“Did You Know… that the Rotherwas Room, once used as a private dining parlor for nobles in 17th-century England and for public poetry readings by Robert Frost, is now open to visitors in the Mead Art Museum?”
Students from Nicola Courtright’s Amherst College Rotherwas Fellows Summer 2015 course proposed that question as a “Did You Know?” on Wikipedia, and it made Wikipedia’s front page, gathering more than 1,600 page views. Students created the article, drawing from historical books and newspaper articles, and contributed photographs.
The Rotherwas Room itself dates to the 17th century and was reassembled at Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum in 1948. It serves as an example of the Jacobean style of architecture popular at the time.
The article is a great integration of photography into a written Wikipedia assignment, which can create richer articles and deepen the assignment’s media literacy impact. You can read more about photos as a stand-alone assignment, or complement to the writing assignment, here.
Thanks to these students for contributing both text and photos of a local landmark to share with the world!
Photo: “Rotherwas Room East View” by Stephen Petegorsky – Mead Art Museum. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons –here.
