Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress: The Latest

Hello one and all, 

We have a few interesting updates and opportunities for you to explore and enjoy this month. 

More Letters to Lincoln

By the People volunteers have transcribed 26,585 letters and completed (a.k.a reviewed) 4,662 of Lincoln pages in just over six months. Many of your transcriptions are published on loc.gov, and more will appear later this month!

Because of your incredible hard work on the papers covering Lincoln's life from the 1830s through 1864, we have released the final group of materials in the "Letters to Lincoln" Campaign: "1865-1889: Assassination and aftermath". Delve into these papers to try to understand the events leading up to and following Lincoln's death. 

Remembering Veterans 

In the lead up to Memorial Day, we're thinking about veterans and their experiences. Numerous By the People campaigns shed light on war's impact on soldiers and civilians. The "Letters to Lincoln", Clara Barton: "Angel of the Battlefield", the papers of Walt Whitman (our newest Campaign), and the penmanship competition entries by disabled Union veterans capture different perspectives on the Civil War.

Though the main goal of By the People is to transcribe documents, some of our collections contain images. The penmanship competition entries of "Disabled but not Disheartened" frequently include the writers' photographs, which are a vivid record of the soldiers' sacrifices. Many inscriptions on the back of these portraits have yet to be reviewed. Can you help review them so this valuable information can help historians, students, and genealogists? 

Office Hour

Want to chat to a Community Manager in real time? Join us on the History Hub discussion forum, Wednesday, May 15th, 3-4pm ET. You can ask questions, say hi, or just share a cool By the People page. Start a new thread or jump in on an existing thread. Here's a good place to start!

We look forward to hearing from you!

The By the People team