Writing history: Letters 1920–1934

What is the project about?

The crowdsourcing project "Letters 1920-1934" is about the transcription of the unique letter collection of the Vienna City Library from this period. In contrast to historical printed works, which are now subjected to automatic full-text recognition as standard, this is still not so easy to do for manuscripts - especially when the documents come from many different writers, as in this case. Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of tasks of the Vienna City Library and the pilot project "Letters 1914-1919" has been a great success, we are again asking the crowd for help in indexing the content.

The Vienna City Library will digitize all correspondence - more than 200,000 items - by 2025 and make them freely available in the Digital Library in compliance with copyright law. Due to the alphabetical approach, the crowdsourcing project's holdings will successively expand up to the letter Z.

How can one contribute?

Participation is open to all interested persons. After registering, you can choose between two tasks: Transcribe letters or check letters already transcribed by others. If errors are discovered, they can be changed and a new version created. Three independent confirmations are necessary for a transcription to be classified as correct.

What happens to the results?

The finished transcriptions are integrated into the Digital Library of the Vienna City Library at regular intervals and can then be retrieved and searched at any time. This makes the contents of the letters accessible to all interested persons - something that was previously reserved for a limited circle of experts.

Crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien

The project "Letters 1920-1934" is part of the crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien – a cooperation of Wien Museum and Vienna City Library. The aim of this joint platform is to make original sources on the history of Vienna from various institutions accessible to all interested persons with the help of the crowd. Because only knowledge that can be read and comprehended can be brought to life and made available for inclusive debate.

More information: crowdsourcing.wien

Podcast episode

In July 2023, project coordinator Alexandra Egger was guest on the Österreich forscht podcast Wissen macht Leute - you can listen to the episode here (in German).

Picture gallery:

• Letter from Maria Herz to Elise Richter, 21.6.1921, HIN-108648, Vienna City Library Letter from Maria Herz to Elise Richter, 21.6.1921, HIN-108648, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rudolf Beer for the Austrian Mother's Day Committee, May 1932, HIN-116120, Vienna City Library Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rudolf Beer for the Austrian Mother's Day Committee, May 1932, HIN-116120, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Josef Jarno to the management of the German Volkstheater [Rudolf Beer], 2.12.1927, HIN-116144, Vienna City Library Letter from Josef Jarno to the management of the German Volkstheater [Rudolf Beer], 2.12.1927, HIN-116144, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marie Eugenie delle Grazie to Adele Strauß, 27.12.1920, HIN-120252, Vienna City Library Letter from Marie Eugenie delle Grazie to Adele Strauß, 27.12.1920, HIN-120252, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Rudolf Goldscheid to Rosa Mayreder, 29.7.1928, HIN-120387, Vienna City Library Letter from Rudolf Goldscheid to Rosa Mayreder, 29.7.1928, HIN-120387, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rosa Mayreder, 11.2.1933, HIN-121134, Vienna City Library Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rosa Mayreder, 11.2.1933, HIN-121134, Vienna City Library
• Letter from August Heymann to Artaria and Compagnie, 5.6.1921, HIN-76007, Vienna City Library Letter from August Heymann to Artaria and Compagnie, 5.6.1921, HIN-76007, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Franz Eichert to Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, 31.10.1920, HIN-89136, Vienna City Library Letter from Franz Eichert to Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, 31.10.1920, HIN-89136, Vienna City Library
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This project fulfils version 1.1 of the quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht.