Lincoln papers joining online age
Goal of presidential library project to transcribe letters, documents is to make fact- finding easier for future researchers
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— On the third floor of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, a half- dozen regular volunteers spend hours typing away on aged computers, history buffs on a mission to make researching the nation’s 16th president a lot easier.
Whilethere’snoshortage of books and grad school dissertations on Lincoln — treatises on him have become an industry in Springfield — this work presents a challenge. Thesource documents are handwritten lettersmore than150years old. Not exactly word searchfriendly.
So a group of historians has embarked on a yearslong project to make the words that came out of Lincoln’s pen more searchable online. There’s a lot to input. So far, the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project has collected some 97,400 pages from Lincoln’s court cases and other legal papers, another 20,275 papers from his time in Illinois and 77,325 presidential papers.
The letters are written by people fromallwalks of life: citizens asking for favors or voicing opinions about the war, little- known public officials giving advice, betterknown figures like Sen. Stephen A. Douglas giving his own critiques and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant requesting more troops.
“This Lincoln project will give people a chance to read his words, those of his correspondents, and gain some insight into his life story,” said Michael Burlingame, a noted Lincoln scholar and author based at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
The legal papers already are online. During the last two years, the Lincoln papers volunteers have transcribed 12,120 presidential documents. More than half of them have been done by volunteer JoanWalters.
On one computer screen is a handwritten document that’s been scanned in. On another, the file where the letters are typed in. Sometimes the old computers make grinding noises.
There’s one missive she’ll always remember. Lincoln, whose 205th birthday was Feb. 12, earned nicknames like “The Railsplitter” and “The Great Emancipator.” Walters got a glimpse of another of Lincoln’s characteristics: vulnerability.
The letter in question dates to August 1864, when Lincoln saw his presidency potentially slipping away. “This morning, as for some days past,” he wrote, “it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re- elected.”
Lincoln went on to express his desire to help the next president save the union. Historians have long referred to the document as the “blind memorandum” because he asked his Cabinet to sign it without reading hiswords of doubt.
Not long after, though, Atlanta fell. The course of the war changed, and Lincolnwon re- election.
“That was just so touching to read because it made me realize how dedicated he was to this country,” Walters said.
Many of the legal and Illinois documents are kept in Springfield, said Daniel Stowell, the project’s director. Most of the presidential letters were scanned from originals found at the National Archives and the Library of Congress inWashington, but Stowell said some letters were found in attics, old trunks and basements across the country.
“We expect to find another 50,000 or so documents,” he said, adding there are “years ofwork to be done.”
Financial support comes from the state and federal governments and some private money. But as the state and economy have struggled, funding has dropped.
The project’s nine professional staff members have advanced degrees in history. Walters and the five other regular volunteer transcribers, along with the occasional boost from university interns, have helped move the project forward.
The volunteers have found deciphering letters from the 19th century is not always an easy job. Sometimes age, condition and lack of preservation have worn down the documents. Some of Lincoln’s correspondents, including Douglas, have penmanship that folksworking on the project declare to be dreadful.
Lydia Beaman, a retiree and recent volunteer, marveled at how hard it is to decipher the writing.
“I thought this would be an easy job for me because I’m an elementary school teacher,” said Beaman, laughing about all of the years she’d plowed through students’ scribbles.
Lincoln’s handwriting? Walters and Stowell deemed it easily readable.
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is similar to other projects, such as the 70,000 documents in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University. Barbara Oberg, general editor of the Jefferson project, said it has been in the works since 1943. The first volume was published in 1950, and the project is now printing the 41st out of what’s expected to be 60 volumes.