Spanish/French Items in Roosevelt Campaign Need Transcribing or Review

Question

In the part of the Roosevelt Campaign that I've been working on recently, I've run across a number of pages in Spanish or French that need transcribing or review. I know that some of you enjoy working on these, so here they are:

Theodore Roosevelt Papers: Series 1: Letters and Related Material, 1759-1919; 1906, July 9-Aug. 13

https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/rough-rider-bull-moose-theodore-roosevelt/progressive-president/mss382990066/

French: mss382990066-705-706, 724-725, 729-732

Spanish: mss382990066--647 thru -651 [NOTE: I have already transcribed these but I can't find a foreign keyboard that works for me. While reviewing you will need to add tildes and accents. A few of them have been added by someone else.]

I hope I've made this clear. Let me know if you have questions.

Ethan Kent · Answer

Hi (over 2 weeks after you posted last ) , Henry R. I saw your post about these French-language pages a while ago, but I've been spending my time elsewhere besides By The People/CROWD, and was waiting to see if anyone else would reply to you. I'm still busy elsewhere (although the National Archives Catalog gave me the "weekend off" (due to "system maintenance", I can't do anything there until Monday Morning the 25th), the weekend has mostly gone by anyway ) , but I may try to do something with the pages in question within the next week (although the text has come out rather "murky" and I'm not sure what a CROWD transcriber is supposed to do with a note in the left margin (in the 1st page that you flagged, Henry R.) with what may be a circled asterisk to the left of its text, I think I could decipher more than has been deciphered so far on at least that page). Best Wishes to all who read this Thread. Ethan. [Smile.] PS: The heading of he document in question (addressing a Government Minister "on the subject of confidential interviews" (or "[...] of confidential discussions"?)&#160; ) seems intriguing to me. Ethan.

Diane Estes · Answer

Thanks - gave it a shot! I OCR'd it and took a pass at cleaning it up, addressing any illegible words that could be extrapolated.&#160; It's pretty close to done, but I left it "in progress" for you to review.

Henry Rosenberg · Answer

Diane- I'm responding to your follow up message which for some reason did not show up here. I noticed the page was not complete and it said someone else was working on it. I thought may be that was you finishing up. If you decide to do it again hit save and submit and let me know so I can review it. You never have to leave it "in progress" for me. I trust you and at worst I could edit but not with the French which you know better than I do. Sorry for the hassle. Henry

Diane Estes · Answer

Thanks, Henry! I submitted for review this time even though it has some "???" still.&#160; Please correct as you can and I can final approve if you like later this evening (I'm off the rest of the day far from computer...).

Laurie Nelson · Answer

Diane, maybe you should report this. It could be a problem with the site. The reason I suspect this is that I have had a couple of pages [NOT French or Spanish pages, though] that I thought were undone. I was sure I had either started or finished some--usually started, I think. But I didn't have any way to be sure so I considered the possibility that it was my problem, even though I didn't think so. Recently I've been more careful to keep track of pages I'm working on so if it happens again I can report it. Another reason I think this is a possibility is because I came across some reports of problems that were occurring a few months ago during the time I thankfully was not doing any transcribing. I'm glad it didn't happen to me until recently--if it actually happened as I suspect. I just remembered something else--There have been several times in recent weeks that I was working on a page for a few minutes--maybe 10 or so--when I got a message that someone else was working on it. Thankfully that seems to have stopped. It shouldn't have happened because I was saving every 2-3 minutes. Anyway I'm sorry your work was undone and hope it doesn't happen to you again.

Ethan Kent · Answer

Hi, Henry; Thank you for thinking of me/remembering me. I actually have done almost no work on By The People/Crowd since I last posted here, and was wondering when/if I would be "getting back to" the bilingual English/Spanish tariff agreement or to the French-language magazine-article proofs (because I think I figured out where the corrections should go... but I did not "get back". I have looked this afternoon at the page you mentioned, Henry -- as well as the page before it. I'm glad that you (or someone) discovered that the writer was a man identified as having been born in and grown up in France known as "Philippe Bunau-Varilla" who was very involved with various aspects of getting the Panama Canal built (including engineering Panama's independence from Colombia to make the completion of the Canal more politically-possible) -- and Tagged for him in connection to the page that you (Henry) mentioned. There are no gaps in the current transcription of the page that you (Henry) mentioned (nor in the previous page, and not much which needs "correcting" in either page. (I am mentioning both pages because while the previous page is "Completed" and the page mentioned here is not, both are part of the same letter by the same man and therefore have similar problems -- and because the previous page is shown with page numbered "2" to the left of the beginning of the letter, and with its page number somehow read and transcribed ( incorrectly ) as "3" (page "3" is the left-hand part of the page you mentioned, Henry). ) The main (minor) problem with Bunau-Varilla's writing in French (and the reason I didn't call him "a Frenchman" is that for some reason, his accenting of words/placing of diacritical marks is inconsistent -- and the accents are not always there in the text where they "should" be (I think that one was added thanks to spell-checking which isn't in the scanned page [Shrug]). I will try to review the page mentioned here today again, revise the transcription, and Submit it for Review by tomorrow at 9 AM Eastern Time; I would like the previous page to be "un-Completed" -- if only to revise page number "3" to page number "2". (I will write directly to CROWD if no one responds here to my request concerning the previous page). Thanks again, Henry (although I hope that Mr. Cassaing (?) can also help with French-language pages in the Roosevelt Papers (and that I have not angered him and driven him away from this Forum and/or from working with By The People/Crowd ). Be Well, everyone here. Ethan in New York City/"Ethan From Bellmore".

Henry Rosenberg · Answer

Thanks Ethan. If you want the other page opened email crowd@loc.gov with a link to the page you want opened. Henry

Laurie Nelson · Answer

Henry, I don't see Questions? at the bottom of this document. What am I missing?

Ethan Kent · Answer

Reply to Henry (Rosenberg) and Diane (Estes): Thanks for your reply posts of this morning (February 25th) ; I received an email message (a bit over 1 hour later -- but I didn't see any of these messages before afternoon Eastern Time) from Community Manager Abby Shelton stating that she had "reopened" the previous page (page 657) -- and had revised the erroneous page number "3" to 2" (for which I thank her). (I think she also made a good revision in a "marginal note", too -- although she said nothing about that revision. ) I do not like transcribing in a way which does not reflect the order of construction and/or order of reading of a document (in the right side of page 657, I don't like that the handwritten page number and "Washington D C. and date" need to come before the marginal note which comes before the hotel letterhead (which I would have placed before the entire handwritten letter, I think -- and possibly below the marginal note) -- with the body of the letter *below* all of the elements listed above (and page "2"'s content before *all of this*), but I am yielding to what you (Henry and Diane) have said -- and what Ms. Shelton (Abby) has told me. I have done what I could with page "2" 's text (not much to do, but I added a left-out word ("en") , revised 1 initial letter from "r" to "s" in a French word ("reducteur" to "seducteur", removed 1 accent not in the scan, and transcribed an initial "E" in 1 word (spelled elsewhere in the same page with an initial "e" [Sigh]) as "E" rather than "e" (where I see the capital form in the scan); I'll do what I can with page "1" -- probably within the next 24 hours). Best Wishes for the weekend to everyone who will read this today or during this coming weekend. Ethan Kent/"EthanFromBellmore". PS: I have reviewed "page 1" and finished revising its transcription (and Submitted it for Review); there was little to revise (perhaps most-consequentially, I supplied a comma which had been overlooked; I also capitalized an iniiial "C" in 1 occurrence of "Canal" -- although Mr. Bunau-Varilla spelled that initial letter with various heights in the letter, and I'm not 100 percent sure when he intended the word to be read as "Canal" and when as "canal". (The letter -- again -- is about plans for construction for the Panama Canal.) Best Wishes (again) for the weekend. E. K./Ethan.

Ethan Kent · Answer

Hi (and Thanks), Diane. I filled-in "tant" (the phrase "tant de gens" -- in English "so many people" -- is seen clearly 2 lines above) ; I also revised a "fair" (probably caused by a spellchecker who/which insisted on only words from English ) to "faire" in the following line (in the scan/page). I think I will revise the comma after the author's name to a period, as well -- and then Submit for Review. Ethan.

Diane Estes · Answer

Thanks!&#160; I will look at the French, and depending on complexity may be able to do some. Note that accents are quite easy to add without a specialized keyboard: For Mac/iOS:&#160; hold down the key for the letter in question, and it will bring up all accents possible for that letter. For Windows: There are keyboard shortcuts to add accents.&#160; The most common ones are easily learned. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-to-add-language-accent-marks-in-word-3801b103-6a8d-42a5-b8&hellip; I would encourage everyone to add accents and diacritics on first transcription, as that avoids the possibility that someone else may approve the document without them. They are not optional and can change meaning of words entirely.

Henry Rosenberg · Answer

Hi Diane- I came across this newspaper article in French. I don't know if you would be willing to transcribe it. Thanks, Henry https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/rough-rider-bull-moose-theodore-roosevelt/5-july-16-1904-sept-23-1905-president-in-his-own-right/mss382990049/mss382990049-252/

Spanish/French Items in Roosevelt Campaign Need Transcribing or Review

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