STARKVILLE — When Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland, his birthday wasn’t even written down.
But on Wednesday — to celebrate the Feb. 14 birthday Douglass later chose for himself — thousands of participants around the world ensured the history of the abolitionist, orator, writer and statesmen would be preserved forever during the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon.
MSU Engagement Librarian Deedee Baldwin said the transcribe-a-thon was all about taking scans made by the Library of Congress of historical documents from Douglass’ lifetime and typing them up so they can be used to create a modern, searchable archive.
“Frederick Douglass is one of the most important Americans that ever lived, obviously,” Baldwin said. “Being able to see what people wrote to him is important, as well as what he wrote to other people. These are what we call primary sources, like the original documents from the time period that tell the story, instead of somebody else telling the story for them.”
Sitting at a table with laptops on it in the atrium of Mitchell Memorial Library for three hours, Baldwin helped students, staff members and others to type up letters written to and by Douglass. Baldwin said this was the library’s first year participating in the transcribe-a-thon.
While MSU has just joined in on the transcribe-a-thon, Douglass Day co-director Denise Burgher said Douglass Day celebrations go back much farther, as Mary Church Terrell originally started the practice the year after Douglass died.
Over time, she said, celebrations died down, until Douglass Day organization founder Jim Casey decided to revitalize the day in 2017. Now, Douglass Day invites people to learn about Douglass and to preserve Black history in his memory on Feb. 14.
“What started as a celebration of Douglass’ life has been expanded into the celebration, preservation and interaction with primary documents written by African Americans, which tends to lag behind primary documents written by non-Black people,” Burgher said.
During the 2024 Douglass Day Transcribe-a-Thon, participants were asked to transcribe 9,000 pages of letters written to or by Douglass, Burgher said, in order to create an archive for the Library of Congress under a project titled “Yours truly, Frederick Douglass.”
On the Library of Congress website, participants from around the world could click on a scan of a handwritten letter, type up what they saw and submit a digital version of the letter to the database. The transcriptions are then reviewed by six other participants, before they are finalized, Burgher said.
Baldwin said one of the biggest challenges in the transcription process was interpreting some of the handwriting, which is often in cursive or complicated scrawls, making some documents more legible than others.
Transcribe-a-thon participant and art coordinator at the T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability Gracie Conn said she was fascinated to learn about history by typing up the letters.
The most surprising part of typing up Douglass’ letters, she said, was reading the words “drop me a line” in one document, which sounded a lot like modern correspondence.
“It took me a second to get what it was saying,” she said. “The context was kind of hard to understand for that one, and then it said ‘drop me a line’ and I said ‘surely that didn’t just say that.’”
As MSU participants clicked through letters on the Library of Congress website throughout the transcribe-a-thon, more and more documents became unavailable, as other transcribers completed them.
Burgher said thousands of participants engaged with Douglass’s letters throughout the day Wednesday, including transcribers on four continents. As of Thursday morning, she said, 14% of the pages had been fully completed, while 55% was still being reviewed, 16% were still in process and only 15% of the pages had not been started.
Burgher said the Library of Congress has committed to leave the project open until it is completed and to focus on personal correspondence being transcribed until Feb. 20.
Along with the Library of Congress page, the official Douglass Day website gave participants the opportunity to listen to live broadcasts, including singing, speakers, readings, a performance of “Happy Birthday” for Douglass and more throughout the three hours.
Pattye Archer, Marketing Communications Director for MSU Libraries, said the transcribe-a-thon was just another way for the library to participate in preserving history.
“A student who has 10 minutes between classes can walk through, sit down and help transcribe a part of history,” Archer said. “Their work and the work that we’re doing here on this campus will benefit the Library of Congress and patrons. For years and years to come, they’ll be able to read those letters and that correspondence.”
Archer said the transcribe-a-thon was a part of the library’s Black History Month celebrations. Other activities include a display of daily rotating Black Mississippi heroes, button making events, displays of books focusing on prominent Black figures and more.
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