Community Transcription-Six Months On

Has it really been that long?

It’s been six months now since we opened the War Department archives to community transcription. Way back in March we offered the Scripto transcription tool, and ever since then we have been steadily adding finished documents to our archive. What started with just a dozen or so volunteers has grown into an active, vigorous community of volunteer transcribers.

We thought you might like to know just how much activity these pages have seen.

To date, we have 308 users-approximately 70 of them have transcribed within the last 90 days. Those transcribers have made more than 2,000 saves to War Department Documents. That translates to approximately 450 finished documents, along with another 195 documents begun. Editors have nominated an additional 200 for transcription. Additionally, transcribers have initiated nearly a hundred conversations using the “talk” feature.

Our transcribers truly represent a cross-section of life: we have university professors, genealogists, students, editors, librarians, historical re-enactors, hobbyists, and many other kinds of folks transcribing. There are transcribers from nearly every American state, from Europe, Australia, and from Japan. Their interests range from personal research, to genealogy, to professional projects. Some of our transcribers had extensive experience with historical documents when they began; for others, this is their first encounter with two hundred-year old letters and handwriting.

As we continue forward with the project, users may still register for a transcription account.