Have you got an eye for cursive? Do you have a talent for deciphering tricky old documents? Archives, libraries, and museums around the world need your help to transcribe and identify their collections. By doing a little bit of work from home, you can enrich the historical record for amateur and professional historians alike, benefiting everyone. All of these projects are free to join, and easy to contribute to. The access to history, though, is priceless!
Historical Records
- Transcribe military records of African American Civil War soldiers, opens a new window
- Index the papers of Alan Lomax, opens a new window, the "man who recorded the world"
- Transcribe manuscripts and poetry of Walt Whitman, opens a new window
- Transcribe scouting reports, opens a new window for Major League Baseball prospects:
- Transcribe the papers of the War Department, opens a new window, 1784-1800
- Transcribe documents relating to the fight for women's suffrage, opens a new window
Letters and Diaries
- Transcribe diaries and notebooks, opens a new window of the singer Marian Anderson
- Transcribe correspondence between abolitionists, opens a new window
- Transcribe letters written to Abraham Lincoln, opens a new window
- Transcribe letters sent by American artists, opens a new window living in Paris
Photographs
- Identify individuals in Civil War era photographs, opens a new window
- Add tags or comments to images of roadside America, opens a new window
- Tag details and features of photographs from the National Archives' Bureau of Public Roads collection, opens a new window:
Genealogical Records
- Transcribe military award index cards, opens a new window
- Document cemeteries and headstones for Find a Grave, opens a new window
- Transcribe 19th and 20th century real estate documents, opens a new window from the Emigrants' Bank
- Transcribe runaway slave ads, opens a new window
- Index a wide variety of genealogical records, opens a new window from various countries at FamilySearch
Scientific Records
- Transcribe ships' logs, opens a new window, garnering historical weather data
- Transcribe specimen sheets, opens a new window for flora of the Southeast
- Track plant species mentioned in 19th century letters, opens a new window
Audio
- Help the New York Public Library correct computer-generated oral history transcripts, opens a new window
- If you speak Spanish, help transcribe audio recordings of Cuban radio, opens a new window airing from 1948-1963
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