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By the People Bulletin

 

Previous Douglass Days were record-breaking, but this year's was website-breaking!  

Last Friday, February 14, we launched a new campaign, African American Perspectives in Print, and teamed up with our friends at Douglass Day for an epic transcribe-a-thon in honor of Frederick Douglass. Since 2017, the Center for Black Digital Research at Pennsylvania State University has organized a day of service on Douglass's chosen birthday. Douglass Day brings volunteers from around the world together virtually to transcribe and learn about an online collection of Black history. This year's celebration included events at 200+ locations including K-12 schools, colleges, public libraries, and more. Over 8,400 folks signed up to participate and I'm sure even more of you joined in on the day of!

This year's event was so popular that the high level of traffic to the By the People website temporarily crashed our transcription platform! Thank you for your patience and understanding as we worked to get it back up and running smoothly. Despite technical difficulties, by the end of Douglass Day volunteers had contributed transcriptions to 5,000 pages of the campaign. One week in, nearly all 10,000 pages have been started and over 3,000 completed. 

The African American Perspectives in Print campaign brings together African American history and culture from the Rare Book and Special Collections, Music, and Manuscript Divisions, including some items from the collection of Daniel A. P. Murray Collection. Murray became the second Black employee of the Library of Congress in 1871 and was a pioneering bibliographer and historian. Murray’s life and legacy were highlighted in the Douglass Day virtual program, which included a video message from his great-great-grandson -- watch the full Douglass Day 2025 video on YouTube.

A huge thank you to our Douglass Day collaborators and the thousands of you who tuned in and logged on from around the world. But our work isn't done yet! The campaign will continue until all pages are completed and many pages still need peer-review to cross the finish line. Help us rise to the challenge by the end of February!

Antrim transcriptions back in loc.gov 

We launched the Benajah Antrim Journals on January 29 and the transcriptions are already back in loc.gov to power research and access! The three journals and two sketchbooks chronicle Antrim's 1849 overland journey through Mexico in word and image. Explore Antrim's observations about the landscapes, foodways, everyday life in small villages and ranchos, and the grand architecture and design of parks, cathedrals, and government buildings in Mexico. Our thanks to all of the volunteers who worked on this campaign! 

 

Warm wishes,

Abby, Carlyn, and Lauren