You are subscribed to Crowdsourcing at the Library of Congress from the Library of Congress.
By the People Bulletin
December challenge: Finish transcribing Olmsted!
We are wrapping up Frederick Law Olmsted's 2022 bicentennial year by encouraging volunteers to finish transcribing Olmsted's subject files! There are only ~1,500 pages "not started" or "in progress." Help celebrate one of America's most famous landscape architects and in the process, learn more about the many parks, estates, residential communities, campuses, and gathering places that Olmsted designed and remain in use today.
For the next few weeks, we'll bringing you lots of Olmsted content through our newsletter and Twitter feed so make sure to stay tuned. You can also follow weekly challenge updates on our History Hub thread.
Challenge spotlight: The Biltmore
Did you know Frederick Law Olmsted designed the grounds for the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina? Olmsted helped advise owner George Vanderbilt on where to situate his house on the large property and then designed the grounds closest to the mansion. Olmsted laid out an impressive approach road through three miles of wooded terrain that allowed visitors a view of the house only from the final stretch of the road. He also designed several beautiful formal gardens on the property.
But perhaps Olmsted's greatest intervention was in the massive forests that surrounded the estate. Olmsted persuaded Vanderbilt to restore the once healthy forests that covered the grounds. At Olmsted's suggestion, Vanderbilt hired Gifford Pinchot to oversee the forest management at the Biltmore. Pinchot would go on to serve as the first Chief of the US Forest Service. The forestry project at the Biltmore was a huge success and it served as a national model for years to come.
The Biltmore was one of Frederick Law Olmsted's final design projects and represents some of his best work. Help finish transcribing Olmsted's Biltmore files:
Your transcriptions improve search and discovery on loc.gov
This year we looked at some of the analytics around By the People transcriptions on the Library's main website to see how volunteer-created text helps web users find what they're looking for. Read more about what we found in our latest blog post on The Signal. We know volunteers are motivated by knowing that their contributions make collections more accessible so expect to see more research from us on this topic in the future!
Happy transcribing,
Abby & the By the People team
| This email was sent to sajanram.shrestha@blogger.com using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Library of Congress · 101 Independence Ave, SE · Washington, DC 20540 · 202-707-5000 |
No comments:
Post a Comment