Civil War diaries in Pitman shorthand. A great-granddaughter trying for years to read them. And the Newberry Transcribe volunteers who had already solved the mystery. Plus 1,100 new pages + bicycle postcards, because bicycle weather. 🚲 digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/a-family-m...

Ready for Labor Day weekend? Americans a century ago had postcards for that. These ca. 1910 Labor Day cards celebrate workers with eagles, anvils, cornucopias, flags—and some truly strenuous typography. Happy Labor Day weekend from the Newberry! collections.newberry.org/C.aspx?VP3=D...

Back-to-school, but make it relatable: the front-row student who seems to realize, mid-photo, that this was a mistake. This kindergarten class and their teachers were photographed at the Sac and Fox Indian School in Stroud, Oklahoma, circa 1910s. collections.newberry.org/asset-manage...

Two more John M. Wing diaries are now on Newberry Transcribe—more war, work, printing, and Charley drama. Plus: Route 66 turns 100, with breakdowns, bad motels, and brutally honest traveler reviews behind the postcard fronts. Read more: digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/heartbreak...

Heartbreak, Civil War, and 1,600+ New Pages: The Wing Diaries Continue

Two more John M.

digitalnewberry.substack.com

National Ice Cream Day on July 19 may be a made-up holiday, but it’s one we’re happy to celebrate. 🍦 Take a sweet mid-20th c. trip through the Newberry collections: collections.newberry.org/CS.aspx?VP3=...

Fireworks, flags, patriotic scarves: the Newberry Postcard Sender is ready for the Fourth. Send a vintage postcard from the archive, then stick around for Revolutionary-era manuscripts and 2,200+ new pages on Newberry Transcribe. digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/this-fourt...

Ben Hecht helped write the sound of screwball comedy: fast-talking, snappy, and never short on drama. Now you can help transcribe his letters to his daughter Jenny -- part of 1,500 new pages just added to Newberry Transcribe: nt.newberry.org/transcribe

We were watching Widow's Bay when Patricia's self-help book took a distinctly occult turn -- and suddenly looked very familiar. The Newberry's "Book of magical charms" has entered the chat. collections.newberry.org/asset-manage...

A volunteer transcriber followed the clues in an unidentified 1880 diary — and gave its author her name back. Plus: nearly 700 new pages are ready for transcription, including Jenny Hecht letters, Graham Taylor correspondence, and more. digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/every-diar...

Every Diary Has a Secret. Some Get Solved.

Two volunteers, one anonymous diary, and an identification 140 years in the making. Plus: 700 new pages just added to Newberry Transcribe, waiting to give up their secrets.

digitalnewberry.substack.com

Kids can't read cursive. Lily King credits Sherwood Anderson with helping to make her a writer. We just added 700 pages of his papers to Newberry Transcribe. It all connects: digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/help-unloc...

Help unlock 700 pages from the Sherwood Anderson papers

Cursive is making headlines again—not as nostalgia, but as a form of access.

digitalnewberry.substack.com

A shipwreck. A baby no one could identify. A girl who grew up not knowing who she was. That story turned up in a 1910 love letter from Muriel Bent to Stanley Harris. Learn more, then help transcribe 1,100 newly-added pages from the same collection: digitalnewberry.substack.com/p/fancy-know...

Big news for #DouglassDay! We officially unveiled a stunning new gallery of Black History materials in Newberry Digital Collections at our event! From our stacks to your screen—check out the new gallery today: 📍 publications.newberry.org/gallery/?g=2...

Our #DouglassDay cake by Elisa's Cake by the #Pound is gorgeous and delicious!

Today we're celebrating #DouglassDay with @douglassday.bsky.social, students from Loyola Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, and volunteers around the world. You could hear a pin-drop in the room during the powerful reading of “Why Hold a Colored Convention?” by Hassan El-Amin.

We just hit 150,000 items (that's 1.6 million files!) in our digital collections. One of the recent additions that put us over the top? This 1914 children's book, "The Gingerbread Dog." 🐶 collections.newberry.org/asset-manage...

📌 Where to find us: 🔍 Browse our digital collections -- thousands of rare maps, manuscripts, postcards, and more, all free and online collections.newberry.org ✍️ Help us transcribe historical documents on Newberry Transcribe (no experience needed, just curiosity) nt.newberry.org

How shall I begin? With a first post, of course. Follow along for highlights from our digital collections 🏓 collections.newberry.org/asset-manage... #Libraries #SpecialCollections