Category: Collections in Focus
Keeping up with our #Volunpeers – SIA’s Transcription Center Accomplishments
When it comes to the Smithsonian Transcription Center, there’s always more to discover, more material with which to engage. It can be easy to lose track of just how much our crowd of #volunpeers accomplished and why it is so important to us. We’re not done yet, but after four years, it’s a good time to take a step back and see what has been accomplished through the effort of over 3,700 volunpeers working on the Archives’ documents.
What’s in a name - #volunpeer
When the TC launched in 2013, we had notions about who might come to work on the projects the Archives and other Smithsonian divisions put online. Honestly, we didn’t expect the volunteers who came to represent such a broad range of interests, experience, and age groups. The dedication they have shown is exemplified by the lesser known people, events, specimens, and the connections between them that they have surfaced. And it does not stop there. In short, we found a community of peers, ‘birds of a feather,’ in our mission to increase and diffuse knowledge. Hence the Twitter hashtag #volunpeers.
Measuring the impact: By the numbers
The number picture below is the easiest to draw an impressive in its own right. I’ve grouped some of the projects into a few topical categories in an effort to open a window on these successes. But first, the numbers …
The sheer numbers are impressive: over 3,700 registered volunpeers have completed over 700 projects, transcribing and reviewing over 38,300 pages of material.
Enabling in-depth access to content
A global audience
However, numbers don’t reveal the true value of the accomplishments this partnership has created and continues to create. The accessibility these efforts have made possible is extraordinary. Instead of the viewing the documents in person at the Archives as was the case years ago, the latest combination of digitization, online access, and in-depth searching opens up a new realm of possibilities. Transcription makes that in-depth searching a reality. Warning: what follows might seem like a lot of content despite being a partial listing. We are grateful to all the volunpeers who helped make it so!
A global scope of material
The Smithsonian’s early emphasis on scientific research led to assembling a national collection with which to facilitate that work. To that end, second Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Baird corresponded with people around the globe in this pursuit. His Index of Correspondence is geographically organized and documents relationships around the world with many of the individuals whose works or specimens our volunpeers transcribe such as Vernon Bailey, William Dall, Robert Kennicott, Benjamin Dann Walsh, C. Hart Merriam, and Frederick W. True. The United States National Museum’s Curators Annual Reports capture how curators sought to collect and distill the new information that was pouring in.
Work by geographical region
Alaska and the Pacific Northwest (33 projects)
- Leonhard Stejneger
- Martin W. Gorman
- Frederick W. True
- George Gibbs
- Albert Spear Hitchcock
- William H. Dall
North America (263 projects)
- Florence Bailey
- James Eike
- G. Arthur Cooper
- Constantine Rafinesque
- Robert Ridgway
- William Henry Holmes
- Bohumil Shimek
- Albert Spear Hitchcock
- Alexander Wetmore
- Harrison G. Dy
- Vernon Bailey
- Frederick Colville
- Ira Gabrielson
- Charles Walcott
The Caribbean and the West Indies (17 projects)
Central and South America (69 projects)
- Martin H. Moynihan
- Cleofe E. Calderon
- Mary Agnes Chase
- Doris Cochran
- Ellsworth Killip
- Albert Spear Hitchcock
- Alexander Wetmore
- Waldo Schmitt
Europe and the UK (13 projects)
Africa and the Middle East (9 projects)
Asia (23 projects)
Antarctic and Oceania (6 projects)
Completed online transcriptions make it possible for researchers, scholars, and scientists to use data mining techniques to first, locate appropriate primary sources, and then analyze that material. We are excited about the prospects of this continued collaboration in the months to come. As #volunpeers remark on Twitter, #welearntogether.
Related Resources
- Field book posts on The Bigger Picture blog.
- Baird’s Network, Bigger Picture blog.
- The Field Book Project blog.
Related Collections
The links in the groupings above lead to the Transcription Center which will in turn link to collection finding aids and catalog records. Another way to find these resources is to search our collections here.
Archives on View: National Portrait Gallery’s 50th Anniversary Exhibition
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (NPG) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018. Ahead of next year’s festivities, NPG unveiled an exhibition commemorating its May 1968 opening. The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) provided several pieces for this gallery, including a photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s dedication speech on May 3rd. Check out the full exhibition, and a scale model of the building before the installation of the Kogod Courtyard’s renowned glass ceiling, on NPG’s second floor.
The Smithsonian Institution Archives collects, preserves, and shares the history of the Smithsonian as part of its mission. In tandem with NPG’s exhibition requests for items related to the May 1968 opening, our Preservation Coordinator Alison has been working with NPG records in a seven-box series titled “National Museum of American Art and Portrait Gallery (U.S.) Library, Records, 1916, 1922, 1929-1930, 1946-1984.” This record unit documents the simultaneous public opening of NPG and the National Collection of Fine Arts (later renamed Smithsonian American Art Museum). I used to work at NPG in their department of exhibitions, so I could not resist a chance to take a peek inside Box 01…
There were correspondences galore, plus media contacts, programs, and newspaper clippings. Several folders of black and white photos show the opening reception – lots of fancy clothes, and for some reason hairstyles that alternated between Jacqueline Kennedy and William H. Macy in Pleasantville. (Men’s hair: 1868 = long, 1968 = short, 2068 = TBD).
But it was in the original exhibition notes that I found a hidden gem. NPG headlined its inauguration with an exhibition titled This New Man, an exploration of the American identity in the New World. As with all exhibitions, the final list of which famous faces go on which walls is a collaborative effort that goes through many drafts. I found an early version of this list complete with cross-outs and handwritten notes (source unknown - possibly Robert G. Steward who was the first NPG curator of paintings and sculpture, but this is pure speculation). Some instantly recognizable names jumped off the page; Robert E. Lee, George Washington Carver, Clara Barton, Benjamin Franklin, etc. But digging deeper, there were three names that caught my eye, each with its own unique story to tell:
Dorothea Dix, 1802-1887, bio: Gallery 9, “Liberators and Crusaders”
I come to present the strong claims of suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the unconcerned world would start with real horror. (Dorothea Dix, Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1843)
The above quote is pulled from NPG’s classroom resource page. It describes in its words and in its tone the mission and the resolve of Dorothea Dix, a woman who committed much of her life to improving the treatment of mental illnesses in both the United States and Europe. She pioneered efforts to build new hospitals and to refit existing mental health facilities at a time when medical practice traditionally locked away “insane” individuals in prisons instead of providing care. Her advocacy helped to lay the foundation for modern fields of psychiatry and psychology.
Carrie Nation, 1846-1911, bio: Gallery 16, “Humorists and Hyperbolists”
The Temperance Movement to moderate or prohibit alcohol consumption seemed like ancient history in the United States – until I looked up Prohibition and saw the ban on alcoholic beverages ended only 84 years ago (I need to call my grandfather about this). Carrie Amelia Moore Nation was a key figure in this movement. Her actions may have upset many Temperance supporters. Nation pushed back against alcohol consumption unreservedly, directly, and even aggressively, using vandalism and intimidation when needed. As one curator wrote, “Most famously, Nation stormed into barrooms wielding a hatchet that she used to break bottles and disrupt business. Often arrested and fined, she attracted national attention to the temperance cause.”
Zebulon Pike, 1779-1813, bio: Gallery 17, “The Inquisitive”
Have you ever been to Pike’s Peak? Zebulon Montgomery Pike may have beaten you to it, but he never quite made it to the summit. A military man, Pike led several expeditions to the West, first to the upper Mississippi River. Ordered to find the origin of the mighty waterway, he and 20 men started in Missouri and traveled 2,000 miles before (incorrectly) identifying Leech Lake in Minnesota as the river’s source. On a second expedition beginning 1806, Pike led his men along the Red and Arkansas rivers. He reached Colorado where he fell short of his goal to scale the peak that would eventually bear his name. These setbacks aside, however, Pike’s maps and notes from his expeditions were the first written records of the Louisiana Purchase territory, the famous land acquisition of 1803 during the administration of Thomas Jefferson. Pike's efforts were instrumental in the early identification of what would become the Midwestern United States.
NPG's 50th anniversary exhibition is on view through next year. If you can come downtown D.C., be sure to visit the gallery, meet some new faces, and help celebrate the anniversary of this unique collection.
Related Collections
- Mary Henry Diary Entries on Dorothea Dix and Fort Sumter Attack, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7001, Box 51, Folder 3.
- Henderson Family, Henderson Family Papers, 1868-1923 [Temperance movement], Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7075.
- Pike, Zebulon (1779-1813). Biographical sketch, 1913, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7320, Box 13, Folder 17.
Related Resources
- “Dorothea Dix: Mental Health Reformer and Civil War Nurse,” The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Miscellaneous Adventures into Standard Forms at the Smithsonian
For the next installment of “Miscellaneous Adventures,” we’ve taken a dive into blank standardized forms once used at the Smithsonian, found in Record Unit 65, Smithsonian Institution Chief Clerk, Forms, Circulars, Announcements, 1846-1933, Box 14, Folder Miscellaneous Forms – Assorted. And these forms are certainly assorted! The contents range from memorandum forms to employment applications used in the late 1800s. They provide a fascinating look into the way business was conducted more than 120 years ago.
One of the first documents in the folder was a form letter signed by the second Smithsonian Secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), that appears to be a crowdsourcing effort for the most current methods for archiving.
Dated January 26, 1882, the letter seeks to “ascertain the methods employed in public and private offices, for filing and indexing letters and manuscripts.” Clearly, the proper management and arrangement of our collections has always been a high priority for the Smithsonian, and we are always looking for the most up-to-date methods to do so!
Another form found within this folder gives us one indication how research was conducted at the Institution during the 1890s, when Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906) was the third Secretary of the Smithsonian.
This document was used to request books from the Library of Congress for the use of the Smithsonian Institution. The form uses the language “send by bearer,” which means by porter or carrier. A porter would deliver the request to the Library of Congress, retrieve the requested books and return to the Smithsonian. This process hasn’t significantly changed over the years – minus the use of porters. However, with the development of electronic books and records, the access to much of this information is now available at our fingertips.
A task many of us are familiar with is applying for jobs. What if a job application was a simple one-page form? Take a look at this Application for Employment used by the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1884.
While some of the fields look similar to what we find on today’s job applications – name, address, qualifications, and references, several fields we don’t commonly see anymore. Additionally, an applicant isn’t given much space to make their case on this form. While it’s become more common today for job applicants to use a curriculum vitae that provides multiple pages of extensive detail on past employment, this application only provides one line for present or past employment. Imagine condensing pages of information into one line!
Take a look at the rest of the forms found in this folder here.
To see what other miscellaneous mysteries exist in our collections, comment below, or message us on Facebook or Twitter to:
Vote Folder A for Record Unit 401, Archives of American Art, Records, 1954-1985, with related records from 1917, Box 2, Folder 14 Miscellaneous Memos
OR
Vote Folder B for Record Unit 61, Smithsonian Institution International Exchange Service, Records, 1849-1953, Box 48, Folder 1 Miscellaneous Letters – Great Britain, 1886-1889
Related Resources
Miscellaneous Adventures, The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives
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