About this campaign

This campaign launched in celebration of Douglass Day 2025. Thank you to all Douglass Day organizers and volunteers!

This campaign gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture through rare books, pamphlets, and related manuscripts from the Library of Congress. 

The majority of these items come primarily from the African American Perspectives Collection of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division and date from the 19th century. Most were written by African American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African American history. Titles in the collection include sermons on racial pride and political activism, annual reports of charitable, educational, and political organizations, college catalogs and graduation orations, biographies, slave narratives, speeches by members of Congress, legal documents, poetry, playbills, dramas, and librettos. Other materials focus on segregation, voting rights, violence against African Americans, anti-slavery organizations and investigative reports.

African American collections at the Library of Congress are shaped by the legacy of pioneering bibliographer and historian Daniel A. P. Murray, the second Black employee of the Library. Murray eventually donated his rich collection of pamphlets and books about the contributions of African American writers and organizations to the Library, where they still form the core of the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s collecting on Black history and culture. A portion of Murray’s collection is included in this campaign.

Additional materials come from the Manuscript and Music Divisions of the Library. A broad range of materials documenting Black political, economic, and cultural life, these items date from 1839 to 1964. They include firsthand accounts of the Amistad Mutiny, National Negro Business League correspondence from the Booker T. Washington Papers, reports on Black economic opportunity, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund records, the Civil War diary of African American Union soldier Christian Fleetwood, a script from the musical “Shuffle Along,” abolitionist song books, and memoirs of bandleader James Reese Europe.

About this project

The materials in this project illustrate the themes of history and collecting over time in Library of Congress Manuscript Division digitized reports, speeches, letters, and more. These items date from 1831 to 1957 and include firsthand accounts of the Amistad Mutiny, National Negro Business League correspondence from the Booker T. Washington Papers, reports on Black economic opportunity, organizing materials produced by the NAACP, and the Civil War diary of African American Union soldier Christian Fleetwood. Many were first digitized by the Library for the digital exhibitions The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship and Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929.

Helpful Links

• About the African American Perspectives digital collection
• The African American Odyssey Exhibition
• Daniel Murray: A Collector's Legacy
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund records finding aid

Welcome to By the People! Help transcribe Library of Congress documents to improve search, access, and discovery of these pages from history.

Documents are transcribed and reviewed by volunteers. It takes at least one volunteer to transcribe a page and at least one other volunteer to review and mark it complete. Review ensures transcriptions are whole and accurate. Complex documents may pass through transcription and review several times before they are completed. Completed transcriptions are published on loc.gov.

Let's get started!

1. Read the instructions on transcribing and reviewing. Access instructions at any time by clicking the "How-To Guide" above the text box or at the top of any page.
2. Create an account -- if you want! Anyone can transcribe without an account. Registered volunteers can review, track their work via a profile page, use "Transcribe with OCR," and add tags.
3. Choose what to transcribe. Explore campaigns from different Library of Congress collections. When you find a group of documents that looks interesting, click through to a page. Use filters to see just "Not Started" or "Needs review" pages.
4. Transcribe what you can in the text box. Type what you see in order and preserve line breaks. Have questions about something tricky? Revisit "How to transcribe."
5. Use image viewer filters to make text clearer. Activate them using the button between full screen and flip. Use filters individually or combine them to adjust brightness, contrast, and invert color.
6. Click “Save” as you go to preserve work in progress. If you decide a page isn't for you, that's ok! Just click “Save” before moving on. Other volunteers can finish what you started.
7. Click "Save" and “Submit for review” when you've transcribed a whole page and think it is ready for review. If you aren't logged in, you may need to verify you are not a bot.
8. After you transcribed a few pages, try out review! Review is the crucial final step before transcriptions are complete and ready for publication. All registered volunteers can review. Learn how.
9. Try out tagging. Read the tagging instructions, then try it on any page!

Have a question or comment?

• Send us a message.
• Connect with our team and other volunteers in our History Hub discussion forum.
• Read through our FAQ.

Text order

Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page. If you're unsure, transcribe the text how it would make sense to read aloud.

Preserve original spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Transcribe original text spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Type what you see.  Do not paraphrase.

Dashes and other punctuation can be a little unusual before the mid-20th century. Make your best guess on whether something is best represented by an en dash, em dash, equals sign, period, etc.

If a misspelling will impact search of the document, you can tag the page with the correct spelling. Example: "Abe Linkin" - Transcribe as spelled and tag with "Abraham Lincoln"

Line breaks

Preserve line breaks. Line breaks make it easier for someone to review your transcription. Sometimes text in the transcription box spills over two lines in the transcription box. If you don't hit enter, no line break is recorded.

When words are broken over two lines on the same page, type the word on the first line. Example: Write library rather than li-brary.

Page breaks

If a word breaks across two pages, transcribe it on the first page. 

Illegible or unclear text

If you can't decipher a word or phrase, that’s ok! Another volunteer may be able to. If you are unable to read a lot of a page, save and look for another.

You may not be able to read some text due to damage, cross-outs, blurred ink, or bad handwriting! In place of illegible words or letters, transcribe a pair of square brackets around a question mark [?]. If you can read any part of a word, transcribe what letters you can and use question marks for the rest. Example: [?] score and s[????] years ago 

Blank pages - Nothing to transcribe

Do not transcribe any text for blank pages. Check the Nothing to Transcribe box below it and hit "Save."

Deletions

If you can read text that has been crossed out or otherwise deleted, transcribe the deleted words within square brackets [ ].

Inserted text

When text has been inserted over a line or otherwise added later, transcribe it in the original text in the order you would read it. Do not use caret symbols or brackets to indicate text has been inserted.

Multiple pages

If there is more than one page in an image, transcribe all pages in the order they appear, one after the other. Leave empty lines between pages.

Don't leave notes in text

Only type original text from the page into the transcription box. You may be tempted to leave notes about the document, but please don't! You can leave help or context for others as a tag or post in our discussion forum on History Hub.

Expanding abbreviations

Do not expand abbreviations; just type what you see. You can use tags to record the expanded text of an important abbreviation that otherwise does not appear in the text. Example: Transcribe "UL" and tag "Urban League"

Formatting text: Bold, underlined, italic, indented, etc.

Do not try to capture formatting, such as underlining or indents or note it in the text. Preserving text style or format does not enhance the discoverability or accessibility of a page and may not display as desired in published transcriptions.

Printed or typed text

Some material in By the People is typed or printed, including letters and memos, newspaper clippings, printed forms, and more. This text still needs to be transcribed as it is not yet machine-readable. "Transcribe with OCR" (below the image viewer) may be a useful, though imperfect, starting point.

Catalog and page numbers

Do transcribe page and catalog numbers and letters.

Letterheads

Transcribe letterhead text; it often includes names and addresses researchers may find useful.

Newspapers

Transcribe all newspapers articles, not just those you think relevant. Transcribe columns in the order you would read them. Don't try to preserve layout.

When not to transcribe print

Some mass-produced diaries contain many pages of pre-printed calendars, almanacs, dates, and other text that does not need to be transcribed. This text does not broadly aid discovery and access to historical information. We recommend clicking "Nothing to transcribe" and moving on.

Images

Ignore images. Don't describe or note them in the transcription box. If a page has only images and no text, click "Nothing to transcribe." You can use tags to capture information about images, watermarks, stamps, or any other non-text features.

Text in margins

Marginalia is text written around the main text block. It is often a comment on the main body text, but can be unrelated. It differs from an insertion, in that it was not intended to be woven into the main text.

Transcribe marginalia within square brackets and asterisks [* *]. If it comments on a specific portion of the text, order it after that text. Put it at the end of the transcription if it appears unrelated. Transcribe all original punctuation within the [* *], including parentheses. Example: We are met on a great battlefield of that war. [*Refers to Gettysburg*]

Non-English languages, characters, and translation

Many languages are found in our campaigns. All text should be transcribed wholly and accurately in the original language.

Use the correct characters when transcribing non-English text. For example, do not substitute C for Ç. You can use alt codes to enter non-English characters. See our Spanish and Latin cheat sheets.

Do not enter translation! If you want to translate a document, you can share it in History Hub!

Shorthand

Do not transcribe shorthand. Some of our campaigns include shorthand text, a note-taking method popular in the early 20th century that substituted symbols for words and phrases to quickly capture text (here's an example).

Many forms of shorthand exist and shorthand transcription can be closer to translation. When you recognize shorthand, just insert [[shorthand]]. You can also add the tag "shorthand."

Other symbols and special characters

Transcribe symbols and other special characters as they are used in the original. Most common are ampersands (&), currency ($, £, etc.), and the silcrow (§, used in legal documents). Here's more help for early American and British Colonial currency.

Bleed-through

Text written or printed on thin paper, like letterbooks, will often have bleed-through. Ink from the proceeding page seeps through the paper or is visible through it and appears to be written backward. Ignore backward mirror image text. You can go to the previous page to transcribe it.

Long s or "funny" f

Some historical handwriting and printing uses the "long s", which looks like a lowercase "f". Transcribe this as a lowercase "s".

Tables

Some documents contain tables of data, such as accounting records or statistical information. Transcribe these in a way that will preserve the relationships between columns and rows, and reflect the meaning of the original documents. Don't worry about replicating layout, just try to capture the data and make your transcription relatively easy for a reviewer to check. You can use spaces and hard returns, but please do not add characters such as the pipe symbol or slashes to divide the data.

Cross-writing

Some letters include "cross-writing" where the author layered text in two directions to save on paper or postage. Transcribe a cross-written page in the order you would read it. You can also add the tag "cross-writing."

Volunteer peer review is the final vital step. Once a page is accepted by a reviewer, it is complete. Completed pages are published on loc.gov to enhance search and accessibility. Review is also great way to become familiar with reading handwriting and our transcription rules.

How to review

Read the entire transcription and carefully compare it to the document image, checking for accuracy and completeness. We recommend going line-by-line, which is why we ask transcribers to preserve line breaks. Make sure the transcriber followed all transcription rules.

Register to review

Anyone can review; you just need to register. An account also allows you to track your contribution on your profile page and to tag documents.

Accepting a transcription

If a transcription is whole and accurate and you do not need to make any changes, click "Accept". The page is now complete! You can no longer edit, but the page is still available to read and tag. If you think a completed page in an active campaign can be improved, contact us to reopen it.

Editing a transcription

If you find errors or missing text click “Edit”. You can make changes to the text yourself or leave it "In Progress" for another volunteer. Correct any mistakes made by the transcriber and complete any words you can. Just like transcribing, click “Save” as you go and "Submit" when you're done. Another volunteer will need to review the page again. 

Should I add line breaks?

Line breaks aid reviewers and other readers in comparing the transcription to the lines of text in the image. They allow you to read across the transcription and image line-by-line. However, if the absence of line breaks is the only issue in a transcription, and you can review it as-is, you do not need to add them.

Can I review my own transcriptions?

You cannot review transcriptions you submit unless someone else edits the page and re-submits it.

Add tags to communicate with other volunteers and capture additional information about a page. Completed campaign tags are published as part of campaign datasets on loc.gov.

Register to tag

Tag, you're it! Anyone can tag; you just need to be a registered user. An account also allows you to review and to track your contributions on your profile page.

Add a tag

To add a tag, type a word or words in the Tags box at the bottom of any page. Separate tags with a comma or click “Add” after each.

Delete a tag

Delete a tag by clicking the X next to the text.

Tag recommendations

Add any tags you feel are appropriate, as long as they follow the Library’s comment policy. Here are some ways you may want to tag:

• It’s useful to tag with words that aren’t already included in the transcription text, since the transcriptions will already be searchable on loc.gov and as datasets.
• Keep tags short, but use whole words instead of abbreviations. This will make it easier for other people to understand and reuse your tag.
• Identify a document’s subject. For example, you may want to tag a page with the name of a social movement it describes.
• Note an interesting format. You may want to tag the language of a page, the type of document, or if it includes unique features like shorthand or cross-writing.
• If an important word like a name is spelled incorrectly in the original text, you can add a tag of the correct spelling.
• Sometimes writers use nicknames or code words. If you identify a full name or subject using context or research, you can add that tag.

Our goal in transcribing sheet music text is keyword search for lyrics, subjects, and creators and publishers. Musical notation, performance instructions, and other markings are currently out of scope.

See the illustrated and downloadable Transcribing Sheet Music PDF for more help and examples.

Sheet music DO's

• Transcribe titles, lyrics, tempo markings (Moderato, allegro, allegretto, etc.), publication information, and ads.
• Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page (this may differ from performance order). 
• Preserve line breaks. If a word is broken across a line or page, transcribe it intact on the line where it initially appears.
• Do transcribe the text of illustrated title pages.
• Do transcribe handwritten notes and Library of Congress cataloging stamps as marginalia.

Sheet music DON'Ts

• Don’t transcribe musical notation - including time and key signatures or dynamic markings (f, p, cresc., dim., <, >, etc.)
• Don't transcribe hyphens (or melisma) within lyrics (even if broken across pages).

We ask you to transcribe non-English languages as they are written, including accent marks and other diacritics.

To help you along, this guide includes accented and special characters from the most languages in By the People campaigns (French, German, and Spanish) for you to cut and paste into the text box.

Find more language characters and Alt codes that can be used with a keypad here.

French

À    à

    â 

Ä    ä

È    è

É    é

Ê    ê

Ë    ë 

Π    î 

Ï     ï 

Ô    ô 

Œ    œ

Ù    ù

Û    û 

Ü    ü

Ÿ    ÿ

German

Ä    ä

Ö    ö

Ü    ü

ß

€

Spanish

Á    á

É    é

Í      í

Ó    ó

Ú    ú

Ñ    ñ

Ü    ü

Punctuation:  ¿  ¡  º  ª  «  »  €