This event is part of "The Cause of All Mankind: A Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence."

Hosted in collaboration with UNO Criss Library Archives and Special Collections, this workshop will explore how contemporary Americans encounter and interpret the founding era through the practice of archival transcription. Drawing on materials highlighted by the Library of Congress’s Women of the Early Republic “By the People” campaign, the session will introduce participants to the ways in which everyday documents—letters, petitions, and civic records—offer insight into the political ideals and social conflicts that shaped the nation’s founding. Brief demonstrations and commentary from facilitators will frame transcription as both a scholarly skill and a means of civic engagement, inviting discussion about the accessibility of historical records, the preservation of marginalized voices, and the role of public participation in constructing historical memory. Participants will transcribe the surviving papers of Anne “Nancy” Home Shippen Livingston, Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson, Margaret Bayard Smith, and Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton. These papers offer a window into the new political landscape caused by the American Revolution, though women’s lives remained circumscribed by the prevailing social order.

The event space has desktop computers, so participants are welcome to use them or bring their own devices.