MSU Libraries and CAL partner to celebrate Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon
EAST LANSING, Mich., Feb. 2024 – This month the Michigan State University Libraries and the College of Arts and Letters’ Digital Humanities program are partnering to honor the birthday of Frederick Douglass on Feb. 14 with the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon as part of the nationally celebrated Love Data Week.
Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thons have been held annually since 2017. This year’s celebration of Douglass Day at MSU Libraries will commemorate the legacy of the renowned 19th century abolitionist by inviting the public to help transcribe his correspondence. As part of a nationwide effort to transcribe all 8,731 pages of Douglass’s writings in one day, MSU Libraries and CAL’s Digital Humanities program will be offering students, instructors and community members the opportunity to connect through an event that brings together thousands of participants at more than one hundred simultaneous events.
MSU Libraries African and African American Studies Librarian Erik Ponder, who helped organize this year’s Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon at the Libraries, noted that the event is an opportunity to reflect on Douglass’s legacy. “Frederick Douglass was a towering figure of his time whose impact is still felt today,” Ponder said. “To take time to learn about his immense contributions to American society is a great way to honor and celebrate his life.”
Douglass Day was established in 1897 by the founding president of the National Association of Colored Women, Mary Church Terrell, to celebrate Frederick Douglass’s legacy on his chosen birthday of Feb. 14. This was clarified by Terrell in the Mary Church Terrell Papers published between 1866 and 1953 held at the Library of Congress in a letter she wrote to the Star in Washington, D.C. Following the Jan. 12 1897 meeting where she motioned to establish Douglass Day, the Star had attributed the credit for creating the day of remembrance to “a young man in the teacher’s corps.” Terrell set the record straight by informing the editor of the Star that “I have done very few things of which I am proud, but I am proud of the fact that it was entirely through my suggestion and motion that the trustees voted to set aside a portion of the afternoon of Feb. 14th in which to honor the memory of one of the greatest men this country has ever produced.” Douglass Day was quickly adapted by schools across the country, eventually helping to give rise to Black History Month, which was officially recognized by former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford in 1976.
Assistant Director of Digital Humanities Kristen Mapes shared her enthusiasm about the commemorative event. “We are excited to come together in the spirit of a birthday party, around a celebratory table of cake and fellowship,” Mapes said. “It is in keeping with Douglass’s ethos to create community that’s founded in humanity and action. By tasking participants with reading his letters and figuring out what they say, Douglass Day brings history to life for all participants, at MSU and around the country.”
The transcribe-a-thon will take place from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 14 in the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Lab classroom with a live stream available on YouTube. The in-person event will include a cake in honor of Douglass’s chosen birthday from Lansing bakery Sweet Encounter, courtesy of MSU Libraries. The transcribing will be done on the Library of Congress’ citizen science platform Crowd.loc.gov. While registration for this event is not required, participants are encouraged to register on the Libraries’ event page.
A subsequent event building upon the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon will be held on Feb. 16. This online workshop will focus on learning the fundamentals of both python and computational text analysis in analyzing the previously transcribed works by Douglass. For a full list of events celebrating Black History Month at MSU, please see the Jan. 30 MSU Today article. For a full list of events celebrating Love Data Week at MSU, please visit the MSU Institutional Research page.