The Manuscript Division has been following the lives of people and organizations who shape American history and culture into digital spaces, acquiring dozens of collections with an ever-growing accumulation of digital content. But you don’t have to be a computer wizard to do research in them.
The year 2022 marks the bicentennial of the birth of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). With this in mind, historian Barbara Bair discusses the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project featuring the Subject File in the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers and the Library's upcoming plans to celebrate Olmsted and his contributions to American life.
Unlike the standard archival boxes that researchers see in the Manuscript Reading Room, the containers that hold manuscripts when they first arrive in the Manuscript Division’s Preparation Section can range from file cabinets and storage containers to liquor boxes and trash cans.
On the last day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 Benjamin Franklin made a remark that we still quote today. But did he really say it? And who was the woman he said it to? A diary in the Manuscript Division holds the evidence.