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Campaign Tips
Transcribing Clara Barton
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.
Her diaries, correspondence, and autobiographical materials provide deep insights into her life and work. Tens of thousands of pages of letterbooks include outgoing correspondence sent by Clara Barton and other Red Cross officials. Their pages chronicle major world disasters and conflicts and relief work efforts.
Image filters can help!
This campaign contains some difficult-to-read pages. Our viewer filters may help you read light, dark, or blurry pages by allowing you to adjust the brightness and contrast.
Access the filters by clicking on the icon at the top of the image viewer (located between "flip horizontally" and "toggle full page").
The filters build upon each other, so you can apply more than one at a time.
Bleed-through
Throughout this campaign you will see bleed-through, a common issue for thin pages. Ink seeps through the paper and appears as backward text.
Bleed-through can make deciphering more difficult, but try your best. Ignore backward mirror image text and go to the previous page to view and transcribe it.
The example of backwards text above (from a Clara Barton letterbook) is bleed-through and should not be transcribed.
Transcribe with OCR
This collection includes a lot of typed pages - you may want to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to get started. OCR is a tool that can extract print text from some documents.
Try out the "Transcribe with OCR" button beneath the image viewer.
Using this button will delete any existing transcription - please only apply it on typed pages.
Need more help? Check out the How-To Guide
You can access full instructions at any time while transcribing or reviewing. Just click the blue How-To Guide button above the transcription box.
The guide also includes campaign descriptions and other helpful context under "About This Campaign".
View or print instructions in a separate webpage by visiting How-To at the top of your screen on any page.