The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is seeking volunteers and/or college students interested in doing an unpaid internship digitizing records from the National Archives in Washington, DC, which will be going online.
The Lincoln Archives Digital Project is a public service project built totally with volunteer work and interns. This project changes how presidential research will be done in the twenty-first century. All executive, legislative, judicial, and military records created and housed within the National Archives are being digitized and placed online. This is a public service project. There is no subscription and the archive is free to the global community.
We are focusing on two specific events: The Dakota War of 1862 and the Lincoln Assassination. The Dakota War of 1862 involves digitizing twenty boxes of records, which include the applications of over 2,500 citizens who lost personal property during the event. These applications are called depredation files. Other files included the amount the claimants were paid (or nothing, if the application was rejected).
The other event, the Lincoln Assassination, involves thirty-four boxes of the courts martial case of the conspirators, which consists of over 5,000 pages, depositions taken shortly after the assassination, evidence used in the cases of the conspirators, etc. This project is part of a digital partnership between Documents on Wheels, the parent of the Lincoln Archives Digital Project, and the National Archives and Records Administration.
Both of these projects provide a wonderful experience with primary source records and most of all help to get these records online for everyone to look at. The second phase is to transcribe these documents so that they are fully searchable. This is a great opportunity to brush up on your cursive.
You may contact Karen Needles, the Director and Founder of the Lincoln Archives Digital Project, at 240-462-9802 or karen.needles@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.
From: H-DC