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Where Old, Unreadable Documents Go to Be Understood (atlasobscura.com)
From a report: On any given day, from her home on the Isle of Man, Linda Watson might be reading a handwritten letter from one Confederate soldier to another, or a list of convicts transported to Australia. Or perhaps she is reading a will, a brief from a long-forgotten legal case, an original Jane Austen manuscript. Whatever is in them, these documents made their way to her because they have one thing in common: They're close to impossible to read. Watson's company, Transcription Services, has a rare specialty -- transcribing historical documents that stump average readers. Once, while talking to a client, she found the perfect way to sum up her skills.
[...] Since she first started specializing in old documents, Watson has expanded beyond things written in English. She now has a stable of collaborators who can tackle manuscripts in Latin, German, Spanish, and more. She can only remember two instances that left her and her colleagues stumped. One was a Tibetan manuscript, and she couldn't find anyone who knew the alphabet. The other was in such bad shape that she had to admit defeat. In the business of reading old documents, Watson has few competitors. There is one transcription company on the other side of the world, in Australia, that offers a similar service. Libraries and archives, when they have a giant batch of handwritten documents to deal with, might recruit volunteers.
[...] Since she first started specializing in old documents, Watson has expanded beyond things written in English. She now has a stable of collaborators who can tackle manuscripts in Latin, German, Spanish, and more. She can only remember two instances that left her and her colleagues stumped. One was a Tibetan manuscript, and she couldn't find anyone who knew the alphabet. The other was in such bad shape that she had to admit defeat. In the business of reading old documents, Watson has few competitors. There is one transcription company on the other side of the world, in Australia, that offers a similar service. Libraries and archives, when they have a giant batch of handwritten documents to deal with, might recruit volunteers.
I would assume it's on /. because it's interesting "stuff that matters"....
Stephan
I have noticed a lot of tech/computer nerds have a significant interest in language nerdery. I've seen /. threads devolve into arguments over correct Latin grammar. This certainly piques the interest of people who have a bit of language nerd in them, because it's as much about knowledge of old writing systems and abbreviations as it is ability to look at squiggly lines and pattern-match.
There's also a lot of practiced physical craft. My wife studied at West Dean College in England, a college dedicated to historical preservation and reconstruction. It includes clock making, tapestry weaving, ceramics, books, and metals conservation. The building is *littered* with amazing historical artifacts, with a wall of ancient weapons that made me drool on the carpet, whimpering "want to play!!!" with some of the lovingly restored specimens.
Sadly, the craft is rapidly disappearing. There's a glut of lightly trained people in it, but a dearth of funding to keep people employed to get the 20 years of hands-on skills for the most delicate knowledge. And a lot of it hard-won, hard-learned skills from working with hundreds or thousands of less valuable documents over a career, and the senior people refuse to die off. There's going to be a massive purge as they hit forced retirement ages, because they haven't been able to train newer experts. There's been no funding to keep them on staff. If you value books as artistic objects in their own right, as I do, it's enough to make you weep.