Since Fall 2016, the Collaboratory has delighted in hosting an annual Transcribe-a-Thon of the Freedmen Bureau records.

An act of Congress on March 3, 1865 created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen’s Bureau). The records produced by the bureau are the richest source of information on the African American experience post-Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Most documents have been digitized, but not all have been transcribed. From these pages many stories can emerge, but without transcription, finding these stories can be difficult. Come and help recover forgotten knowledge about our Nation's past, and in so doing, contribute to recovering our shared history.

Participants will learn a bit about the ongoing project to transcribe the bureau’s papers as well as how to transcribe documents and best practices. For those interested in learning to read 19th-century handwriting (paleography) this transcribe-a-thon is ideal practice.