Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress Updated link

4th of July Completion Challenge--Ordinary Lives in the Revolutionary War

As the Revolutionary War raged in the colonies, hundreds of people lived their everyday lives amidst the struggle. Today we are launching an exciting new campaign that will give you fresh insight into the period -- Ordinary Lives in George Washington’s Papers: The Revolutionary War.

While most documents written in George Washington’s own hand have been transcribed and edited, some documents submitted to him or written by military men under his command during the Revolutionary War have yet to be transcribed. In this Campaign you will find receipts Washington received from bakers, laundresses, tavernkeepers, and others in exchange for their goods and services as well as the notes Washington’s aides made as they interrogated British deserters. You can learn how to transcribe receipts and financial accounts, and find a guide for deciphering British Colonial Currency in the Help Center.

This campaign will likely be short and sweet, with a total of 425 pages to transcribe and review. We challenge you, our intrepid volunpeers, to have this campaign fully transcribed and reviewed by Saturday, July 4^th. Once all the pages are complete, we will publish the transcriptions back on loc.gov allowing these pages to be fully digitally searchable at the Library for the first time in history.

Library of Congress curator and historian of Early America, Julie Miller, has written two blogposts for this Campaign, one titled "George Washington's Washing and the Women Who Did It" and Not Your Usual Redcoats: Notes on Interrogations of British Deserters in George Washington’s Papers.

Stretch goal

If we complete the George Washington papers before July 4th, turn your attention to the Letters to Lincoln Campaign, which has fewer than 60 pages to review before all 28,300 or so pages are complete! 

Sam & the By the People team

Click here for more information.