Campaigns
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Theater for the People: Federal Theatre Project playbills
Between 1935 and 1939, the Federal Theatre Project employed thousands of performers, directors, playwrights, designers, and stage technicians to produce hundreds of productions across the country during the Great Depression. At no other time in United States history has the government so directly supported the creation of live performance. These playbills of Federal Theatre Project productions document the stories we told in the 1930s, what we valued then, and who we were.
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By Design: Frederick Law Olmsted & Associates
2022 marks the bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted’s birth. Many of the parks, estates, residential communities, campuses, grounds of buildings, and gathering places he, his associates, and his successors designed remain in use today. Find out more about landscape architecture, urban planning, and the cultural history of design for public and private greenspaces by transcribing documents from the Library’s Manuscript Division holdings.
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Clara Barton: "Angel of the Battlefield"
Nurse, educator, philanthropist, lecturer, and founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton (1821-1912) was one of the most prolific, active, and beloved women of her time. Discover how she achieved so much despite widespread prejudice against women.
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Volunteer transcriptions now enable search and access for portions of this collection at loc.gov. -
Ordinary Lives in George Washington’s Papers
George Washington’s papers are about more than George Washington. Because the first president was a dedicated record-keeper, his papers are also a source of information about the people with whom he lived, worked, and did business. We began investigating the ordinary lives in Washington’s papers with two projects, now completed: Revolutionary War Receipts, 1776-1780 and Interrogations of British Deserters, 1782-1783. Now we are adding a third: the farm reports sent weekly to Washington by his farm managers at Mount Vernon after the war. These record the weather, show Washington engaging with the latest agricultural innovations of his time, and document the lives and labor of the enslaved people at Mount Vernon
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Walt Whitman
2019 marked the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth and the poet remains at the center of cultural conversations today. The Whitman campaign includes projects devoted to his poetry, letters, speeches, and other writings. Discover how he wrote and lived for yourself, and learn more about his creative process.
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Volunteer transcriptions now enable discovery and access for the Feinberg-Whitman collection and the Miscellaneous Manuscripts collection. Search them. -
American Creativity: Early Copyright Title Pages
Discover endlessly fascinating items in this time capsule of title pages. Sent in by authors and publishers to register their books and other works, they stem from the earliest U.S. copyright laws from 1790 to 1870. This collection is a unique American record of creativity, dreams and aspirations.
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Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents
Legal documents shed light on what societies and individuals value, and the struggles, hopes, and triumphs of people across the societal spectrum. You can transcribe documents written in Spanish, Latin, and Catalan between 1300 and 1800, and open the legal history of Spain and Spanish colonies to greater discovery. Help us bring this rare collection to life!
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Los documentos jurídicos iluminan lo que la sociedades e individuos valoran y las batallas, esperanzas y triunfos de personas a través de todo el espectro social. Puedes transcribir documentos escritos en español, latín y catalán desde los años 1300 a los 1800 y dar entrada a la historia jurídica de España y de sus colonias para mayor descubrimiento. Ayúdanos a traer a la luz esta colección de materiales únicos. -
The Blackwells: An Extraordinary Family
Discover the extraordinary history of one family’s commitment to social reform movements such as abolition, women’s suffrage, and temperance. Blackwell family members include Lucy Stone and her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, who were both prominent in the women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements.
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These papers are part of the “Suffrage: Women Fight for the Vote” topical campaign, which brings together stories from people on the front lines of the largest reform movement in American history. Explore the long struggle for equality through the diaries, letters, and speeches of the men and women who fought for the right to vote and changed political history 100 years ago. -
Organizing for Women’s Suffrage: The NAWSA Records
In the 1890s, the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s influence reached across the country, contributing to suffrage victories in the western states. By the early twentieth century, new leaders, including Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, emerged and suffragists devised innovative tactics in the struggle for the right to vote, including suffrage parades and open-air meetings. Discover NAWSA's multifaceted history, including deep connections to the abolition and women's rights movements.
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Rough Rider to Bull Moose: Letters to Theodore Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was a prolific writer of books, articles, and especially letters, and received as much mail as he sent. His correspondents ranged from heads of states to average Americans, and covered a wide range of topics. Discover what Roosevelt and his correspondents had to say about the issues of their day, and help make the subjects addressed in what Roosevelt called his “great mass of papers” more accessible.
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