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100% Complete
187 Total pages
58 Contributing members
The Memoirs of Ma 1925-1926
What would it be like to be an expatriate living and traveling in China in the middle of what was known as the roaring '20s at home in the United States? Join us to transcribe this diary typed by young scholar Benjamin March (1899-1934) from June 1925 to March 1926 describing his life in China. Events include March's marriage to the poet Dorothy Rowe (1898-1969) in Nanjing, their honeymoon in Hangzhou and Suzhou, and their subsequent life in Beijing.
Browse projects by Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
100% Complete
219 Total pages
40 Contributing members
The Mint Accounts Book
Did you know that the Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection has the most comprehensive collection of historic American coins in the world? This world-class collection originates in part from the U.S. Mint’s Philadelphia coin cabinet, which was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1923. The Mint’s collection contained both U.S. coins and many coins and medals from other countries, which the Mint actively collected. This handwritten booklet known as the “Mint Accounts Book” records the Mint’s budgets and expenditures on coins and other numismatic specimens between 1856 and 1903. It is an unparalleled resource for historians and numismatists interested in tracing the Mint’s collecting activities in the nineteenth century. Please click "Read More" for more details; you can use this page as a guide for transcribing tables and columns in the book.
100% Complete
3 Total pages
11 Contributing members
The Mount Carmel Bulletin Vol. 2 No. 83
The Mount Carmel Baptist Church was founded in 1876 and was made up of former members of Washington, D.C.'s Second Baptist Church. The congregation worshiped in several locations in Northwest Washington before permanently settling in 1914 in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood. The church sent out bulletins to keep the congregation informed about what was going on in the community. By helping us to transcribe this bulletin, you can learn about the church's Summer Bible School, read a letter from the pastor, and find out what a Hat Rally Day is!
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
100% Complete
4 Total pages
9 Contributing members
The Nation's Prayer Call Vol. 2 No. 4
Zion Baptist Church was organized in 1842 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was one of the locations that actively aided fugitive slaves through the Underground Railroad. In 1867, the congregation built one of the first brick churches owned by African Americans in Cincinnati. Between the years of 1913 and 1926, almost 1,100 new members were added. This copy of “The Nation’s Prayer Call” from 1956 features an article on Baptists and integration, as well as several other articles. Help us transcribe this newsletter to find out why the author of the article thought that Baptists should not vote against integration.
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
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14 Total pages
5 Contributing members
The National Association of Colored Women, Inc., Bulletin #1 Golden Jubilee Celebration, July 27- August 2, 1946
Imagine launching a campaign to raise $55,000 in 1945, the year that World War II ended. This bold challenge by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) exemplifies the highly organized activism of the clubwoman movement. In 1935, educator Mary McLeod Bethune founded the NCNW, building on the legacy of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW), founded in 1896 to combat lynching. Both united local African American women’s clubs across the U.S. Clubwomen supported African American communities in myriad ways: fighting poverty, providing education, offering child care for working mothers, advocating for civil rights, and striving for international peace. A diverse collection of documents from the 1940s to 1960s awaits transcription, such as event programs, flyers, and tickets; an obituary; a meeting agenda in Spanish; and, a leadership handbook. Learn more about NACW programs that honored abolitionist Frederick Douglass and raised funds to preserve his home in Washington, D.C. and NCNW programs on cultural exchanges with British women after World War II. Look for the integral relationship of church and community; churches often hosted clubwoman events. Notice the presence of music and art, verbally and visually. Discover how African American clubwomen carried out their mission of “lifting as we climb,” and find a message written in the stars. Thank you for helping to make these archival documents searchable!
100% Complete
1 Total pages
2 Contributing members
The National Council of Negro Women Invitation to hear Archibald MacLeish, Assistant Secretary of State Speak, 1945
Imagine launching a campaign to raise $55,000 in 1945, the year that World War II ended. This bold challenge by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) exemplifies the highly organized activism of the clubwoman movement. In 1935, educator Mary McLeod Bethune founded the NCNW, building on the legacy of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW), founded in 1896 to combat lynching. Both united local African American women’s clubs across the U.S. Clubwomen supported African American communities in myriad ways: fighting poverty, providing education, offering child care for working mothers, advocating for civil rights, and striving for international peace. A diverse collection of documents from the 1940s to 1960s awaits transcription, such as event programs, flyers, and tickets; an obituary; a meeting agenda in Spanish; and, a leadership handbook. Learn more about NACW programs that honored abolitionist Frederick Douglass and raised funds to preserve his home in Washington, D.C. and NCNW programs on cultural exchanges with British women after World War II. Look for the integral relationship of church and community; churches often hosted clubwoman events. Notice the presence of music and art, verbally and visually. Discover how African American clubwomen carried out their mission of “lifting as we climb,” and find a message written in the stars. Thank you for helping to make these archival documents searchable!
100% Complete
17 Total pages
53 Contributing members
The National Freedman: A Monthly Journal of the New York National Freedman's Relief Association, Vol. 1, No. 10
Reconstruction—the period following the Civil War—was a revolutionary political, social, and economic movement that reshaped the United States in profound and lasting ways. It manifested the aspirations and determinations of African Americans, including four million newly freed people, seeking to define themselves as free and equal citizens. The Reconstruction era also exposed deep divisions and clashing visions among Americans about how to rebuild the nation after the end of slavery, compelling Americans to reckon with fundamental questions such as: What is the meaning of freedom and equality? What does it mean to be an American? Who is entitled to the full rights of citizenship? Help us transcribe these records to better understand how newly freed African Americans embraced freedom by establishing families, creating communities, and building new institutions, while fighting against the efforts of white supremacists who rejected—some violently—the idea of equal rights for African Americans.
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
100% Complete
27 Total pages
33 Contributing members
The Negro Motorist Green Book
The Negro Motorist Green Book was a guidebook for African American travelers that provided a list of hotels, boarding houses, taverns, restaurants, service stations and other establishments throughout the country that served African Americans patrons. Victor H. Green published it annually from 1936 to 1966 when discrimination against African Americans was widespread. During this period, African Americans faced racial prejudice, price gouging and physical violence while traveling around the United States. The information included in The Negro Motorist Green Book helped increase their safety and treatment. **Note: If you encounter columns, please transcribe them like this: --- | --- column one header | column two header column one detail | column two detail Interested in learning more about the Green Book? Check out these interactives! The University Libraries Digital Collection, The Negro Travelers' Green Book New York Public Library, Navigating the Green Book
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
100% Complete
43 Total pages
56 Contributing members
The Negro Travelers' Green Book, 1953
The Negro Motorist Green Book was a guidebook for African American travelers that provided a list of hotels, boarding houses, taverns, restaurants, service stations and other establishments throughout the country that served African Americans patrons. Victor H. Green published it annually from 1936 to 1966 when discrimination against African Americans was widespread. During this period, African Americans faced racial prejudice, price gouging and physical violence while traveling around the United States. The information included in The Negro Motorist Green Book helped increase their safety and treatment. **Note: If you encounter columns, please transcribe them like this: --- | --- column one header | column two header column one detail | column two detail Interested in learning more about the Green Book? Check out these interactives! The University Libraries Digital Collection, The Negro Travelers' Green Book New York Public Library, Navigating the Green Book
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
100% Complete
3 Total pages
22 Contributing members
The North Star Vol. I No. 37
Frederick Douglass was born in 1808 as Frederick August Washington Bailey, the son of an enslaved woman and possibly her white enslaver in Maryland. Douglass emancipated himself at the age of 20. Over the course of his life, he shared his experiences of enslavement in three autobiographies. Douglass was a leader of the abolition movement, fighting against slavery through speeches and writings. He passed away in 1874 at his home in Washington D.C. The North Star, later called Frederick Douglass' Paper, was an antislavery newspaper published by Frederick Douglass. First published on December 3, 1847, using funds Douglass earned during a speaking tour in Great Britain and Ireland, The North Star soon developed into one of the most influential African American antislavery publications of the pre-Civil War era. The name of the newspaper paid homage to the fact that escaping slaves used the North Star in the night sky to guide them to freedom. The paper was published in Rochester, New York, a city known for its opposition to slavery. The motto of the newspaper was, "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren." Published weekly, The North Star was four pages long and sold by subscription at a cost of $2.00 per year to more than 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe, and the West Indies. The first of its four pages focused on current events having to do with abolitionist issues; pages two and three included editorials, letters from readers, articles, poetry, and book reviews; the fourth page was devoted to advertisements. In the paper, Douglass wrote with great feeling about what he saw as the huge gap between what Americans claimed to be their Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. This issue, published September 8, 1848, contains several anti-slavery essays and letters, including a letter from Douglass to his previous enslaver Thomas Auld, titled [To My Old Master], as well as a critique of the Liberian colonization movement, news of the rebellion in Ireland, poetry, notices of anti-slavery society meetings around the region, and general advertisements.
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
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3 Total pages
39 Contributing members
The North Star, Volume 1, Number 22
Frederick Douglass was born in 1808 as Frederick August Washington Bailey, the son of an enslaved woman and possibly her white enslaver in Maryland. Douglass emancipated himself at the age of 20. Over the course of his life, he shared his experiences of enslavement in three autobiographies. Douglass was a leader of the abolition movement, fighting against slavery through speeches and writings. He passed away in 1874 at his home in Washington D.C. The North Star, later called Frederick Douglass' Paper, was an antislavery newspaper published by Frederick Douglass. First published on December 3, 1847, using funds Douglass earned during a speaking tour in Great Britain and Ireland, The North Star soon developed into one of the most influential African American antislavery publications of the pre-Civil War era. The name of the newspaper paid homage to the fact that escaping slaves used the North Star in the night sky to guide them to freedom. The paper was published in Rochester, New York, a city known for its opposition to slavery. The motto of the newspaper was, "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren." Published weekly, The North Star was four pages long and sold by subscription at a cost of $2.00 per year to more than 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe, and the West Indies. The first of its four pages focused on current events having to do with abolitionist issues; pages two and three included editorials, letters from readers, articles, poetry, and book reviews; the fourth page was devoted to advertisements. In the paper, Douglass wrote with great feeling about what he saw as the huge gap between what Americans claimed to be their Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. This issue, published May 26, 1848, contains several anti-slavery essays, the speech of Lucretia Mott at the American Anti-Slavery Society, notices of anti-slavery activities around the region, and general advertisements.
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
100% Complete
2 Total pages
10 Contributing members
The Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser No. 2747
The National Museum of African American History and Culture's Slavery and Freedom collection explores the founding of the nation through the lens of the African American experience from the development of the Atlantic world in the 15th century up through the Reconstruction Acts following the Civil War. Newspapers in this collection include notifications of sales of enslaved persons, newspapers asking for rewards of fugitive slaves, and the current events that impacted enslaved individuals. These documents help explore how Africans and African Americans made (and continue to re-make) American freedom through three fundamental components of nation building: the accumulation and control of capital (told through the slave trade, the plantation system, and empire building); the political turn towards democracy (from the Revolution through the reconstruction of the nation following the Civil War); and concepts of national belonging and exclusion (centered on the development of race-making). Within each, African Americans have innovated and pushed the nation forward to deepen its understanding of liberty, as Americans who lived through the fullest challenge to their freedom in almost every area of life from the most personal to the most public. Please join us in transcribing these documents to help uncover the stories of enslaved persons and their resilience, resistance, courage and faith.
Browse projects by National Museum of African American History and Culture
