The Remaining Letters to Lincoln
When the "Letters to Lincoln" crowdsourced transcription campaign launched in October 2018, public volunteers transcribed the roughly 10,000 documents from the Abraham Lincoln Papers on loc.gov not previously transcribed by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. After the campaign was successfully completed in July 2020, we found that a few stray items had not been included in the initial group.
The title of this project comes from a saying Abraham Lincoln used in the War Department telegraph office during the Civil War. When Lincoln finished reading the new dispatches, he would say he was “down to raisins.” Asked what he meant, Lincoln related the story of a little girl who indulged in many good things on her birthday, with the last item on the menu being raisins. We’ll spare you the further details, but Lincoln’s point was that “when I reach the message in this pile which I saw on my last visit, I know that I need go no further.” We are now “down to raisins” in the “Letters to Lincoln” campaign, and with your help we will need to go no further once these items are transcribed!
This campaign was created to support Library of Congress staff working from home. If you are not a Library employee, please focus your efforts on our other campaigns. Thanks for your understanding.
The title of this project comes from a saying Abraham Lincoln used in the War Department telegraph office during the Civil War. When Lincoln finished reading the new dispatches, he would say he was “down to raisins.” Asked what he meant, Lincoln related the story of a little girl who indulged in many good things on her birthday, with the last item on the menu being raisins. We’ll spare you the further details, but Lincoln’s point was that “when I reach the message in this pile which I saw on my last visit, I know that I need go no further.” We are now “down to raisins” in the “Letters to Lincoln” campaign, and with your help we will need to go no further once these items are transcribed!
This campaign was created to support Library of Congress staff working from home. If you are not a Library employee, please focus your efforts on our other campaigns. Thanks for your understanding.
