, which would include an inventory of his possessions, as well as a list of heirs. (Which would also include friends & associates, since he had no children.) -- llywrch (talk) 16:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Indeed. It was one step from destruction in fact as it was the dealer who removed them from the albums to sell them individually, because she thought she would get more money that way. Had Johnson not visited that fair on that day, the whole collection would gradually have been dispersed and impossible to reconstruct as there were no markings on the back of most of the photographs, just a few pencil notes on the back of one of them I believe. Once dispersed they would have mostly been indistinguishable from any number of vintage female nudes. Philafrenzy (talk) 18:09, 14 January 2020 (UTC)