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Teaching with Primary Sources: Civil War Surgical Saw

Explore This Exhibit

This online exhibit from Duke University Libraries provides historical context for some of  the topics and primary sources included in this class session. Briefly review the short exhibit text before your class session.

Instructions for Activity #2

EXTRA ACTIVITY - If Time Permits

In this activity, you will learn to search for digitized primary sources and practice reading and transcribing a handwritten document. This portion of the module can easily be done asynchronously or as an after-class activity for a synchronous session.

  1. Start by watching the Rubenstein Library’s short instructional videos [see below] that explain a bit about digital collections and give suggestions for how to best search the collections. 
  2. Next, visit the Duke Digital Repository and locate one piece of correspondence that dates between 1861 and 1865 (timeline of the Civil War).
  3. After you've located a document, try to read and transcribe the first 8-10 lines of the document. Post your transcriptions to a Canvas forum or other shared online space to compare your results and get help from your classmates.

Note: Transcribing handwritten documents from the 19th century is hard! Don't worry if you can't get all of the words - just try to get as many as you can and see if you can work out some of the others.

Watch: Digtial Collections Videos