Browse Projects
Where in the World Is - Set 13
Come help us improve our digital records for the United States National Herbarium (US)! Please join us in our effort to transcribe the locality information for our difficult to decipher US Specimens. The records in this project are special cases in which the locality information requires some detective work. We'd like to ask for your help in digging a little deeper to find the Country and Territory/State/Province for each of these specimens sheets labels; see special instructions and examples here . Please contact Sylvia Orli, Department of Botany, for any questions or comments about the transcriptions. Note: Do not erase notes from other volunteers or staff; rather, leave existing comments and add your own.
North Carolina Field Offices, Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort, Letters Sent, Volume 1 (70), Jan. 1866–Aug. 1867
The Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established on March 3, 1865. The duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau included supervision of all affairs relating to refugees, freedmen, and the custody of abandoned lands and property. These documents come from the Records of the Field Offices for the State of North Carolina, Series 4.2: Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort (Subassistant Commissioner). Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women in North Carolina during the Reconstruction Era. Have questions about how to transcribe tables in these documents? View special directions here.
North Carolina Field Offices, Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort, Letters and Endorsements Received and Sent, Volume 67
The Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established on March 3, 1865. The duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau included supervision of all affairs relating to refugees, freedmen, and the custody of abandoned lands and property. These documents come from the Records of the Field Offices for the State of North Carolina, Series 4.2: Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort (Subassistant Commissioner). Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women in North Carolina during the Reconstruction Era. Have questions about how to transcribe tables in these documents? View special directions here.
William Ockleford Oldman Archive Research Materials - Collection Ledger, 1902-1916: 1 to 33668 (Part 2)
Help us transcribe "Collection Ledger, 1902-1916: 1 to 33668 (Part 2)" from the William Ockleford Oldman Archive research materials! For instructions on how to transcribe this material, please view the project instructions page here . The William Ockleford Oldman Archive research materials are comprised of digital surrogates of the business records of Oldman held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. These records include detailed information about his purchases and sales of objects including names of original sources for objects he acquired and sold. Since this provenance information is critically important to the documentation of NMAI’s collections, NMAI and Te Papa have begun a collaborative research project to make the Oldman materials available to the public for research and scholarship. William Ockleford Oldman (1879 – 1949) was a British collector and dealer of ethnographic art and European arms and armour. His business W.O. Oldman, Ethnographical Specimens, London was active between the late 1890s and 1913. Oldman purchased items from various sources including from auctions, directly from other collectors and dealers and also from many small British museums and historic houses. He held regular auctions to sell items and also reserved items for possible sale to particular private collectors, scholars, and heritage institutions including the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, NMAI’s predecessor institution. Ethnographic specimens with a provenance to Oldman’s business can now be found in various public institutions around the world including the National Museum of the American Indian.
National Numismatic Collection - Chinese Bank Notes, Set 2
Ready for a new challenge volunpeers? Help us transcribe Chinese Bank Notes from the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection (NNC). 志愿者，准备好迎接新的挑战了吗？请帮助我们转录在史密斯国家钱币藏品系列中的中国银行钞据。 史密森尼国家钱币收藏集（NNC）是美国对货币和交易工具的收集。这个丰富的全球收藏集包含具有代表性的三千多年的人类历史珍贵藏品。成立于19世纪中，NNC最早的收藏来自日本，韩国和中国的文物，其中包括日本明治天皇赠送给美国总统尤利塞斯·格兰特的硬币和奖章，以及2025件东亚硬币、护身符和George Bunker Glover的私人收藏文物（1897年收到）。这些捐送物是NNC东亚藏品集的基础，随后又收购了2017年Howard F. Bowker系列。该收藏集继续增长。 在2017年至2018年期间，NNC将其8,000多份东亚硬币数字化，并提供在线公开访问为全球研究使用服务。 NNC现在正将明代至今的6000份中文笔记和纸质交易藏品数字化。数字化过程的主要挑战之一是将亚洲文字转录，音译和翻译。这对于NNC团队成员来说是十分困难的工作，无法有效地推进项目。为了继续快速分享这些藏品，我们需要您的帮助！在开始转录之前，请访问该项目的 特殊说明。 Established in the mid-19th century, several of the earliest additions to the NNC were artifacts from Japan, Korea, and China, including coins and medals gifted to President Ulysses S. Grant from Japanese Emperor Meiji (received in 1881) and the 2,025 East Asian coins, amulets, and notes from George Bunker Glover’s private collection (received in 1897). These donations were the foundation of the NNC’s East Asian holdings, which continues to grow with new acquisitions, such as the Howard F. Bowker collection in 2017. The NNC is now working to digitize 6,000 Chinese notes and paper transactional objects that range from the Ming Dynasty to the present day. One of the main challenges to the digitization process is transcription, transliteration and translation of several Asian alphabets. Sometimes this can be done quickly, but often the process is too lengthy for NNC team members to complete while moving the project forward efficiently. In order to continue to share these objects rapidly, we need your help! The transcription of these bank notes will help NNC staff figure out how best to make these objects available and more easily searchable online. Please visit the special instructions for this project before beginning transcription.
North Carolina Field Offices, Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort, Letters Sent, Volume 2 (71), July 1867–Nov. 1868
The Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established on March 3, 1865. The duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau included supervision of all affairs relating to refugees, freedmen, and the custody of abandoned lands and property. These documents come from the Records of the Field Offices for the State of North Carolina, Series 4.2: Subordinate Field Offices: Beaufort (Subassistant Commissioner). Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women in North Carolina during the Reconstruction Era. Have questions about how to transcribe tables in these documents? View special directions here.
William Ockleford Oldman Archive Research Materials - Collection Ledger, 1902-1916: 1 to 33668 (Part 3)
Help us transcribe "Collection Ledger, 1902-1916: 1 to 33668 (Part 3)" from the William Ockleford Oldman Archive research materials! For instructions on how to transcribe this material, please view the project instructions page here . The William Ockleford Oldman Archive research materials are comprised of digital surrogates of the business records of Oldman held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. These records include detailed information about his purchases and sales of objects including names of original sources for objects he acquired and sold. Since this provenance information is critically important to the documentation of NMAI’s collections, NMAI and Te Papa have begun a collaborative research project to make the Oldman materials available to the public for research and scholarship. William Ockleford Oldman (1879 – 1949) was a British collector and dealer of ethnographic art and European arms and armour. His business W.O. Oldman, Ethnographical Specimens, London was active between the late 1890s and 1913. Oldman purchased items from various sources including from auctions, directly from other collectors and dealers and also from many small British museums and historic houses. He held regular auctions to sell items and also reserved items for possible sale to particular private collectors, scholars, and heritage institutions including the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, NMAI’s predecessor institution. Ethnographic specimens with a provenance to Oldman’s business can now be found in various public institutions around the world including the National Museum of the American Indian.
Project PHaEDRA - Henrietta Swan Leavitt #21
At Harvard College Observatory (now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), women computers studied glass plate photographs of the night sky. Here they catalogued stars, identifying variables, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring the vast distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. In these books, follow the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who connected the luminosity and periodicity of certain variable stars such that we were able to understand just how big our universe is. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest.
National Numismatic Collection - Chinese Bank Notes, Set 3
Ready for a new challenge volunpeers? Help us transcribe Chinese Bank Notes from the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection (NNC). 志愿者，准备好迎接新的挑战了吗？请帮助我们转录在史密斯国家钱币藏品系列中的中国银行钞据。 史密森尼国家钱币收藏集（NNC）是美国对货币和交易工具的收集。这个丰富的全球收藏集包含具有代表性的三千多年的人类历史珍贵藏品。成立于19世纪中，NNC最早的收藏来自日本，韩国和中国的文物，其中包括日本明治天皇赠送给美国总统尤利塞斯·格兰特的硬币和奖章，以及2025件东亚硬币、护身符和George Bunker Glover的私人收藏文物（1897年收到）。这些捐送物是NNC东亚藏品集的基础，随后又收购了2017年Howard F. Bowker系列。该收藏集继续增长。 在2017年至2018年期间，NNC将其8,000多份东亚硬币数字化，并提供在线公开访问为全球研究使用服务。 NNC现在正将明代至今的6000份中文笔记和纸质交易藏品数字化。数字化过程的主要挑战之一是将亚洲文字转录，音译和翻译。这对于NNC团队成员来说是十分困难的工作，无法有效地推进项目。为了继续快速分享这些藏品，我们需要您的帮助！在开始转录之前，请访问该项目的 特殊说明。 Established in the mid-19th century, several of the earliest additions to the NNC were artifacts from Japan, Korea, and China, including coins and medals gifted to President Ulysses S. Grant from Japanese Emperor Meiji (received in 1881) and the 2,025 East Asian coins, amulets, and notes from George Bunker Glover’s private collection (received in 1897). These donations were the foundation of the NNC’s East Asian holdings, which continues to grow with new acquisitions, such as the Howard F. Bowker collection in 2017. The NNC is now working to digitize 6,000 Chinese notes and paper transactional objects that range from the Ming Dynasty to the present day. One of the main challenges to the digitization process is transcription, transliteration and translation of several Asian alphabets. Sometimes this can be done quickly, but often the process is too lengthy for NNC team members to complete while moving the project forward efficiently. In order to continue to share these objects rapidly, we need your help! The transcription of these bank notes will help NNC staff figure out how best to make these objects available and more easily searchable online. Please visit the special instructions for this project before beginning transcription.
Project PHaEDRA - Cecilia H. Payne #16
At Harvard College Observatory (now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), women computers studied glass plate photographs of the night sky. Here they catalogued stars, identifying variables, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring the vast distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. In these books, follow the early work of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered that stars, and the whole universe, were made abundantly of hydrogen -- a discovery that earned her the first PhD in Astronomy from Harvard. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest.
