The Library of Congress Needs Help Transcribing Walt Whitman’s Poems and Letters

From O Captain! My Captain! to Song of Myself, Walt Whitman produced some of literature's most memorable poems. But for every work published in his lifetime, the writer left behind many manuscripts that weren't shared with the world. Now, the Library of Congress is asking for the public's help in reviewing thousands of Whitman's handwritten documents, including letters, poems, and other writings.

May 31, 2019, marked the 200th anniversary of Whitman's birth, and the LOC is honoring the occasion by making a push to transcribe its Walt Whitman archives. The institution is home to the world's largest Whitman manuscript collection, which includes original copies of his poems as well as more personal works. In letters written in 1840 and 1841, Whitman expressed his support for presidential candidate Martin Van Buren and his disdain for small-town life in Woodbury, New York. On one printed copy of O Captain! My Captain!, the poet has scribbled his edits by hand.

The collection the LOC wants to transcribe originally consisted of close to 4000 documents. More than half of those have been completed so far, and roughly 1860 transcriptions still need to be reviewed. Anyone can read the documents that need approval and officially add them to the Whitman archive.

The Library of Congress depends on the public for many of its transcription projects. In 2018, it launched a campaign to transcribe its Lincoln collection, and it crowdsourced a project transcribing thousands of suffragist documents in 2019.