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Friedrich "Fritz" Rumpf Notebooks - Set 2
Friedrich Karl Georg Rumpf (1888-1949) German illustrator and ethnographer, and son of German artist Fritz Rumpf. The younger Fritz Rumpf was living in Japan at the outbreak of war and likely composed parts of at least one of the following notebooks while living as a prisoner of war. PLEASE NOTE: The notebooks will be a special challenge as they contain multiple notes in German and Japanese, and drawings in pencil, ink and wash made during his travels and research in Japan.
USNM Curators Annual Report - Department of Reptiles, 1889-1890
In 1889 while repairs in basement of the United States National Museum were underway, specimens from the Department of Reptiles were temporarily moved to the Smithsonian Building's south tower. Acting curator Leonhard Stejneger carefully supervised the move and took advantage of the move to re-examine the collection records. Please help us transcribe his departmental reports to learn more about what he uncovered and the new species that were identified due to the collections' relocation.
Project PHaEDRA - Annie Jump Cannon 23
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 Annie Jump Cannon, who in 1901 devised a robust and elegant stellar classification scheme that astronomers still use today. 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.
Horses and Grooms Crossing a River
In this short handscroll, artist Zhao Mengfu depicts three grooms and fifteen horses in various postures crossing a river. By combining the colorful realism of the Tang dynasty (618-907) with the ink line drawing of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) literati tradition, Zhao Mengfu established a new direction for his fellow painters during the transitional years of the late thirteenth century. While the painting does not exhibit the superb skill and fluency of the artist's genuine works, it is probably a close copy of an original composition by Zhao and may have been executed by one of his more accomplished followers. Help make this beautiful handscroll more accessible for researchers around the world by transcribing the Chinese characters. Please note: Freer Sackler staff are ONLY asking for the transcription of the text this collection, so please transcribe using the corresponding Chinese characters (you will need a basic knowledge of Chinese and access to a Chinese language keyboard for this). You do not need to transcribe the red stamped seals. Translation and transliteration are also not needed, and staff have requested that images not be described. Please reach out with any questions.
Yamada Diary
Help us transcribe this WWII Japanese diary. At the end of World War II, an unknown United States Marine brought home several Japanese-language items. These items were subsequently sold and the purchaser's son later donated them to the National Air and Space Museum. In 2003 and 2004, Museum volunteers, Mr. Koji Hayama and Mr. Tom Momiyama, translated parts of the material and they believe that they were created by a Mr. Yamada, who was probably part of an aircraft ground crew with occasional flight duties, and served in Manchuria, Korea, Burma, and the Philippines. Transcriptions of this diary will help National Air and Space Museum curators as they begin research for new exhibits. Please note that this diary is written in Japanese, and requires access to a Japanese keyboard, and basic knowledge of the language, for transcription. NASM staff are also interested in any translations that can be provided of the diary's contents. Please separate any translations by including them below the transcriptions for each page, and by indicating the translation with brackets. For example: [[translation]] text here [[/translation]]. Please reach out with any questions.
District of Columbia Education, Registered Letters Received, Entered in Register 1, P-Y, Jan. 1868-Dec. 1869, Part 5
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 Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Series 5: Registered Letters Received. 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.
District of Columbia Education, Registered Letters Received, Entered in Register 1, P-Y, Jan. 1868-Dec. 1869, Part 3
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 Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Series 5: Registered Letters Received. 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.
Project PHaEDRA - Cecilia H. Payne #11
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.
Alice Cunningham Fletcher Papers- Winnebago allotment recordbook Box: 4B, 1887-89
Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923), was an ethnologist and collaborator with the Peabody Museum of Harvard, the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A pioneer in a field dominated by men, she was one of the first female ethnologists to conduct fieldwork among the Omaha, Nez Perce, Winnebago and Sioux Indian tribes. Fletcher worked closely with Francis La Flesche, an Omaha Indian and fellow ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. Because of their close personal and professional relationship, much of their research materials and correspondence are housed together in the National Anthropological Archives.
Princeton University Poster Collection - Catalog Sheets, Binder 2
The Princeton University Library donated the Princeton University Poster Collection documenting World War I and World War II posters to the Smithsonian Institution in 1963 and 1967. The collection represents one of the largest and most complete collections of United States war posters produced. The collection is also rich in non-US materials that include French government proclamations, British Army recruiting posters, and civil defense posters from smaller US allies such as Canada and New Zealand. Also included are non-government produced posters reflecting pre-war as well as wartime patriotic, anti-German, and pro-refugee sentiments. Together these provide a broader picture of public attitudes. The breadth of public and charitable agencies, images, and slogans represented in the collection make it valuable not only as single items, but as a comprehensive expression of the support and sentiment for war during these two periods. The collection provides a unique opportunity for diverse use of the material for research (social, military, media, ethnic, and political), exhibitions, and educational purposes. Help us transcribe these catalog sheets containing information about each poster in this important collection. Find instructions for transcribing these projects here . Your work will help the Archives Center staff make the collection more widely accessible through the Smithsonian’s Online Virtual Archives.
