Did you know? Douglass Day helped give rise to Black History Month. It’s why we have Black History Month in February.
After Frederick Douglass passed away in 1895, many saw the importance of honoring his memory and activism. In Washington, D.C., a group led by Mary Church Terrell, (an important African American activist, educator, and author) observed Douglass’s birthday every February 14th as “Douglass Day.”
Douglass Day celebrations began around the turn of the 20th century and helped inspire Black History Month. Though this day of recognition is nothing new, a group at the University of Delaware helped revive Douglass Day in 2017. This became a day when participants around the world logged into the By the People page on the Library of Congress's website to contribute to the transcription of documents. This year these documents were from the African American Perspectives in Print collection.
Collaborating with Billy Smith, Director of Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum, and myself, McFarlin Library's Associate Dean, Jill Krefft, led the charge in organizing our participation in this historic event. Promotional materials were sent out, inviting any and all students, professors, and interested community members to join us in this transcribe-a-thon, a cake was ordered to celebrate Frederick Douglass and McFarlin's contribution in the preservation of history.
On Friday the 14th, Billy Smith opened our event with a talk on the Eddie Faye Gates Collection, which chronicles the stories of the Tulsa Race Massacre (see more information below), and we tuned into the livestream from the Library Congress to get us all set for a few hours of transcribing.
What went right? Nearly 9,000 people in over 180 locations logged into the website, and began to review and transcribe the documents in the African American Perspectives collection. Documents included both print and handwritten materials from the 1700s through the mid 1900s. There were manuscripts, historic newspapers, government memos, and even sheet music. In total 8 people joined us in McFarlin's Learning Studio to hear presenters and transcribe.
So, what went wrong? About a hour into the official transcription time, participants - including those at McFarlin - began to see this…
With a record number of logins, the Library of Congress's website could not handle the online traffic. Though the site would intermittently come back, participants were encouraged to enlarge images of the documents in the gallery view and transcribe into a Google or Word document so we could paste into the transcription field online at a later time.
Did this Douglass Day celebration go as planned? No. But few things do when you're making and preserving history. In the end, there was still cake. And when there are great people working towards a worthy cause and cake, that day cannot be considered awash.
Wondering how you can connect with local Black History as well? Jana Gowan, Reference and Outreach Librarian at HCAR, invites you to “explore the Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection at Gilcrease Museum. The Eddie Faye Gates collection is an archive of Black history - personal, familial, and communal - created and curated by local hero Eddie Faye Gates, a historian, writer, educator, and activist dedicated to preserving and sharing the truth about the past.”
When viewing the items in the collection you will see a contact us link below the description of each item. This is because HCAR relies on community input and information to make this collection more accessible and impactful. So, if you find yourself browsing the collection and see someone, a place, or an item you recognize tell HCAR!
If Douglass Day teaches us anything it's the power of crowd-sourced archival work.