Background:
While I unfortunately missed class on Douglass Day due to a doctor’s appointment, I still had the opportunity to participate in the transcribe-a-thon on my own time. Honestly, before this, I wasn’t at all aware of the Colored Conventions movement. Though it is entirely possible I learned about it in History class at some point and wasn’t paying attention, (History is not my strong suit). However, I am so glad that I have become educated on such an important movement now.
Biggest Takeaway:
I am so grateful to have been able to participate in preserving such an important part of history. Being able to transcribe primary sources from the 1800’s campaigning for civil and human rights, so that they can still be learned about today, is a huge privilege. It sounds basic, but the idea of maintaining history has been the biggest takeaway for me. There are probably so many important movements and historical moments that have been lost along the way because people didn’t have access to transcribed or preserved documents. While some people may argue against digitalizing everything, it allows items that can easily be lost to stay alive forever. That is a big positive in terms of digital media. While nothing is guaranteed, it is way more challenging to lose or destroy a digital record than a physical one. Especially with overlooked historical moments such as this, it will allow for this history to never be lost.
I have worked with many digitized historical documents throughout my time as a student, but never really thought about the work that goes into it. Especially with technology now, if I need to digitize something I’ve handwritten, I can open my camera app, have it scan what I wrote, and copy and paste it into a document. Due to this, I feel as though I may have been a bit naive toward the process of transcribing documents. However, it is a real task that needs to occur for these documents to be preserved digitally, and it is a task that requires a lot of work, precision, and patience. I have grown a great appreciation for those who do this for a living as it is a very tedious job.
I often only have thought about the job of transcribing in the sense of translation. Like, if a document was written in Spanish and needed to be available in English as well. However, it makes a lot of sense to transcribe old documents to digitize them. Especially if they are hand-written documents, even if the technology to simply scan text and copy and paste it had always been available, it likely wouldn’t transcribe correctly due to being messy, worn-out, or just generally unreadable. I can see how this could be even more challenging as a career to try to decipher what had been written in old, cursive, messy handwriting or worn-out papers.
Connection:
It reminds me of our chat with Beth Witherell when she talked about the challenge of understanding handwriting in her job as editor-in-chief of the Princeton version of Walden. While she acknowledged that it is a difficult task, she also provided a few ways in which she makes it manageable when working with manuscripts dating back to the mid-19th century. She explained that working with others is always helpful as two heads are better than one. One person may see something one way, while the other may see it differently. Or maybe one person is better at deciphering old-fashioned cursive than the other. Whatever it is, working with someone else is more likely to lead to a correct transcription.
However, the other tip she provided was the one that stood out to me more. She shared that researching the time period that the document was written is very beneficial as well. Specifically dissecting the language used during that time. This is so that she can keep an eye out for slang or words we rarely see now. Also, she said it helps to know as much as possible about the author and their writing style. With knowledge of both of these areas, deciphering the text will be easier as the transcriber can make predictions and inferences based on what they already know.
Reflection:
Luckily, the document I transcribed was pretty easy to transcribe. It was typewritten, so the only difficulty was really certain areas that had faded or become worn out. Overall, it was an enjoyable and satisfying process. It also feels really good to know you’re contributing to preserving important historical moments.