Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/John Gould Stephenson/archive1

John Gould Stephenson

John Gould Stephenson (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

As of 19 September 2024, 02:00 (UTC), this page is active and open for discussion. An FAC coordinator will be responsible for closing the nomination.

• Featured article candidates/John Gould Stephenson/archive1

Nominator(s): Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 15:32, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

John Gould Stephenson might just be the most obscure Librarian of Congress; he was a political appointee with no real experience with libraries, spent most of his time in office serving in the Union Army, and is mostly known for his appointee of the far more important Ainsworth Rand Spofford as assistant librarian during his tenure. Despite all this, he managed to lead an interesting (if poorly-documented at some points) life. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 15:32, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Image review

• File:John_g_stephenson.jpg: when and where was this first published? Nikkimaria (talk) 17:16, 1 September 2024 (UTC)
  • Could find no evidence it was published, so put the unpublished PD tag instead. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 17:24, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Comments from Steelkamp

I'll comment later. Steelkamp (talk) 10:47, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

@Steelkamp: I implemented all of these! Ty very much. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 19:00, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I aim to complete this review by the end of the week. I will have some more comments, which will take some time. Steelkamp (talk) 14:36, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

• There are some instances of "Librarian of Congress" that go against MOS:JOBTITLES.
• "he attended education at" -> "he was educated at"
• "He moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, in the early 1850s, where he became active in the temperance movement and the nascent Republican Party. He campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in the 1859 Senate race in Illinois and the 1860 presidential election. He pursued an appointment of Librarian of Congress immediately following Lincoln's election, possibly due to his brother's work as a librarian in Cincinnati." -> "Stephenson moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, in the early 1850s, where he became active in the temperance movement and the nascent Republican Party. He campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in the 1859 Senate race in Illinois and the 1860 presidential election, and pursued an appointment of Librarian of Congress immediately following Lincoln's election, possibly due to his brother's work as a librarian in Cincinnati." This avoids there being three sentences in a row that begin with the same word, and makes it so that Stephenson is mentioned by name more than once in the entire paragraph.
  • Good, but now there are a bunch of terms that are no longer linked which probably should be.
• Cincinatti can be linked.
• "Lincoln appointed him" -> "Lincoln appointed Stephenson".
• "He died on November 11, 1883, after several months of illness" -> "He died after several months of illness" as the date is redundant to the first sentence of the lead.
• "J. G. Stephenson". Use a non-breaking space between the J and G as per MOS:INITIALS.
• "additionally serving variously as a selectman, county coroner, deputy sheriff, constable, fire warden, and high sheriff." -> "additionally serving as a selectman, county coroner, deputy sheriff, constable, fire warden, and high sheriff."
• "He was one of Lincoln's earliest advocates" -> "Stephenson was one of Lincoln's earliest advocates"
• Does Patriarch have to have a capital P?
• Chicago can be linked.
• "beginning within a few weeks of the election". Is this a few weeks before or after the election?
• "In March 1861, Senator Henry S. Lane also wrote to Lincoln in support" -> "in March 1861, Senator Henry S. Lane wrote to Lincoln in support".
• "Stephenson arrived in Washington". Should this be Washington, D.C.? Also, it can be linked.
• "Dole, Lincoln's Commissioner of Indian Affairs, described meeting with Lincoln to urge Stephenson's appointment." This sentence should end with a colon instead.
• "His longtime ally and associate" -> "Meehan's longtime ally and associate"
• "and asked Caleb B. Smith if Stephenson had resigned." Why did Lincoln think that Stephenson had resigned?
• Is the 19th Indiana Regiment and the 19th Indiana Infantry the same thing?
• "Stephenson began to spend extended periods in military service soon after his appointment as Librarian of Congress." Maybe add that this was due to the Civil War.
• "He is recorded as a resident of Washington". Is this still Washington, D.C.? It should be clarified.
• "where he stated he was discharged without a given cause." -> "where he was discharged without a given cause."
• "he entered employment" -> "Stephenson entered employment".

Those are the only comments I have. Steelkamp (talk) 16:07, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

Joeyquism

Committing to a review; should have a few comments by end of today! I'll have a more full-bodied review posted tomorrow after work. joeyquism (talk) 02:13, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Below are a few things I've noted. As with most of my reviews, many comments are nit; feel free to refuse any as you wish.

Lead

• "he attended education at Dartmouth" - I'll admit, I haven't seen this wording used before; perhaps this could do without "education at"?
• "nascent" - while I would personally be comfortable using this word in regular conversation, I would opt for "newly-formed" in the lead.
• "Stephenson begun" - should this be "began"?
• "He served in various positions as a clerk" - would "law clerk" or "judicial clerk" be accurate here?

Early life and career

• "He initially pursued further education at Dartmouth Medical School, before transferring" - I don't think there should be a comma between "School" and "before"

Will finish tomorrow. Work demands I be there early tomorrow, so I've gotta clock out earlier than I wanted. I'll strike this out later. joeyquism (talk) 03:04, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Further comments are listed below. I'll admit I'm in a reviewing slump, so forgive me if any of these seem silly.

• "(becoming a Patriarch of the local Sons of Temperance chapter)" - Any particular reason why this phrase is in parentheses?
  • No clue why, removed this. - G
• "A February 1860 notice in the Wabash Express attempted to clarify a controversial political statement from him, printing "J. G. Stephenson did not say that all men were created free and equal. He held just what the writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence held, namely, 'that all men are created equal.'"" - Is there any more context to this sentence? I understand that the paragraph it belongs to is laying out the beginning of his political career, but I feel like this particular sentence could benefit from a little more outlining - i.e. is there more background to what prompted him to give such a statement?
  • Not really with the source... I realized it's kinda nonsensical; it probably is him trying to couch abolitionist sentiments, but since the author doesnt expand on this point, I'll just remove it. - G

Librarian of Congress

• "While the number of other candidates for the position is unknown, at least three people wrote to Lincoln asking for Hezekiah Lord Hosmer to be appointed as librarian." - This seems extraneous?
  • Yeah, reduced this. - G
• "Stephenson himself arrived in Washington..." - Not sure if "himself" is needed, as there's no prior mention of anyone else arriving in Washington
  • Removed. - G
• "Although publicly apolitical, Meehan himself faced rumors of southern sympathies." - Also not sure of "himself" here; should "southern" be capitalized as well?
• "Stephenson was infuriated by the presence of the War Department's bakeries in the Capitol basement" - Wikilinking "bakeries" might be overlinking
  • Removed. - G
• Rest looks great.

Later life and death

• Just out of curiousity, is there any more background on why there's such a large gap between the suspected years Stephenson joined the Bureau of Pensions? Nothing here I can see in need of fixing otherwise; just wondering about this sentence.
  • No clue! The two sources give conflicting dates and neither seems clearly correct. - g

@Joeyquism: Forgot to say I corrected these! Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 18:49, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Looking good on the fixes! Sorry for getting back to you past the time I promised; life's been getting the best of me lately. Will have some more comments down and a finished review tonight. joeyquism (talk) 23:06, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

@Generalissima: Left just a few more comments above; everything seems to be in great shape otherwise. Just a few minor things that may or may not need addressing and I'll likely come back to support. joeyquism (talk) 23:44, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

• @Joeyquism: Okay! Looks like I got to everything. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 03:59, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

  Everything looks great! Glad to give my support. joeyquism (talk) 16:33, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Source review by IntentionallyDense

I will be doing a source review for this article. I do this in a table format to keep things organized. I will update the table as I go and ping the nominator when done. IntentionallyDense (talk) 03:01, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

Source Review

Section	Status	Sources I couldn't access	Comments
Early life and career	Done	None	"On March 1, 1828, John Gould Stephenson was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, to Reuben and Mary King Stephenson (née Baker), the fourth of eight children." Not seeing "née Baker" on page 77 of the source but I may be missing something. IntentionallyDense (talk) 03:23, 7 September 2024 (UTC) "Reuben Stephenson was a merchant who operated a general store in Lancaster" Not seeing the general store part in either sources. IntentionallyDense (talk) 03:23, 7 September 2024 (UTC) "where he was described as an "efficient speaker" by Indiana politician William P. Dole" I do see the quote in both sources but not that it was said by William P. Dole. IntentionallyDense (talk) 03:23, 7 September 2024 (UTC)
Librarian of Congress	Done	None	The first paragraph under "Appointment" is sourced by Carter 1976, pp. 79–80. I don't think anything in this paragraph comes from page 79 so I think you could change this to just p. 80. IntentionallyDense (talk) 13:06, 13 September 2024 (UTC) Same thing with the first half of the second paragraph in this section. IntentionallyDense (talk) 13:06, 13 September 2024 (UTC) "The incumbent librarian, John Silva Meehan, had held the position since 1829." Not seeing the 1829 part in the two pages you listed here. IntentionallyDense (talk) 13:06, 13 September 2024 (UTC)
Later life and death	Done	None	Is there a reason why ref33 does not have a page number? IntentionallyDense (talk) 21:57, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

@Generalissima: I have finished my source review. Overall sourcing is great but I like to nitpick so I've brought up some tiny things that I noticed. Of course, there are things I could have missed, and I'll be honest I was a bit less thorough with the second half of the article because my source checks were coming back clean every time. IntentionallyDense (talk) 21:57, 17 September 2024 (UTC)