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Campaign Tips
Transcribing Joseph Holt
Joseph Holt (1807-1894) was a newspaper editor, lawyer, political figure in Kentucky, U.S. postmaster general, secretary of war, and judge advocate general of the U.S. Army.
The sectional crisis, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the conspirator's trial, and Reconstruction all play out in Holt’s papers, as his proximity to power prompted letters from well-known figures, the public, and his own divided family.
Transcription basics
Transcribe what you see! Preserve original spelling, punctuation, word order, and page numbers or catalog marks.
Preserve line breaks except when a word breaks over a line or page. Then transcribe it on the line or page where it starts.
Use brackets [ ] around deleted, illegible or partially legible text. Transcribe any words or letters you can't identify as [?].
Access all instructions at any time by clicking the How To tab on the right of this page.
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Historical handwriting
Many documents in this campaign use Spencerian script, a handwriting used from about 1850 to 1925. It was standard in the U.S. prior to widespread adoption of typewriters.
These resources can help with you deciphering:
- Handwriting in the Civil War, Sullivan Press
- How to decipher unfamiliar handwriting, Natural History Museum Archives (UK)
- Palaeography: reading old handwriting, 1500 - 1800, A practical online tutorial, UK National Archives
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