We’ve just loaded a box of the Manly Family papers into the transcription interface, in the hopes that YOU would like to transcribe correspondence and diaries relating to the early history of the University of Alabama. Basil Manly, Sr. (1798-1868) was the second president of UA (1835-1855), a well-known educator AND a Baptist minister! The materials in this collection relate do nineteenth-century religion, education, and family. Here you may find sermons as well as letters and diary entries regarding slavery, secession, and the Civil War.

You never know what you’re going to find in these old collections. For example, here’s an interesting letter from Basil’s wife in 1858, describing a horrific medical treatment, and I quote:

“She had a great many convulsions both before and after the birth, was rubbed all over with mustard & afterwards spirits of turpentine applied over the surface– so that her whole body must be pretty much excoriated. She has been delirious most of the time…”

Come help us transcribe these letters! These transcriptions will be used to make the documents full-text searchable in our Acumen!