Student-Led Project Archives Black Women’s Diaries From Reconstruction Era And Beyond

Student researchers-turned-coders transcribe and digitize each diary entry.

The student-led Black Women’s Diaries Project is creating a digital archive of these inner writings from the 19th- and early 20th-century eras.

Conducted by a dozen scholars at The College of William & Mary, the project attempts to digitize Black women’s history through this unique sector of diary entries. Listed as a one-credit Digital Humanities Lab at the Virginia-based University, BWDP aims to source and archive these writings, getting an intimate look at Black women’s everyday thoughts during this tumultuous period in U.S. history.

The digital archive is a multi-year effort, according to W&M News, with an expected debut of 12 diaries in October 2026. Students who initially stumbled upon the class have become champions of its mission, especially as it sheds new light on the livelihoods of Black women.

“Black women’s history is important to me — it’s my history,” shared college junior, Mia Hunt. “This has given me more knowledge.”

The project will launch with its first archive on the 1902 diary of Florence Barber. However, the idea first came to life through the research of Jennifer Putzi, a Professor of English & Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the university.

Putzi was drafting her own work on the diary of another Black woman, Frances Anne Rollin, during the Reconstruction period. Rollin was a writer and scholar during this era, as Putzi’s own investigation into her life led her to uncover additional journals by Black women of the time.

Together with the class, the team works on the transcription and coding of each entry, cementing it in history after years of marginalization. Upon completion, site visitors will have access not only to the entries but also to additional sourced context from newspaper research and other documents.

“There’s no project quite like this,” Putzi said. “Plenty of sites cover correspondence, but not diaries. We’re adapting code, inventing workflows and learning together.”

The project does not lack hurdles, however, as natural disasters or a lack of documentation make sourcing context for some diarists harder. However, researchers push through these obstacles to learn more about their realities.

BWDP also allows aspiring sociologists and historians to develop a new skill in coding, as the project combines this technological discipline with the goal of digitally documenting Black history.

“What I’ve learned is that Black history flows through every field — science, sociology, education,” shared another student researcher, Micah Hutchings. “I used to think of Black history as something separate, but Black history is everywhere.”

The diaries are often small, as nearly illegible cursive writing with faded ink makes the transcriptions harder. However, each successful archive adds another layer to Black women’s history and a deeper understanding of the struggles and triumphs they faced.