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The Spanish American War Centennial Website needs your help! We are activly seeking contributors to the site, either professional or amateur historians who would like to write on an aspect or a personality of the conflict, or persons who would like to contibute copies of original diaries, reminisences and/or pictures from ancestors who served in the war.

This page will describe the types of items that the website editors are seeking to add to the evergrowing volume of information available on the website. It also describes how to reserve a topic, provides basic format guidelines, information on how to submit your contributions and also suggests some specific topics we are hoping to include.

If you need more information, please email us!
 

What types of information are the website editors looking for?
How to find a topic
How to reserve a topic
Article format and general requirements
Image formats
Submitting your contributions
Suggestions for topics
Who is the site associated with?
 

What types of information are the website editors looking for?

If it is related to the Spanish American War, we are interested in learning more about it and adding it to the website! We are always searching for good articles and images to add. The articles can take the form of biographies of the famous and not-so-famous, histories of particular American or Spanish ships, weapons, military units, and land or naval actions. We are also always trying to add information on places to visit, events and symposia, etc. First-hand accounts, unpublished letters and diaries are also greatly desired for the website.

Images are always welcome...but we can really only use photos in which the people or places are identified and about which something is known (such as the military unit of the individual in the photo). Also, images of identified participants in the war (such as your relatives) in their uniforms are always welcome. See image formats below to learn about our format requirements.
 

How to find a topic.

People frequently email us asking what they should write about. The best way to determine  where you can be of the greatest service is by browsing through the website. If you know of a subject that interests you, check to see if it is already addressed on the website. We have found that our best articles come from people writing about subjects that are truly interesting to them. If the topic that interests you the most is not already on the website, then you have found your topic! If you still are looking for a good topic, take a look at our partial list of topics, below.
 

How to reserve a topic.

Once you have determined what subject you want to write about, let us know what it is. This allows us to avoid having multiple individuals working on the same topic, duplicating efforts.
 

Article format and general requirements.

We have a few general requirements:

1.    All articles must be unbaised - This website has gained a reputation for presenting the Spanish American War from an unbiased standpoint. Our readers and contributors are living throughout, and articles which show a bias that cannot be substantiated through historical evidence will not be accepted.

2.    Follow the pre-set format - Once you have determined a subject, take a look at the website articles that are on similar topics, and follow the format in which they are written.

3.    Be concise - Stay on topic, and stay focussed on your topic. Most articles are only a few pages long. If you cannot address your topic in a few pages (about six pages), consider narrowing your topic, or consider writing an article that can be easily broken into segments. Keep in mind that the longer an article is, the fewer the number of people who will read it.

4.     Opening paragraph - Each article should have a single introductory paragraph that explains the importance of your topic. This is required for proper indexing by some search engines.

5.     Bibliography - Each article must be accompanied by a bibliography.

6.     Long quotes of first-hand accounts - If you plan to quote a participant's experiences, and the quote is more than a few paragraphs long, submit the quote separately. We will link the account to your article. The plan is that the first-hand account can be placed separately under our "Action Reports and First Hand Accounts" Section.

7.     Your byline - Be sure to indicate how you want your article credits to be listed.

8.     Editorial rights - We do reserve the right to refuse to add a submitted article to the website. We also reserve the right to ask you to make changes, if something in your article cannot be supported by historical evidence.

Image formats.

Images are the mainstay of any website. Of course, we also try to have a fair amount of historical substance with each image. Images submitted should either complement your own article, or an article already on the website. Since download time is critical for a webpage (the longer the download time, the fewer the number of people who will wait), the number of images per page should be kept to a reasonable number. We suggest about one image per typed page.

Images can simply be emailed to us as attachments. We ask that the images be submitted in jpeg format, and in files that do not exceed 150 KB. Higher resolution images cannot be used on the webpage because of excessive download time, so there is no need to submit jpegs with a greater file size.

If you do not have access to a scanner, let us know and we work out a way to obtain the images. For instance, you could snailmail us the images, we could scan them for inclusion with your article, and then snailmail them back to you, if required.

Above all, please do not submit .tiff files without first contacting us. Also, do not send a large number of images at one time without first letting us know.  If we are to receive a large number of images, we will need to co-ordinate how this should be done.
 

Submitting your contributions.

Submitting a completed article is easy. Simply email it to us as an attachment. We prefer Word files, but we can work with other applications also. If we are unable to open your submittal, we will let you know, and suggest other submittal options.
 

Suggestions for topics.

The following is a list of some possible article ideas. This is not an all inclusive list, but just some suggestions.

 Any first-hand account of the war, including letters, diaries, etc.
 Any unit roster (or similar genealogical data) from the war

 Biographies:

Leonard Wood (former commander of the Rough Riders)
General Merritt
General Chaffee
Lt. John J. Pershing
Admiral Sampson
Admiral Mahan
Admiral Camara
General Campos
Capt. John Philip (of the TEXAS)
General Toral
Governor General Blanco
Governor General Jaudenes
Governor General Augustin
Alfonso XIII
Walter Reed
Russel Alger (Secretary of War)
John Long (Secretary of the Navy)
Henry Cabot Lodge
Hamilton Fish, Jr., (of the Rough Riders)
Emilio Aguinaldo
Capt. Bustemante (torpedo inventor and naval officer)
Lt. Gen. Linares
Richard Harding Davis (reporter)
Prime Minister Sagasta
Prime Minister Canovas
Henry Bradley Plant
Col. Frederico Escario (leader of the Santiago relief expedition)
Lt. Col. Robert Huntington (of the US Marines at Guantanamo)

 Events:

  Battle of San Juan Hill
  Battle of Las Guasimas
  Escario's Santiago relief expedition
  The fall of Manila
  The signing of the Treaty of Paris
  Actions of the Naval Militia
  German intervention in the Philippines
  The Virginius Affair
  The Sampson Schley Controversy

 Military Unit Histories:

Any American, Spanish, Cuban, Filippino, or Puerto Rican military unit which is not yet on the website.
Rough Riders

 Ships:

New Orleans
Wolverine

Weapons:

  Colt machine gun
  3.2 artillery piece
  Plasentia gun

The website is not associated with the U.S. government, or any college or university. We are truly independent with the sole interest of presenting a fair, honest, and scholarly study of the Spanish American War.

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