TBT: Super Awesome People™ in History.
Out of all the Super Awesome People™ posts I’ve written so far, the TBT posts have been my favorite. It’s fascinating to deep dive (albeit, briefly) into the lives of incredible people in history who have made impacts in the fields of environmental conservation, science, medicine, education, athletics—as well as stories of kindness paid forward and fascinating women named “Bessie”.
Several of my deep dives have led me to the TimesMachine which contains a digital archive of more than 150 years of the New York Times‘ print publications. It’s an amazing resource that I’ve used as a primary source for many of my posts. Some of the TimesMachine articles are available in text form, but many I have encountered only exist in their original scanned image form (especially articles published before 1981), making the text impossible to search and inaccessible to screen reader technology.
I couldn’t find details on how the Times is making their archives more accessible online, but there are other organizations doing just that.
(Thomas Kelley, Unsplash) 
(Pereanu Sebastian, Unsplash)
In May, Michael S. Rosenwald at the Washington Post wrote about a dramatic increase in volunteers helping organizations like The Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress transcribe historical documents including letters, diaries, field notes, recipes, poems, and more. Volunteering as a transcriber is a great DIY activity for quarantine days—you can do it at home, it’s educational (teachers have even signed up their students), and you can learn interesting things while providing a valuable service to preserve and digitize historical records.
If you’re as fascinated by history as I am, and you have time to volunteer, below are organizations in need of volunteer transcribers. And who knows? You may discover another Super Awesome Person in History™ whose story deserves to be shared with the world.
Volunteer as a Transcriber
- From the Page: You can sign up as a transcriber and then Find a Project that needs help. The site features archival projects from numerous libraries and universities throughout the U.S.
- Library of Congress, By the People: No account needed! Anyone can contribute by simply typing what you see on the page. Improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing, and tagging Library of Congress documents. Be a Virtual Volunteer! (For more details, see: How to Transcribe)
- National Archives, Citizen Archivist: Volunteers must register for a free account as a Citizen Archivist to help make the records of the National Archives more searchable and discoverable. Their How-To Guides include transcription tips, insights on tagging, and instructional videos.
- Smithsonian Transcription Center: Become a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer (one of 28,000 and counting!) to help make historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible. Documents include field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, currency proof sheets, photo albums, manuscripts, and biodiversity specimens labels. Learn more with their Transcription Center FAQs.
- Online Micro-Volunteering & Crowdsourced Projects: Discover national and local organizations that need help to transcribe documents, annotate maps, tag photos, record audiobooks, and more. Be a Micro-Volunteer.
More Places To Volunteer
- The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: The museum needs help transcribing the Ryan White Letters, thousands of letters written to Ryan White who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s at age 13.
- Digital Newberry, Newberry Transcribe: Newberry Transcribe is a digital transcription site that allows you to view and transcribe over 50,000 pages of letters and diaries from their archival collections. Learn more about how to get started, and then help Unlock the Past!
- New York Public Library, What’s On the Menu? Help the NYPL transcribe 45,000 menus dating from the 1840s to the present. The New York Public Library’s restaurant menu collection is one of the largest in the world, used by historians, chefs, novelists and everyday food enthusiasts. Learn more and then help review—no registration required!
- Royal BC Museum: Help this British Columbian museum transcribe and digitize valuable historical records. Simply choose a collection to start transcribing and check out their transcription tips for more details on best practices.
- TEDx Talks: Volunteer transcribers create original-language subtitles for TEDx talks, helping them reach a wider audience because they are accessible to Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, indexed on search engines like Google, and able to be translated by TED Translators. Join the TEDx transcription team and learn more about subtitling guidelines.