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Kyle Keeler (February 23, 2023). "How Wikipedia Erases Indigenous History". Slate. Retrieved May 26, 2024. Wikipedia's page on Jefferson, himself an architect of Indian Removal, draws on outdated scholarship from the 1970s to argue that Jefferson wanted what "was best for American Indians." One sentence alludes to recent scholarship arguing that Jefferson removed Native peoples to gain land. During a discussion about Jefferson's role in removal, the editor responsible for almost a quarter of the pages for Washington, Jefferson, and Ulysses S. Grant made false, racist claims, writing, "We certainly don't want to connotate any negativity towards Jefferson, do we? Okay, we can mention that many tribes were war like, xenophobic, refused to assimilate and that for everyone's own good and general welfare it was deemed best to keep the two diametrically opposed cultures in separate parts of the country."
is the current illustration in the infobox of the article. Its filename is "Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrant Peale, 1800).jpg, and the word "official" appears at various places in the meta-data, but Wcamp9 has removed the word "Official" from the caption, with the edit summary saying, "Not his official portrait". I am not too concerned about whether or not this portrait is or was "Official" -- that's not a requirement for infobox portraits of presidents -- but I am curious about what "official" means in this context. Bruce leverett (talk) 00:10, 1 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I have four reasons why I don't see this as his official portrait
1) It was made by Rembrandt Peale, not the government - this will cause confusion as official photographers who either work for the government or the president take modern official portraits, making the caption confusing
2) Other portraits could be considered official - while this is the most famous painting of Jefferson, Gilbert Stuart's painting could also be considered as official since its on the $2 bill.
3) It was made a year before Jefferson was President - no official portrait, which is presumably made for his presidency, would be made the year before he was president
4) It's just the file name - Many file names are simply that and the meaning they convey is inaccurate.
The definition for "Official" or "Official portrait" is one recognized by the government as such and is made by the government or an affiliate. The portraits from Harry Truman and on are official portraits of Presidents taken by people in or closely related to the government. Wcamp9 (talk) 00:28, 1 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The current understanding of the "official" part in the lemma as you mention last relates to the existence of a somehow counted and supervised diffusion of reproductions, otherwise the exceptional exhibition of a one-shot in a very specially dedicated place. This didn't and couldn't apply in their contemporay situation for many important people in the past, excluding money and votative stamps. About those people we're used to translate that "very specially dedicated place" into, peacefully, our common recognition of the one representation matching the best our need for one. It's true the portrait was painted when Jefferson was a vice-president. It does not appear the portrait was made entirely outside of the official need for one. --Askedonty (talk) 20:30, 3 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
level-4 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the 