Show HN: Scanned 1927-1945 Daily USFS Work Diary
Source: Hacker News
Project Overview
My great‑grandfather Reuben P. Box was a US Forest Ranger in Northern California, and I have his daily work diary covering 1927‑1945—through the Depression, WWII, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and numerous forest fires.
I have scanned the entire diary, and with the help of Claude for transcription, indexing, and website building, the full collection is now available online:
This project has been in development for years, but AI tools like Claude and Mistral assisted with handwriting recognition and even helped me create a custom scanning app that automatically scans each page and stores it in a database as I assembled everything.
As far as I know, this is the only US Forestry diary that has been fully scanned and published. While other diaries exist in various collections, none have been digitized in this way. I hope this resource is useful to anyone interested in forest history.
Why AI Matters
This project demonstrates how AI can transform personal, long‑standing endeavors—turning a shelf‑bound archive into a publicly accessible resource. I’m not seeking profit; my goal is simply to enhance our collective knowledge and preserve a slice of history.