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Wallace Letters Online (WLO), the WCP's electronic archive of Wallace's correspondence, manuscripts and other documents has just been updated. The last update was on the 23rd June 2014, and since then 500 new documents and 1823 digital scans have been added thanks to the hard work of the project's Archivist, Ruth, and a small army of volunteers. We have also taken the opportunity to improve the layout of the downloadable pdfs of the transcripts.
By Ruth Benny
This summer the NHM Library and Archives welcomed 15 students from Harvard University, who were here as part of a eight week summer school. The students spent the first two weeks in London at the Museum, with the remaining time spent at Oxford University.
Whilst at the Museum the students worked for the WCP, transcribing letters from the NHM collections and repositories worldwide. These were written by a variety of different authors, some of the braver students even taking on Darwin's untidy hand!
Version 17.5 of the WCP's transcription protocol has just been released. The main addition relates to apostrophes - many transcribers have been using single quotes instead of apostrophes and this causes problems with our Wallace Letters Online website. Click the following link to download the new protocol: http://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/sites/wallaceletters.myspecies.info/files/WCP_Transcription_Protocol.Version_17.5.pdf
"60 second" interview with one of our volunteers, Rod Cooper - click HERE to read it. Thanks for all your hard work Rod!
Although the primary aim of the Wallace Correspondence Project is (as its name suggests) to digitise Wallace's surviving correspondence, the project has also digitized a selection of his other important manuscripts e.g. all of the notebooks in the Natural History Museum's Wallace Family Archive (for more information CLICK HERE).
The Wallace Correspondence Project is looking for dedicated volunteers to help us transcribe letters written by Wallace, as well as letters sent to him from his many correspondents. Ideally we would like volunteers who already have experience of transcribing (sometimes difficult) Victorian handwriting, but enthusiasm and persistence are more important, and we will provide a palaeography guide!
We are delighted to announce that the Wallace Correspondence Project recently received a substantial grant from the Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration, directed by Richard Milner, a project which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, USA (note that a slideshow of the Wallace Centenary Celebration's recent all-day event at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, featuring a lecture by Sir David Attenborough, can be seen HERE). Th
The Project's transcription protocol has been 'tidied up' considerably and slightly altered - please download the new version (version 16.4) by CLICKING HERE
As all involved with the WCP will know, the project's Archivist Caroline Catchpole sadly had to leave the project in October 2013 because her husband needed to move to New York because of his work. We advertised the position in November, interviewed candidates in December, and offered the job to Ruth Benny (right) who began work on the 13th January 2014. Welcome Ruth - we hope your time on the project will be enjoyable and rewarding!
