(Screenshot of the Citizen Archivist Missions Webpage, from the National Archives.)
I first heard about the program while surfing the internet for research, and clicked on an article detailing how the National Archives was in need of people who could read cursive handwriting. Not sure what a Citizen Archivist is, or even does for that matter? That's quite alright! Because before all of this, I didn't realize it was a thing either. So stay with me for a few minutes as I explain a little bit about the program and my experience as a newbie volunteer. Who knows? You may even find yourself signing up before you've finished reading my post!
Since this older style, and dare I say art form, of writing has been slowly vanishing from our nation’s schools, the National Archives is in search of volunteers to help them transcribe various documents for digital access. The mission is quite simple, though very tedious: upload, transcribe, tag and make comments on thousands upon thousands of governmental documents so that everyone can read, learn, and talk about our country’s past. And that’s where the citizen archivists step in.
After reading over the website, and watching a few videos detailing out transcription guidelines and how to use the software, I decided to give it a go. Since my class in school was one of the last taught how to write in cursive, and having my grandmother’s difficult-to-read handwriting while growing up, I had at least a foothold in what I would be doing. That being said, I still didn’t think it was going to be an easy task, because everyone's handwriting is as unique as the individual writing the message. Else wise, there wouldn't have been a need for handwriting experts in court and criminal cases!
(Side Note: It is a bit of a learning curve in understanding how the database works and how to navigate the site. So if you do decide to try it out, don't be discouraged if you don't get it right off the bat.)
(Screenshot of the Log-In Page, from the National Archives.)
Registering was fast and simple. With the basics now over, I went about finding a document who's transcription wasn't completed yet; a task that proved to be harder than I thought it would be. But I soon learned that despite some documents saying that they were "done," a few of them had full pages completed with other sections left unfinished. Sounds a bit confusing? It stumped me to at first, as it took this computer-aged adult a number of trials and errors to decipher how the system exactly worked. When I started to get my bearings, however, it was pretty neat!
For instance, say that a citizen archivist was able to transcribe most of the document, except for a few items on a list, or a diagram of a house? The document would be published and the program would say that it was completed when it truly wasn’t. This is because, to my knowledge, there is no "save for later" option. After you feel that you have done as much as you can for the day, you have to publish it so that other members can pick up where you stopped. That doesn't mean that there isn't oversight to catch the problems, or that people can't fix what you typed up if there are any issues. Staff is on hand to go over the documents to ensure that it is fully done before releasing it to the public. And other volunteers can add/change anything you don't understand or have time to do. (This certainly is one massive project with a lot of helping hands!)
As for me, it took a couple of tries until I managed to stumble across a micro-film of papers sent from the office of the American Ambassador to Greece, back to the states from (if I recall correctly) the 1980s. The page I picked was an itemized list of gifts given to the ambassador. I must admit that while I was able to get about half of the page figured out, the other half had me seeing question marks. Using the following pages that other volunteers had done, as well as asking for help from a family relative, we managed to get about another third completed.
Overall, I spent nearly three hours that day trying something new and discovering a thing or two about handwriting analysis work. The National Archive’s website does state that even if you have thirty minutes available each week, they would be very appreciative of your help, if this sort of work interests you.
And not all of the documents include handwritten notes. Some are typed memos about war awards such as Purple Heart medals, while others are of film releases from the 1950s and correspondence with public questions from the 1960s, if these are more your speed. But for history buffs looking for documents dated before the 1900s, there are Revolutionary War Prize Cases, carded service records of nurses from the Civil War, and I even saw a scanned image of a check paid to Abraham Lincoln while he was in office as our President! (Talk about a geek-out moment for this author!)
It’s important to note that the selection of documents to work on changes regularly, and you should check out the current offerings at the National Archive’s website for more information.
Now, due to my hectic work schedule, the experience I've shared with you in this post is the only one I've tried at the program thus far. But I can’t wait to dive back into the system and see what else there is to explore in the old files!
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention about the tagging missions they offer. For more on that, please visit this page.
With different ways to get involved at the Citizen Archivist Mission, its a great program to do some volunteer work for, wherever there is internet, and makes you feel like you're apart of something bigger. Its nice to see people from all over the country coming together to help preserve our nation's history.
(To be clear, there is no paid sponsorship in this post and I am not affiliated with the National Archives in any way. All of my opinions and viewpoints are of my own accord, and do not reflect upon them or any of their entities.)
Thanks for reading and I’ll catch up with you later! #volunteer #historicaldocuments #nationalarchive #archival #preservehistory #handwriting #cursive
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