Transcribing isn’t necessarily a solo project, and it certainly hasn’t been in the case of the Henry and Nellie Mighels project, University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections librarian Donnie Curtis says.
Much of the crowdsourcing process these days is about getting to know the people of the past, but Curtis says it’s also a great chance to make friends in the present. The pandemic has provided the advantage of bringing collaborators together online to sift through primary sources and historical documents and make them accessible to anyone, according to Curtis. Sources identified for transcription for this project as well as others have included Civil War letters, field notebooks, letters from divorce seekers or by students during summer school sessions in the early 1900s, photos of plays and more.
“I have learned that you can’t just … let them loose and transcribe,” Curtis said. “They want to be part of a project and don’t just want to be off in their house with a computer. They want to feel more connected to the project.
“I get to know these people. I send them updates. They will make comments. They have comments. They want to have a conversation, and that’s fine with me. I do, too. I like communications.”
The Henry and Nellie Mighels correspondence in the mid-19th century describing their courtship and their roles as journalists and the beginning of the Nevada Daily Appeal offer insight into life in Nevada’s early days as Henry Mighels established himself in Carson City.
The crowdsourcing process for transcription from available primary sources – like the Henry and Nellie Mighels’ letters in this example – are making these contents legible and comprehensible after decades of deterioration.
It also provides fulfillment to the volunteers willing to assist the host nonprofit organizations in what Curtis called the “GLAM” sphere – galleries, libraries, archives and museums. These institutions, typically woefully underfunded, rely on the free services by generous supporters who donate their time, usually through transcription to preserve these sources.
“…COVID-19 put a stop to most GLAM volunteering, leaving a void in many people’s lives,” Curtis said. “Being part of a transcription project can’t replace being an onsite volunteer, but it does provide an opportunity to help further a worthwhile project.”
The simple learning experience can draw anyone with an interest in history, and Curtis said the Mighels correspondence project has shown what it was like to live in Carson City in its early days, insight about the Civil War and to start a newspaper like the Nevada Daily Appeal.
“Time is a dimension, and primary sources such as letters and diaries can transport us into that other dimension of the space we occupy,” she said.
Curtis, who has worked in the libraries for 22 years, is preparing to retire and said she’s enjoyed her career through the changes in technology but said in recent times, impacts to the University Libraries have made it difficult to fill needs.
“Nobody’s been laid off, but we haven’t filled positions,” she said. “There’s no way I could spend $3,000. There’s a minigrant for just using my own time.”
The University Libraries will add the Mighels letters to its digital collection. UNR’s Digitization Lab manager Katherine Dirk, working with student worker Marisa Kuhlman on the Mighels letters project, said the lab uses a unique mounted camera on a copy stand that points down at the special materials, allowing the staff to zoom in and out on the materials and take high-resolution photos of each page. The camera is connected to a computer with imaging software.
“We want to present everything in the letter as it would appear to the person,” Dirk said. “We do a calibration session to make sure we’re capturing true color and even lighting, but we don’t do any Photoshop. We don’t darken, we don’t edit the images in any way.”
The entire table is photographed and cropped down to the actual document. Once images are captured and cropped, they are exported at archivable quality TIFFs at high resolution, she said. Dirk said the setup is better for fragile materials that might be crushed in a flatbed scanner, Dirk said. This ensures the materials’ safety.
Student workers are trained to handle pages. Gloves are not used, but hands are clean and no food or drink are allowed into the lab.
The Mighels project itself in all was accomplished through the Digitization Lab in about three or four weeks, Dirk said, with some quarantining of materials. It took about 75 hours to capture and crop items, which is about typical for a project of its size.
In addition to Curtis, three others, including Janice Pilkington of Wales, Marya Van’t Hul of Boston and Jill Finney of Minnesota, who once lived in Las Vegas, have shared in the load.
Pilkington, a retired information technology administrator, said transcribing is a simple process and enjoyable.
“I enjoy feeling that one is helping to make history and personal lives from centuries ago come to life again for all interested parties and researchers and provides accessibility for all of our futures,” Pilkington said in a release.
Van’t Hul said it’s helping to stave off boredom during the pandemic while having to remain indoors, noting, “Nellie and Harry are witty and literate.” In her correspondence, Nellie Verrill, her maiden name before they were married, commonly used “Harry” as a nickname for Henry.
Finney decided to assist thanks to her daughter, a University Libraries student employee, who informed her mother who had an interest in historical events and helped with transcribing a women’s suffrage project previously that this project was in need of some help.
“I absolutely love transcribing! With everything going on in the world today, it is a nice break for me,” Finney said. “I feel like I’ve gotten to know Harry and Nellie through the letters. It’s like I’ve stepped back in time and it’s so interesting to read about the daily goings on in the 1860s.”
Curtis said the University Libraries have launched other projects for transcription and she hopes other collaborators might express an interesting in helping.
For those who might worry about how to actually get started reading some of the handwritten documents or what it might take to do it, Curtis said she will provide “cheat sheets” based on research she’s already conducted into a source’s personal information and genealogy, as long as the ink on the page hasn’t faded too much.
“Names are usually the hardest,” Curtis said. “There’s usually no context. We’ll do searches in old newspapers. Once I’ve got it, I’ll look at articles about that person and their family.”
Other transcribers can assist in identifying certain characteristics of a person’s handwriting, such as S’s or F’s. The way Verill wrote hers, for example, was very unique and tall.
Curtis said she will be retiring soon but has enjoyed her career as a librarian, in her other roles with the University Libraries or in the special projects she’s taken on through various grants. She said it’s been especially rewarding helping others and learning new things.
As of mid-February, a total of 1,093 pages, or about 65%, of the Mighels’ correspondence had been digitized by the University Libraries’ Digital Services department. By Friday, Curtis said there were only 29 pages left to transcribe.
More proofreaders now are needed for the Mighels project as it wraps up. While the project is nearly done, Curtis said volunteers to finish with the transcription by the end of the month would still help the project quickly and could still be used for other work.
“It’s nice to escape from the prison of the past,” she said. “If you like to be a part of a project that is helping researchers, it’s that you are making it easier for people to do research in history that isn’t easily accessible and making sure that it isn’t lost.”
To take a look at the pages that have been transcribed so far by UNR’s Special Collections and University Archives librarians and volunteers, visit https://fromthepage.com/unr. The Henry and Nellie Mighels correspondence is included.
For information about transcribing, e-mail specoll@unr.edu.
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