The diligent and talented contributors to DIY History have now transcribed more than 35,000 pages of manuscript diaries, letters, recipes and telegrams! And this number does not reflect the thousands of pages of proofreading our crowdsourcers have also accomplished, bringing these documents to life and to the eyes of researchers. The transcribed pages tell theContinue reading “35,000 transcriptions”
Author Archives: Christine Tade
Transcription addiction
We’ve been in touch with one of our most faithful DIY History transcribers, Roger. He didn’t intend to get so drawn into the project when he first visited our site, but now he admits that “things like eating and mowing get in the way but I’ve managed to blow off most other things cause I’mContinue reading “Transcription addiction”
The poetry of pudding
From the Szathmary cookbook collection, a rhyming recipe from an 1860 English cookbook: A Paradise pudding If you’d have a good pudding pray mind what you’re taught Take two pen ‘sworth of eggs when they’re twelve for a groat Take of the same fruit which Eve once did cozen When pared & well chopp’d atContinue reading “The poetry of pudding”
Food for body and spirit
On the last page of James Doak’s 1760s Art of cookery, following recipes for ketchup and pickled mushrooms, we find what appears to be a catalog of his library, an impressive collection for the time. He lists the classics: Shakespeare, Pope, Cato, Milton, the Bible, as well as some intriguing titles: Whytt on Lyme water,Continue reading “Food for body and spirit”
Nothing new under the sun: the drought of 1863
From our Civil War Diaries and Letters collection comes a letter from Sam Clark, farming in southern Iowa, to his love interest Tillie in Illinois: Unless we have rain and that very soon the corn crop in this state will be almost a complete failure … The last rain that we have had to amountContinue reading “Nothing new under the sun: the drought of 1863”
Mail call
In a twelve-page letter from soldier Sam Clark to his sweetheart Tillie Wise back in Iowa, a paean to the power of correspondence to lift the spirits of the troops: “I do think it does Soldiers the most good of any other race of beings to get letters. If you could only see them gatherContinue reading “Mail call”
Letters from the home front
During a war conducted without telephones, Skype, or even reliable mail delivery, Civil War soldiers treasured their letters from home – and lucky for us, because they kept them all their lives and passed them down through their families to us. William Titus Rigby expresses his gratitude to his correspondents eloquently: “I never received aContinue reading “Letters from the home front”
Civil War death toll
In an interview on NPR May 29, Professor J. David Hacker was interviewed about his census data research which leads him to posit that the accepted estimate for number of Civil War casualties is too low, and instead should be roughly 750,000. This is an enormous number, but to truly convey the magnitude of theContinue reading “Civil War death toll”
Digital spring awakening
It’s the Spring equinox, and the flowers are bringing us back to life, perennially a cause for celebration as the Iowa Digital Library illustrates.
Civil War transcription tips
For the sake of consistency in the transcriptions of the Civil War diaries and letters, here are a few more guidelines and a short list of some common abbreviations and older spellings: Enter line breaks to indicate sections of the letter – salutations, paragraphs, signatures, postscripts Do not transcribe text that has been crossed out,Continue reading “Civil War transcription tips”