Template talk:George Washington

Query

Was checking to see if this navbox is intended to be comprehensive and cover all articles related to Washington. I ask because the articles on his two primary riding horses, Nelson (horse) and Blueskin (horse) are not listed. Should they be? Is there another overview or list article where they could be linked? Thanks Montanabw^(talk) 06:52, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Good find. Nelson was included, but just listed as 'Horse' under the Military section. I've added Blueskin per your suggestion, and brought out Nelson's name. Interesting articles. Randy Kryn 9:22 20 December, 2014 (UTC)

It's a small OCD-ism on my part, but I have sort of set aside a small portion of my brain to helping people understand that the "white" horse wasn't Nelson, it was Blueskin (who was technically a gray). Nelson was a chestnut (Even non-horsey people can tell them apart! Yay!). I think it intriguing that Washington himself clearly understood the important symbolism of a "white" horse, most portrayals do clearly show Blueskin still having some dark points in his mane and tail, so artists DID know they were painting a gray, even many years later (with some notable exceptions) .... FWIW, I'd love to be able to get the [1], [2] color versions of those two B&W portraits I used in each article into Commons, but I cannot find a proper original source for them. Any advice? Also, I'd give my eyeteeth to get this painting of Nelson into commons, but ditto as to not being able to cite to original source. Any help ? Montanabw^(talk) 16:58, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Also welcome any expansion on those articles from the MilHist perspective. I'm just a horse nut... Montanabw^(talk) 17:00, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Nice. I'm certainly not the one to ask about commons and Wikipedia coding and uploading, areas Im very ignorant about. It should be easy enough though, if they are not copyrighted, I think you just load them up then but not totally sure. Thanks for the education in the above, it is interesting that the white horse meme was present in Washington's time, and that he consciously used it - bits of history like that are really fun to read. Randy Kryn 22:26 20 December, 2014 (UTC)

What I was hoping for is if you have any lists of portraits depicting Washington on a horse that can be linked to the LOC or someplace that verifies artist, date and all that...I can find the images all over the place, but not with artist data... I can upload if I can identify source, but commons is really fussy about copyright. As for Washington on a "white" horse, I can't really verify that he rode a white horse on purpose just for the symbolism, but he had an eye for a good, flashy horse for parade and review purposes, white horses were known to stand out in a crowd (probably another reason he rode Nelson in battle - to NOT be as obvious a target) and he had to be aware at some level of the symbolism of the color. He also used Blueskin's sire "Ranger" on many of his mares. Montanabw^(talk) 23:30, 22 December 2014 (UTC)