Smithsonian Transcription Center

We’d love your help in reviewing but we know it can be a challenge to get to the pages that need another pass. There are a few ways to find those pages. On the project page, you can FILTER to see only pages needing review. You can also use the orange “Start Reviewing” button to get going! 

Find some yellow pages here and let us know what you’re discovering! 

#OTD: 27 July 1919, Leo Baekeland sips a mint julep and reflects on “pirates” of the industry who have been compelled to “drop their inferior preparations”. 
See more of Baekeland’s journals, shared by the Archives Center at National Museum of American History​ in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center.

A fresh set of (allergy-free!) Pollen Cards are ready for you. Dust off your transcription skills by checking in on the instructions. 

Then get started with these quick cards, shared by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute​.

We’re always looking for a few good eyes and editing skills to help us review transcribed pages. Review is one of the most important steps in the TC process; a green light from a reviewer signals that the text is ready to be indexed and can then be searched by keyword in Smithsonian Collections Search Center. Are you up for the challenge of revew? Join us here to find a project. 

Tip: Scroll to find the projects and pages that are yellow!

It pays to keep a record successes (and even bills!) in one’s garden. The Chimneys, the seaside summer ‘cottage’ of Boston financier Gardiner Martin Lane and his wife Emma, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (son of the designer of New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s world’s fair) in 1902.

Smithsonian Gardens are giving you the chance to explore the record of this  Manchester, Massachusetts Gilded Age era estate. It was featured in popular garden magazines and guidebooks well into the twentieth century and won many horticultural prizes including the prestigious Massachusetts Horticultural Society gold medal in 1935. Join in transcribing this project!

This summer, Smithsonian Gardens and @smithsonianlibraries​ are collaborating over Cultivating America’s Gardens. Learn more with this online exhibition.

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody… is busy with transcription! See the latest activity in projects by using the “Latest” sort feature on the Browse Projects page. Try it for yourself and let us know what you think. 

What secrets do these sketches by Harrison G. Dyar hold? Find out more about Dyar’s Law and the modern research that is applying it during today’s Facebook Live event with Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Museum of Natural History - Department of Entomology. 

Join us at noon today on the Smithsonian Institution Archives Facebook Page. In the meantime, help transcribe Dyar’s field notes. 

BRAND NEW PROJECTS: Two new projects from @nmaahc are up in the TC. They are editions of The Liberator (1831-1865) - the most widely circulated anti-slavery newspaper up to and through the Civil War. Listed within the pages are the names and efforts of abolitionists. Join in with this transcription challenge to learn more. 

No need to go under the sea to explore Fossil Marine Invertebrates. The second set of our Paleobiology pilot project is live - Join in to and try a few!