Reading cursive is a superpower,” said Suzanne Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog in Washington, D.C.

The National Archives needs volunteers to help transcribe historical documents written in cursive. This citizen-led initiative makes American history more accessible to researchers and genealogists.

If you can read cursive, the National Archives would like a word. Or a few million. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents need transcribing (or at least classifying) and the vast majority from the Revolutionary War era are handwritten in cursive – requiring people who know the flowing, looped form of penmanship.

The National Archives needs help from people with a special set of skills–reading cursive. The archival bureau is seeking volunteer citizen archivists to help them classify and/or transcribe more than 200 years worth of hand-written historical documents. Most of these are from the Revolutionary War-era, known for looped and flowing penmanship .

If you’re one of the dwindling number who can decipher this type of writing, the National Archives is hoping you have some free time—or a lot of it—to volunteer your skills. In collaboration with the National Park Service,

The National Archives poured cold water Friday on President Biden’s declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment is now part of the Constitution, saying courts and Mr. Biden’s own Justice Department have rejected that notion.

The National Archives painted a dire picture for the future of America’s historical records, according to documents FOIA Files obtained. The agency, which sparked one of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigations against President-elect Donald Trump,

To date, more than 4,000 Revolutionary War Pension Project volunteers have typed up the content of over 80,000 pages of pension files

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. participates in a civil rights march in 1963. The photo was removed from a planned exhibit and replaced with a photo (right) of U.S. President Richard Nixon shaking hands with singer Elvis Presley. Photos courtesy of the National Archives and Densho.

A lot of old records at the National Archives are written in longhand, but fewer people can read cursive. The institution is looking for volunteers to help decipher and digitize them.

The Games opened on Jan. 25, with a parade of competing nations. The next day, U.S. skater Charles Jewtraw claimed the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal, winning the 500-meter speed skating event. Finland’s Clas Thunberg won five speed skating medals, including three on Jan. 27.

The BFI National Lottery Innovation Fund has awarded a grant to King’s College project exploring how artificial intelligence can help with screen archives.