LibGuides: History: Handwritten documents

Transcription Projects

Crowdsourced Transcription Projects

Volunteers are trained to read and transcribe online handwritten documents.

Adam Matthew HTR databases

Research Skills Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Essays, videos, how-to guides and case studies by historians, archivists and other specialists about working with primary sources.
From guidance on where you can find historical documents to the questions you might want to pose and how best to approach analyzing the content they hold, this platform gathers together practical advice and instruction from experts working around the world.

These subscription collections use handwriting recognition technology to let you keyword search through handwritten documents. There are no transcriptions of the documents at this time.

Colonial America This link opens in a new window
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1606-1822
British government documents from the CO 5 series about administering the American colonies.
Part of Americana combined search portal
East India Company This link opens in a new window
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1599-1947
British government records from the India Office chart the history of British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Food and Drink in History This link opens in a new window
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9th century-2015
Cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films, and other primary sources revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers Company Archive This link opens in a new window
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1554-2007
Collection of primary source documents related to the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding.
Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
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1937-1960
Personal diaries, surveys, questionnaires, photos and printed research done about everyday lives of ordinary British people.
Social research organization Mass Observation was founded in 1937 by anthropologist Tom Harrisson, film-maker Humphrey Jennings and poet Charles Madge, who recruited a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers to document their experiences as evidence for a study of the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain.
Medical Services and Warfare This link opens in a new window
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1850s-1930s
Primary sources from Crimean War, the American Civil War and the First World War tell the story of medical advances during warfare, including the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927.

Paleography Online Training

North America

A Reference for Reading Historic Documents
State Archive of North Carolina Style Guide
How to Decipher Unfamiliar Handwriting
Guide from The Natural History Museum in London referenced in Library of Virginia video

U.K.

Folger Shakespeare Library list of resources for early modern paleography
Excellent list of tutorials, trainings and manuscript projects where you can browse documents and transcriptions side by side.
Guide to the Basics of English Secretary Hand
Beinecke Library, Yale tutorial on reading English Secretary Hand.

European languages

BYU's Script Tutorial
Guidance in the deciphering of documents written in handwriting styles or alphabets no longer in general use.
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English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Italian
Transkribus Learn
training site for READ Co-op crowdsourced transcription of European manuscripts
Spanish Paleography Digital Teaching and Learning Tool
Learn to read manuscripts written in Spanish during the early modern period, roughly from the late 15th to the 18th century.
French Renaissance Paleography
Over 100 carefully selected French manuscripts written between 1300 and 1700, with tools for deciphering them and learning about their social, cultural, and institutional settings.
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Project supported by the Newberry Library, the University of Toronto Libraries, and Saint Louis University, as well as other special collections repositories with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Italian Paleography
The Italian Paleography website presents 102 Italian documents and manuscripts written between 1300 and 1700, with tools for deciphering them and learning about their social, cultural, and institutional settings.