In 2010, the newly established Common Core State Standards program, which outlines skills and knowledge students should acquire between kindergarten and high school, did not include cursive in its English requirements. As a result, many young people can no longer read or write in cursive. But if you can—or are willing to learn—a wealth of historical documents await you in the U.S. National Archives.
The federal organization’s Citizen Archivist program is recruiting volunteers to help transcribe thousands of documents in its collection. Records in need of review are categorized into “missions,” like paperwork relating to women in the First World War or submarine patrol reports during the Second World War.
“Each file is associated with a surviving Revolutionary War soldier, his widow, or children, who applied for a pension based on the veteran’s service during War for Independence (1775-1783),” says a statement from the National Parks Service, which has partnered with the National Archives for this initiative in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. The records of more than 80,000 of the nation’s first veterans need transcribing.
The National Archives also needs people to tag photographs and other materials to help identify people, events, or places. By improving searchability, the archives become more accessible to historians, genealogists, students, and the public.
It’s easy to get started: just register and select a document to begin transcribing. There’s no application, and you can contribute as much or as little as you’d like. National Parks Service interpretation planner Joanne Blacoe says, “We wanted something that was going to last beyond an anniversary, not just in our own archives but in a place that everybody could access.”
Find more on the National Archives’ website.
