Talk:List of historical societies

Questionable link and value
The following entry in the main article will be deleted soon unless the site has a description for readers to learn about. This link has no value to Wikipedia:
 * Medieval Center (French) (Medieval Center official website) Requires membership login. No description or "about" given.
 * LanceBarber 01:23, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Definitions
Perhaps a definition of historical society would be welcomed. David Descamps (talk) 15:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Good idea.LanceBarber (talk) 14:54, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Infobox
Please include Template:Infobox Organization2 when adding or editing articles on individual historical societies. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 13:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)


 * It is deprecated (now is a redirect), instead please use Infobox Organization. Locos ~ epraix Beaste~praix 21:41, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

society

 * A non-profit organization registered with local and federal government (i.e. IRS). Organization has a foundation/board of directors with policies and procedures to govern all aspects of collections, registraring into "public trust", public access, preservation, restorations, research, education, storage, public display and/or access through its museum or host organization, and disposition upon failure of the organization.


 * discussion/refinement:


 * I see Historical Society links directly to this List page. I recommend creating a separate article for historical society, which is what I think you have in mind.  I like this start.  Maybe change to "organization usually registered" as to open up the criteria.  Maybe also include..."Generally, historical societies have a regional focus such as at the state, county or town level or on a specific subject, such as a Naval historical society." FieldMarine (talk) 03:00, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

studies

 * A university or college department and/or study group with governance by the educational board or trustees with policies and procedures governing the collections, registraring, preservation, restorations, research, storage and curriculum for student and faculty processes.


 * discussion/refinement:

This the first cut at a discussion and refinement for the purpose of defining the boundaries of this article.... whether there is a need to combine both societies and studies into one article or separate them into individual articles. This includes the coordination with appropriate Wikipedia projects: WikiProject History, WikiProject United States History, and non-US country history or "child" projects. LanceBarber (talk) 15:35, 12 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for getting the discussion started. FieldMarine (talk) 22:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I added a definition of historical society...please edit away. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 12:46, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Category naming for historical societies
I see:
 * "Category:History organizations"... High level
 * "Category:Historical societies" ... Main level ... variety of orgs, world-wide
 * "Category:United States historical societies"... Sub level ... all state, county, local orgs

Currently I am working on a list of the historical societies in New York State, of which there may be about 100, currently within a draft article Historic preservation in New York. I am thinking that I will create a new category, Category:Historical societies in New York.

For articles about each one individually, to what categories should they be attached? Just one, all of the above?

Seems like "Category:Historical societies" should be the parent category, to which "Category:Historical societies in New York" is a child. All the New York ones would belong to the parent by inclusion of the subcategory name.

What do others think? doncram (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 17:29, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I took the liberty of "bulleting " and linking the above categories and ranked them.
 * Having a new category would parallel museums at the state level, ie. Category:Museums in New York or Category:Museums in Colorado. And these state museum categories are members of Category: Museums in the United States
 * So having 50 new hist. soc. categories would be logical, providing:


 * 1) all categories are properly linked and sub-cat.'d
 * 2) then each hist. soc. only needs to belong to one cat (monitoring this would be continuous)
 * 3) instead of creating a new list of NY hist. soc. they'd be placed into a double column section in this article. (how many of these 100 will be new wiki articles?? ________
 * 4) Summarize our ideas and place it in the appropriate Wiki Project Talk..... LanceBarber (talk) 20:05, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I concur as well. If you have more than 10 articles, I recommend creating a Category:New York historical societies under the subcat Category:United States historical societies which should be under the subcat Category:Historical societies.  Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 02:59, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Discussion on specific items included

 * Fairfield Museum and History Center appears to be a museum and library and not an actual historical society.
 * Connecticut Hummanities Council appears to be a list of museums & does not appear to be an actual historical society.

I recommend removing these entries. Please discuss. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 22:04, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * According to the page at http://www.fairfieldhistoricalsociety.org/mission-history-staff.php "The Fairfield Museum and History Center was established in 2007 by the 103-year-old Fairfield Historical Society." There is also a more detailed history of the society itself at http://www.fairfieldhistoricalsociety.org/pdfs/FHS-Origins.pdf. It appears that the Museum and History Center is a building run and maintained by the Fairfield Historical Society (an organization that has no separate wikipedia article at this time).  If the Museum and History Center were removed from this list it seems that adding the Fairfield Historical Society should then be done. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 12:44, 17 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I also noticed the sentence at the top of the article page that reads "Many historical societies websites are their museums websites". It appears that Fairfield Museum and History Center and Fairfield Historical Society fall into the rule covered by that sentence.  Hence I suspect that Fairfield Museum and History Center could stay.  67.86.73.252 (talk) 12:58, 17 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Based on your comments, my recommendation would be to change "Fairfield Museum and History Center" to "Fairfield Historical Society" on this article and add "Fairfield Museum and History Center" to the List of museums in Connecticut. I understand that there are many historical societies that take up residence in museums and historical centers, but IMHO this list should be reserved for the organizations, not the buildings.  I realize in certain instances one name could serve for both the society and the building title, but it does not look like the case here. FieldMarine (talk) 13:18, 20 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The "Fairfield Museum and History Center" is already listed in the List of museums in Connecticut article. I suppose you could edit the entry within this article to point to Fairfield Historical Society or to point to an as yet unwritten Fairfield Historical Society article. A list of non existent articles can be helpful as a to do list (that is one of the great values of list articles on wikipedia in my opinion). 67.86.73.252 (talk) 02:23, 23 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree completely about including non-existing articles in the list for the reasons you mentioned with the goal of eventually writting articles on those listings later. Anyway, I'll make the change to the Fairfield Historical Society as I believe it would be the more appropriate listing for this article.  BTW -- Bravo Zulu on adding the remaining national level societies. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 03:13, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

FieldMarine recommended removing the Connecticut Hummanities Council entry because it was to a list. I just added an entry to a directory of Wisconsin historical societies. There are over 360 societies in that directory. Would you rather I added all 360 societies to this article? Just what are the criteria for inclusion in this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.76.134.130 (talk) 20:27, 3 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Definition added at historical society with link to/from this article. I suggest adding a separate page for any place/subject with over 50 societies & link that article to this page.  For example, List of historical societies in Wisconsin.  Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 12:46, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Do not list (?)
I presume that H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society should not appear on the list in this article. Would anyone disagree? 67.86.73.252 (talk) 00:12, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure if Historical Miniatures Gaming Society or a local chapter of HMGS-Great Lakes should be included in this article. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 00:27, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Another three that I am unsure of include: the Society for Creative Anachronism, Nova Roma, and the Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia. 67.86.73.252 (talk) 00:44, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Some of these could be transferred/copied to Jackiespeel (talk) 09:25, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

External links tag
I recommend eliminating the “External links” tag at the beginning of this article. This project is a work in progress & the external links are useful until an article in Wikipedia is created, at which time the external link on this list will be removed. Thus, the number of external links on this list will be reduced over time (hopefully) as Wikipedia articles are created on each historical society. IMHO, the “External links” tag does not serve this article well or add value & should be eliminated. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 16:02, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Norwegian spellings
Can Bod? Aviation Historical Society be corrected please. Jackiespeel (talk) 09:24, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Queries about entries
Is the Miles Canyon Historical Society this ? Jackiespeel (talk) 22:44, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

'The Historical Society' under 'Time-period oriented societies' needs expanding slightly - and the University of York in the same area seems to have migrated from the UK. Jackiespeel (talk) 15:40, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Entries on the list
There is an equivalent page on the Local History wiki at and many of the societies have basic entries - so if someone wishes to 'borrow' the entries and update here (or whatever other method suits)  feel free to make use of what is there. They are many and there is only me, so only limited work can be done with them. Jackiespeel (talk) 18:03, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I am finding that quite a few of the societies are not visible on the web - or that there are bodies of slightly different names (some societies have morphed into museums etc). Jackiespeel (talk) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Entries on the list
As a discussion point:

Should the entries be bracketed up - or should the brackets be removed in most cases and links provided to the websites of the various bodies themselves for those ones where the WP page would be little more than 'A (location, state) historical society (interested in particular area of research - aviation, railways etc), founded in (date). The website is (link)'? Jackiespeel (talk) 10:39, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Alternatively have a brief descriptive of the society on the WP page on the locality. Jackiespeel (talk) 09:39, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion
Given the number of US-based historical societies, should there be a separate page for them? Jackiespeel (talk) 17:01, 23 September 2015 (UTC)


 * No need – this is the English-language Wikipedia and we emphasize English-language historical societies with publications in English. This is not a page that people will read straight through, it is really an index to available materials In Wikipedia. Rjensen (talk) 18:07, 23 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Sometimes useful to consider the options as to what is most practical - and 'given the numbers' it is a possibility. My comment about the entries on the Local History wiki stands. Jackiespeel (talk) 22:25, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

Entries
Pakistan Museum of Natural History does not belong on this list.

Bod? Aviation Historical Society, Norway could possibly be Aviation History Society Norway

Tramway Historical Society New Zealand should be moved from Aviation historical societies to a separate Railway/Railroad historical societies along with a number of the country-listed entries under Subject Matter-Based Historical Societies.

I know the Local History Wiki pages are stubs/start class 'but there is only me.' Jackiespeel (talk) 17:17, 12 January 2017 (UTC)