The New York Times Ad Transcription Project – Using the Madison Tool

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The New York Times has created a database / digital image project in which they plan to use tens of thousands of volunteers to find, tag and transcribe ads from historic newspapers.

I signed up for the project and immediately began finding what the system thought were most likely ads, and marking them as to whether they really were – and if so, were they single or multiple ads that were shown. Later I switched to Tagging. In that mode I would look at an ad, write in the company name and using a drop-down menu, I’d check what type of product the ad was for (such as: books and publishing, clothing, etc.).

A third choice which I haven’t done yet is to Transcribe the Advertisement.

The following is from their website.

The New York Times archives are full of advertisements that give glimpses into daily life and cultural history. Help us digitize our historic ads by answering simple questions. You’ll be creating a unique resource for historians, advertisers and the public — and leaving your mark on history.

Get started with our collection of ads from the 1960s (additional decades will be opened later)!

Read about it at the New York Times website.

Thanks to the National Genealogical Society for the heads-up.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

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