Transcribing History

This Valentine's Day students will have the chance to learn about one of history’s greatest Americans, Frederick Douglass, through his own words as they transcribe digital copies of his handwritten letters. 

The Douglass Day Transcribe-A-Thon event takes place from Noon to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, in room 315A at the UTA Central Library. The Douglass Day nonprofit hosts this national event with the Library of Congress. 

Whitney Russell, Digital Projects Librarian, stated that this event will connect people to pivotal moments in history through Douglass’ first-person accounts. 

“This is a national crowdsourcing project that they do every year. This is the first year we have gotten involved in it,” Whitney said. “It is a really interesting event. Not only will participants interact with the letters of Frederick Douglass, but they will also learn about crowdsourced projects and digital humanities tools that they can incorporate in their own research.” 

The transcribe-a-thon event will teach people the basics of transcribing letters and the implications this has for the accessibility of online items, as well as further text analysis that can be done.  

“Being able to turn handwritten text into text-readable files can open the door for other digital humanities projects, including text and data mining and text analysis,” she said. “We can do so many cool things once we put them in a text-based format, even beyond giving access to the content itself.” 

Laptops will be provided for viewing and transcribing digitized letters. No registration is required to attend this event. 

The Douglass Day Transcribe-A-Thon is one of many events in Black History Month that takes place in February. Black History Month honors the history, achievements, and struggles of generations of African Americans throughout U.S. History. 

If you want to know more about the innerworkings of Douglass’ life and the world he lived in, stop by the Central Library to learn more.  

If you’d like more information on the Douglass Day Transcribe-A-Thon, visit the nonprofit’s website.  

Information about the event at the UTA Central Library is on the university’s online event calendar.