News

Community Transcription-Seven Months On

Another month, another 50 users…

It’s been seven 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 offer here another snapshot at our transcription activity.

To date, we have 356 users-approximately 71 of them have transcribed within the last 90 days-this is relatively steady over the last few months. Those transcribers have made more than 2,246 saves to War Department Documents. That translates to approximately 512 finished documents, along with another 181 documents begun. Editors have nominated an additional 180 for transcription. Additionally, transcribers have initiated approximately 115 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 the Seneca Nation, Australia, and from the Creek Nation. 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 Some of our transcribers had extensive experience with historical documents when they began; for others, this is their first encounter with two hundred-year old letters and handwriting.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.