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Software, E-Resource Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College By the People transcription campaign title : / By the People transcription campaign title : Yours Truly, Frederick Douglass

About this Item

Title

  • Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College

Other Title

  • By the People transcription campaign title :
  • By the People transcription campaign title : Yours Truly, Frederick Douglass

Summary

  • This dataset is an export of transcriptions and annotations from 10,133 items in the Abraham Lincoln Papers digital collection created by the Lincoln Studies Center of Knox College between 1999 and 2002. Related text can be found in the Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by By the People.
  • This dataset consists of a selection of then-available online images of digitized content from the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress digital collection (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000005). The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States document his life and work, primarily from the 1850s through his presidency (1861-1865). See the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress digital collection (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000005) for all available online items for this collection, as well as contextual information, such as a timeline, bibliographic resources, and expert articles and essays. The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois , selected 10,133 documents (including text for 30,676 digital images ) for transcription because it deemed them historically important or as representative of the president’s unsolicited incoming mail. These included all of the documents in Lincoln's own hand and secretarial copies of Lincoln documents located in Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers, which constitutes approximately half of the digital collection. The remaining 10,061 documents (28,816 images) of currently digitized Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress were later transcribed by volunteers and staff transcribers participating in the Library of Congress crowdsourcing program By the People. These transcriptions are also published within the Abraham Lincoln Papers digital collection and are available as a separate dataset.
  • This dataset includes: 2025475020.zip - a zip file containing 10,133 XML transcription files using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) format created by the Knox College Lincoln Studies Center, a CSV metadata file created by Library of Congress to match up the TEI XML files to items currently available on loc.gov, and a README file.
  • The Library of Congress contracted with the Lincoln Studies Center to perform the editorial work for the transcriptions, including selecting the documents to be transcribed, transcribing, and adding historical and contextual annotations. Lincoln scholars and editors Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson directed the database and transcription work at the Lincoln Studies Center. They were assisted by Matthew Norman, project leader, Terry Wilson, researcher, and Joel Ward, transcriber. Incoming transcriptions and annotations were researched and written by Terry Wilson and Bonnie Laughlin (who worked during the project's pilot phase). Biographical annotations were researched and written by Rodney O. Davis and Matthew Norman. Lincoln transcriptions were done by Rodney O. Davis, Matthew Norman, Joel Ward, Douglas L. Wilson, and Terry Wilson. Davis and Wilson were responsible for all Lincoln transcription annotations. Norman was responsible for all database corrections. The editors at the Lincoln Studies Center created annotated transcriptions for nearly half of the Abraham Lincoln Papers digital collection. This included all documents in Lincoln's autograph and other items consisting mostly of incoming correspondence. Materials were transcribed and annotated at the document-level, rather than page-by-page. This means that every unified document such as a letter or legal agreement, whether one or more pages, has a single digital transcription file.
  • This dataset may contain UNICODE characters or lengthy transcriptions which may display incorrectly in some spreadsheet editors.

Names

  • By the People (Program), compiler

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : By the People, Library of Congress, 2025.

Headings

  • -  Lincoln, Abraham,--1809-1865--Correspondence

Genre

  • Data sets
  • Personal correspondence

Notes

  • -  "Dataset created: 2025-12-10." --README file.
  • -  Title from README file.

Medium

  • 1 online resource (dataset)

Repository

  • s-Online Electronic Resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2023514913

Rights Advisory

  • Note - The text in this dataset was created by volunteers and can be used in many different ways. It is subject to no known copyright restrictions and is free to use and re-use.

Online Format

  • compressed data

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is providing access to The Selected Datasets Collection for educational and research purposes. The Library has obtained permission for the use of many materials in the Collection, and presents additional materials for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. Researchers should watch for modern documents that may be copyrighted (for example, published in the United States more than 95 years ago, or unpublished and the author died less than 70 years ago).

You are responsible for deciding whether your use of the items in this collection is legal. You are also responsible for securing any permissions needed to use the items. You will need written permission from the copyright owners of materials not in the public domain for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Some content may be protected under international law. You may also need permission from holders of other rights, such as publicity and/or privacy rights.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Digital Collections Management and Services Division

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. composeds by By The People Iler Washington, D.C.: By the People, Library of Congress, 2025. Software, E-Resource. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2023514913/.

APA citation style:

(2025) Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. By The People Iler, comp Washington, D.C.: By the People, Library of Congress. [Software, E-Resource] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2023514913/.

MLA citation style:

Transcription dataset from the Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division by Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. comp by By The People Iler Washington, D.C.: By the People, Library of Congress, 2025. Software, E-Resource. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/2023514913/>.