The Smithsonian launched a website on Tuesday that is intended to let the public help transcribe thousands of documents including Civil War journals and early American currency.
Users interested in joining the institution's effort to transcribe digitized documents can register online to get started. According to the Smithsonian, the enormous collection of papers would take decades to transcribe if only museum staff did the work.
The Smithsonian has thousands of digitized images of documents, such as letters written by famous artists and botany specimen labels from a century ago, that were handwritten or are difficult for a computer to decipher for other reasons.
"We are thrilled to invite the public to be our partners in the creation of knowledge to help open our resources for professional and casual researchers to make new discoveries," Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said in a statement. "For years, the vast resources of the Smithsonian were powered by the pen; they can now be powered by the pixel."
After the documents are transcribed by people, they can be made searchable and used as a resource.
The Smithsonian's Transcription Center conducted beta testing during the last year using 1,000 volunteers and completing more than 13,000 pages of transcription. For one project, just 49 volunteers finished transcribing 200 pages of correspondence from members of the Monuments Men held in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art collection in a week.
Some of the projects in need of transcribing are handwritten personal letters from artists such as Mary Cassatt and Grandma Moses; meticulous field observation notebooks by birdwatcher James Eike; and field reports from Langdon Warner, an American archaeologist who was among the Monuments Men fighting to protect historic treasures during World War II.
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