Author: Ed Erhart

Today, scientists can tell us with certainty that increased carbon dioxide emissions are warming the planet. But who was the first to discover this, and when did that happen?  I’ll bet it’s earlier than you think. Meet Eunice Newton Foote: a 19th century American scientist, inventor, and women’s rights activist whose contributions to climate science….

It’s possible that right now, as you read these words, a WikiGap event is being held in a Swedish embassy somewhere in the world. Created through a joint effort from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Wikimedia Sverige, an independent Wikimedia movement affiliate organization in Sweden, WikiGap edit-a-thon events bring people together across countries….

It’s called the ‘great man theory‘: the idea that large swaths of human history can be explained by the actions of so-called great men.  These days, that theory has been resoundingly discredited—but popular history’s long reliance on it has contributed towards an imbalance of stories told about women in the history learned in schools and….

It’s June 19, 1838. No one knows it yet, but the American Civil War will kick off in just over two decades. Slavery in the United States will come to an end after that conflict—but for now, the sale of enslaved human beings is still legal. Now, let’s bring in the Jesuits, a Catholic religious….

The history of Black Americans has often been lost, overlooked, or credited to others. Unfortunately, that also includes the influence of Black women on the United States’ food and drink history. Meet Lena Richard: the first Black woman to host a cooking television show in the United States. That may sound like a big achievement,….

Wikipedia is known for being the world’s largest encyclopedia that anyone can edit—but that does not mean everyone does. Whether due to social, political, or technological barriers that prevent people from sharing what they know with the world, the site is still missing out on a lot of the world’s wealth of knowledge. In particular,….

It has been a long year dominated by news headline after news headline. The Russian government invaded Ukraine. Queen Elizabeth II died. Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. The World Cup. Everything surrounding Elon Musk. Wikipedia isn’t immune to that phenomenon. But in 2022, one particular English Wikipedia article captivated readers like you more than any….

This is my sixth annual post sharing the list of Wikipedia’s most popular articles of the year, and each year I’ve had to come up with different ways of saying “people really love the latest pop culture.” Then 2020 happened — and, as with most things this year, the list was very different. Instead of….

The child of a monkey holds on to its mother tightly. A lone straw bale stands in a field prior to being collected. A few rays of sunlight filter into a dark, foreboding cave filled with clear blue water. These are a mere three of the imagination-fueling winners from the international Wiki Loves Earth photography….

Boats moored in Zoebigker Harbor on Lake Cospuden, located near Markkleeberg, Saxony, Germany. This photo comes to us from Wikimedia Commons, the freely licensed media repository whose holdings are extensively used on Wikimedia’s many projects, including Wikipedia. You can use the photo for just about any purpose as long as you credit the author (Ansgar….