Happy National Handwriting Day! SMA holds many handwritten records, from individual letters and petitions to large, heavy volumes documenting official actions and reports. All of them give us valuable insights into the workings of city government over time and the issues that were important to Seattle.
We’ve recently digitized two collections of early handwritten records that are now available to browse and download at our Digital Collections site. Board of Health Minutes (Record Series 3200-01) date from 1890 to 1908 and are full of details documenting Seattle’s public health landscape during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Inside the volumes you’ll find discussions on topics like quarantine rules, disease outbreaks, local food source inspections, vital statistic reports, and much more.
Board of Police Commissioners Minutes (Record Series 6400-01) cover 1890 to 1896 and document policy decisions, reports on investigations against officers, staff appointments, resignations, disciplinary actions, and reinstatements.
As you can see from the images above, the handwriting in these records varies a lot, and sometimes it can be hard to read! Also, handwriting can be a challenge for the OCR software we use to automatically transcribe scanned documents. This is a big reason why we launched our crowdsourcing transcription project at FromThePage, which brings together scans of original handwritten documents held in the archives. Anyone interested can join the effort in transcribing them, helping to make them more accessible. To participate, you just need to create a free login, choose a page to read, and follow the brief guidelines provided.
You don’t have to be an expert in handwriting, although it does help to know cursive! It’s fun to just give it a try, and it’s also a fun way to learn more about Seattle’s past while engaging directly with historical materials. We are grateful for our wonderful volunteer transcribers who play a key role in making these documents more accessible to everyone!