Welcome to Newberry Transcribe!
Thank you for visiting our crowdsourcing project, where you can help advance historical research by transcribing handwritten letters and diaries. Please check out our introductory video below, then read on to learn more.
Why transcribe?
The Newberry Library’s modern manuscript collections contain millions of pages of handwritten documents, which are freely accessible to anyone who visits the building. Over the past few decades, we’ve digitized hundreds of thousands of these pages, making them available online. As a result, our audience has grown to include users from around the world.
However, while digitization has significantly increased access, using these materials still requires the same time-consuming effort as working with physical documents. Each user must carefully examine each page to decipher often difficult-to-read handwriting, effectively starting from scratch.
Enter cultural heritage crowdsourcing! Contributors can make a huge difference by transcribing far more than library staff can alone. As a volunteer, you can select a page, transcribe what you see, and submit your work. Once completed, the page is transcribed for good—making it accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and anyone who needs searchable, easy-to-read text. This not only benefits users who are searching for specific terms, but also those who struggle with cursive handwriting or rely on screen readers.
And the best part? It’s fun! Explore the letters of twentieth-century authors, learn about travel before modern conveniences, and discover dramatic stories from decades past. Delete your word game apps, and puzzle out centuries-old handwriting instead—tackle a fun challenge, learn about the past, and contribute to scholarship, all at the same time.
FAQs
What is the Newberry?
Newberry Library postcard, 1901
The Newberry is an independent research library in Chicago that specializes in the humanities. Per our mission, we seek to provide:
…a deeper understanding of our world by inspiring research and learning in the humanities and encouraging conversations about ideas that matter to diverse audiences. Our mission is rooted in a growing and accessible collection of rare and historical materials that spans more than six centuries of human experience.
You can learn more by visiting our website, browsing our digital collections, and reading our magazine.
What is a manuscript?
The Society of American Archivists provides the following definition:
manuscript > noun (singular abbreviation: ms; plural abbreviation: mss)
- a handwritten document
- an unpublished document
- (usually plural) synonymous with manuscript collection
- an author’s draft of a book, article, or other work submitted for publication
Outside of libraries, meaning #4 is the most common (author's draft of a work, pre-publication) -- but here at Newberry Transcribe, it means unpublished, handwritten documents. Examples that you'll find at this site include letters, diaries, and business records (e.g. meeting minutes, bills of sale).
Manuscripts are part of a broader category known as “primary sources” (per SAA: “material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness”); historians and other researchers study these materials to learn about the past, then publish their findings as books, articles, and other resources.
What is transcription?
Antoinette Brigham Putnam Metcalf diaries, 1860-1863
Transcription is the act of creating a transcript, or copy, of a document or other information resource. Specifically, the type of transcription that happens at this website involves viewing a digitized, handwritten document from the Newberry’s holdings, typing the words exactly as written, and submitting the text. Newberry staff will then add it to the catalog record for the document at our Digital Collections site, so that researchers can easily browse and full-text search the material.
What is crowdsourcing?
Junior Missionary Society craft project, Galesburg, Illinois, 1948
Crowdsourcing is a process in which an organization puts out a public call for volunteers to contribute work on a large-scale project via the internet. If you’ve edited entries on Wikipedia, reviewed a product on Amazon, or contributed to a Kickstarter project, you’ve participated in crowdsourcing.
Newberry Transcribe is an example of cultural heritage crowdsourcing, in which nonprofit institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums request help from the public on tasks like manuscript transcription or subject tagging for digital collections. Other prominent examples of these projects include By the People, Citizen Archivist, Smithsonian Transcription Center, and The Zooniverse.
What kinds of manuscripts can I transcribe at this site?
Newberry Transcribe manuscript browse page
Newberry Transcribe features digitized documents drawn from the library’s Modern Manuscripts and Archives collections, which include papers related to the performing arts, literature and journalism, clubs, Native American life from the 17th to 21st centuries, U.S. westward expansion, and social activism. You can view samples of some favorite transcribed manuscripts at our Midwest Time Machine website.
Who can participate?
We need you postcard, circa 1950s
Anyone! No special skills or experience are needed, beyond a working knowledge of cursive – or the patience to seek out the less frequent pages with print handwriting. Just remember: the current manuscripts have no transcription, so anything you add will be an improvement in terms of accessibility.
What if I: can’t make out a word; discover a misspelling or other error in the original document; encounter offensive language?
You can find answers to these questions and more at our Tutorial page – but the short version is: enter “[[?]]” when encountering illegible words; transcribe original errors and offensive language as-is.
Will my work be reviewed?
Yes! When you finish transcribing a page, click the "Save and Submit for Review" button; this will place your submission in the queue for peer review.
Can I review transcriptions?
Yes, we encourage all transcribers to help review others’ work. Feel free to make edits and correct errors when you see them. We're currently building functionality for registered users to approve final versions of transcriptions and send them on to become searchable metadata at our digital collections site. Please check back!
Is everything cursive?
Usually, but occasionally you might encounter print handwriting –- and such exceptions are worth tracking down, since they’re often delightful thank-you letters written by 19th-century children (for example).
Where can I read or search the completed transcriptions?
Completed transcriptions can be searched and viewed as part of a manuscript's metadata record at our digital collections site. While we’re working on building a more user-friendly reader here on the Newberry Transcribe site for easier access, the process is a bit more involved at the moment. In the meantime, please follow these steps:
1. Visit Newberry Digital Collections.  |
2. Enter your search query in the search box.  |
3. On the results page, use the filter column on the left to scroll down and click the "Transcription available" box; this will limit your query to search the transcription field only.  |
4. Click on an item to open a set of related manuscript images, which can range from two pages to several hundred.  |
5. Click the "Image w/ Text" tab above the manuscript image; the full transcription for all pages in the set will appear in the panel on the right. You can use Ctrl + F to find your search term within the text.  |
6. Unfortunately, our system cannot directly link you to the page containing your search term. You’ll need to click through each page in the set to locate the one you need.  |
Here's a video of the process: [coming soon!]
Please note that you’ll be searching through a backlog of over 50,000 manuscript pages, dating back to the start of our crowdsourcing project. Newly submitted transcriptions are added to Newberry Digital Collections on a monthly basis.
We apologize for the less-than-ideal process, and we appreciate your patience as we work toward a simplified solution. To stay updated on this and other site improvements, sign up for our newsletter.
Are there translation opportunities?
Yes! For non-English materials, you'll find an active "Translate" tab above the transcription window. Enter your translation there, and we’ll integrate it into our digital collections, making it searchable and accessible for non-fluent users.
Want to see an example? Check out this Latin-to-English translation from the Newberry’s popular Book of Magical Charms: Solomon’s Bond.
Are you an instructor interested in setting up a translation classroom crowdsourcing project? We’d love to help—please get in touch.
Do you have teaching materials?
We will soon -- please check back!
Do I need permission to re-use text or images for personal / educational / business purposes?
No! Please re-use whatever you like for blog posts, slideshows, research papers, coffee mugs, or any other lawful purpose. View the Newberry’s Open Access Policy for more information. And although it’s not required, we’d appreciate it if you add a credit line “From the Newberry Library” and link back to our site; this lets us know when our collections are used, and helps us make a case for additional resources to add manuscripts to Newberry Transcribe.
What technology powers this site?
The site is a fully homegrown platform, using FastAPI on the back end, with HTMX handling interactions. We did not use a front end framework. We are deploying using a pretty standard CI/CD workflow, with GitLab for build, Vercel for deployment, with Supabase handling the database.
The code is freely available in the GitLab repository. The repository readme goes into detail about the design principles we used. Documentation for its use is forthcoming, and in the meantime, let us know if anything needs clarification!
Can I bulk download the transcription data?
Absolutely -- also coming soon.
How else can I help?
Thank you for asking! You can:
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Spread the word to friends and family about how rewarding it is to participate in Newberry Transcribe.
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Sign up for our newsletter to learn more about Newberry crowdsourcing efforts.
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Check out Postcard Tag, where you can help by adding cataloging data and subject tags to the Newberry’s historic postcard collections.
We also welcome your feedback -- let us know what you love, what could be better, and how we can improve your experience. Remember: without you, we're nothing. ❤