Datasets:

robworks-software
/

historical-training-manuals

identifier stringlengths 5 100	sha256 stringclasses 1 value	title stringclasses 213 values	creator stringlengths 0 468	publisher stringclasses 66 values	publication_year int64 1.8k 2.02k	subject stringlengths 0 7.91k	description stringlengths 0 6.13k	language stringclasses 25 values	industry stringclasses 10 values	collection stringclasses 3 values	copyright_status stringclasses 2 values	archive_url stringlengths 33 128	file_size_bytes float64 0 0 ⌀	file_size_mb float64 0 0 ⌀	local_file_available bool 1 class	local_filepath stringlengths 111 176 ⌀	mediatype stringclasses 1 value	format stringclasses 1 value	text_content stringlengths 0 949k ⌀	word_count float64 0 259k ⌀	extraction_status stringclasses 3 values	llm_summary stringlengths 103 891 ⌀	llm_tags stringlengths 7 247 ⌀	publication_era stringclasses 2 values	full_text stringlengths 0 949k ⌀	archive:identifier stringlengths 5 100 ⌀	archive:collection stringclasses 26 values	license stringclasses 1 value	scraped_date stringdate 2025-11-05 17:16:29 2025-11-05 17:31:13 ⌀	full_text_length float64 2.29k 383k ⌀	full_text_word_count float64 353 83.5k ⌀	llm_qa_pairs stringclasses 21 values
15thcensus1946unit	null	15th census, population, 1930. [microform]	["United States. Bureau of the Census", "United States. National Archives and Records Administration"]	[Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Administration]	2,002	["Registers of births, etc", "Oregon"]	["Microfilm copy of original data as collected by the Census Bureau", "Research guide with contents description available via the World Wide Web", "reel 1939. Baker, Cook , Curry, Benton, Grant -- reel 1940. Clackamas, Jefferson -- reel 1941. Clatsop, Columbia, Gilliam -- reel 1942. Coos, Deschutes, Hood River -- reel 1943. Douglas, Harney, Josephine, Lake -- reel 1944. Jackson, Lincoln, Morrow -- reel 1945. Klamath, Malheur -- reel 1946. Lane -- reel 1947. Linn, Marion (part) -- reel 1948. Marion, Polk -- reels 1949-1954. Multnomah, Portland City -- reel 1955. Multnomah, Sherman, Tillamook -- reel 1956. Umatilla, Union, Wallowa -- reel 1957. Wasco, Washington, Wheeler -- reel 1958. Yamhill", "Reel 1946 - 1930 Oregon Federal Population Census Schedules - Lane EDs 20-1 to 20-25, 20-63 to 20-86, 20-88, 20-87, 20-89 to 20-105, 20-26 to 20-62, 20-106 to 20-121"]	english-handwritten	government/general	all	U.S. Government Work - Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/15thcensus1946unit	null	null	null	null	texts	pdf	null	null	null	null	null	modern	null	15thcensus1946unit	["1930_census", "microfilm", "americana", "us_census", "genealogy", "additional_collections"]	Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)	2025-11-05T17:27:25.052229	null	null	null
15thcensus2252unit	null	15th census, population, 1930. [microform]	["United States. Bureau of the Census", "United States. National Archives and Records Administration"]	[Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Administration]	2,002	["Registers of births, etc", "Tennessee"]	["Microfilm copy of original data as collected by the Census Bureau", "Research guide with contents description available via the World Wide Web", "reel 2233. Anderson, Bedford, Benton -- reel 2234. Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley -- reel 2235. Bradley, Campbell, Cannon, Cheatham -- reel 2236. Carroll, Carter -- reel 2237. Chester, Claiborne, Clay, Cumberland -- reel 2238. Cocke, Coffee, Crockett -- reels 2239-2242. Davidson, Nashville City -- reel 2243. Davidson, Nashville City; Davidson -- reel 2244. Davidson, De Kalb -- reel 2245. Decatur, Dickson, Dyer (part) -- reel 2246. Dyer, Franklin, Fayette -- reel 2247. Fentress, Grainger, Gibson -- reel 2248. Gibson, Giles -- reel 2249. Greene, Hamblen -- reel 2250. Grundy; Hardin; Hamilton, Chattanooga City -- reels 2251-2252. Hamilton, Chattanooga City -- reel 2253. Hamilton, Hancock, Hardeman -- reel 2254. Hardeman, Henderson, Hawkins -- reel 2255. Haywood, Henry -- reel 2256. Hickman, Humphreys, Houston, Jefferson -- reel 2257. Jackson, Johnson, Knox (part) -- reels 2258-2259. Knox -- reel 2260. Knox (part), Lake, Lauderdale (part) --", "reel 2261. Lauderdale, Lewis, Loudon, Lawrence -- reel 2262. Lincoln, McMinn -- reel 2263. McNairy, Meigs, Macon, Morgan -- reel 2264. Madison -- reel 2265. Marion, Montgomery, Moore -- reel 2266. Marshall, Maury -- reel 2267. Monroe, Pickett, Obion -- reel 2268. Overton, Polk, Perry, Putnam (part) -- reel 2269. Putnam, Rhea, Roane -- reel 2270. Robertson, Rutherford (part) -- reel 2271. Rutherford, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Trousdale -- reel 2272. Shelby -- reels 2273-2279. Shelby, Memphis City -- reel 2280. Smith, Union, Stewart, Unicoi -- reel 2281. Sullivan, Van Buren -- reel 2282. Sumner, Tipton -- reel 2283. Warren, Washington (part) -- reel 2284. Washington, Wayne, Weakley (part) -- reel 2285. Weakley, White, Williamson -- reel 2286. Wilson", "Reel 2252 - 1930 Tennessee Federal Population Census Schedules - Hamilton, Chattanooga City EDs 33-43 to 33-52, 33-91, 33-53 to 33-57, 33-88, 33-58 to 33-61, 33-89, 33-62 to 33-65, 33-92, 33-66 to 33-68, 33-90, 33-69 to 33-70, 33-83 to 33-85"]	english-handwritten	agriculture	all	U.S. Government Work - Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/15thcensus2252unit	null	null	null	null	texts	pdf	null	null	null	null	null	modern	null	15thcensus2252unit	["1930_census", "microfilm", "americana", "us_census", "genealogy", "additional_collections"]	Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)	2025-11-05T17:29:25.488260	null	null	null
0017641.nlm.nih.gov			Minnesota		1,882	Public Health Administration -- legislation & jurisprudence; Public Health -- legislation & jurisprudence; Minnesota	10 p. ; 23 cm; Includes index; Microfilm. [Bethesda, Md.] : National Library of Medicine, 1 microfilm reel : negative ; 35 mm; NLM copy, stamp of Museum of Hygiene on t.p; Condition reviewed 20120608; digitized. 2020	eng	healthcare	americana	Pre-1928 Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/0017641.nlm.nih.gov	0	0	true	/Users/ryanrobson/git/datasets/training-manuals-dataset/data/historical/archive_org/americana/0017641.nlm.nih.gov/0017641.pdf	texts	pdf		0	pending	null	null	historical		null	null	null	null	null	null	null
00349381.3239.emory.edu			Macnamara, Daniel George, 1839-1900		1,899	United States. Army. Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, 9th (1861-1864)	Electronic reproduction; digitized; prepaired; The online edition of this book in the public domain, i.e., not protected by copyright, has been produced by the Emory University Digital Library Publications Program	eng	military	americana	Pre-1928 Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/00349381.3239.emory.edu	0	0	true	/Users/ryanrobson/git/datasets/training-manuals-dataset/data/historical/archive_org/americana/00349381.3239.emory.edu/00349381_3239.pdf	texts	pdf		0	pending	null	null	historical		null	null	null	null	null	null	null
0045POCK			Thomas Bayley.		1,878	Chemistry Handbooks, manuals, etc.		eng	general/historical	americana	Pre-1928 Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/0045POCK	0	0	true	/Users/ryanrobson/git/datasets/training-manuals-dataset/data/historical/archive_org/americana/0045POCK/0045POCK.pdf	texts	pdf		0	pending	null	null	historical		null	null	null	null	null	null	null
01101575.emory.edu			Holliday, F. C. (Fernandez C.), 1814-1888		1,873	Methodist Church	"Electronic reproduction; digitized; The online edition of this book in the public domain, i.e., not(...TRUNCATED)	eng	general/historical	americana	Pre-1928 Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/01101575.emory.edu	0	0	true	"/Users/ryanrobson/git/datasets/training-manuals-dataset/data/historical/archive_org/americana/01101(...TRUNCATED)	texts	pdf	"F.ag* hy W. Wells to orl\nla [Fo(So »LU\n\nINDIANA METHODISM:\nBEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE\nINTRODUCTI(...TRUNCATED)	28,898	success	"The manual chronicles the rise of Methodism in Indiana, detailing its early spread through itineran(...TRUNCATED)	"[\"Methodism\", \"Indiana history\", \"19th-century American religion\", \"religious education\", \(...TRUNCATED)	historical	"F.ag* hy W. Wells to orl\nla [Fo(So »LU\n\nINDIANA METHODISM:\nBEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE\nINTRODUCTI(...TRUNCATED)	null	null	null	null	null	null	null
0126574.nlm.nih.gov			United States. Army. Medical Department., author		1,885	"Army Medical Museum (U.S.); Hospitals, Military; Transportation of Patients; Skull -- anatomy & his(...TRUNCATED)	"8 bibliographical parts in 1 physical volume : 23 cm; Each part has its own covers and is separatel(...TRUNCATED)	eng	military	americana	Pre-1928 Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/0126574.nlm.nih.gov	0	0	true	"/Users/ryanrobson/git/datasets/training-manuals-dataset/data/historical/archive_org/americana/01265(...TRUNCATED)	texts	pdf	"THE WORLD’S\nINDUSTRIAL.\n& COTTON\nCENTENNIAL EXPOSITION\nNEW ORLEANS, LA, ?\n1884 k 4885,\nMEDI(...TRUNCATED)	23,045	success	"The manual documents the United States Army Medical Department’s exhibit at the 1884‑85 World(...TRUNCATED)	"[\"Industrial exposition\", \"medical department\", \"fish anatomy\", \"entozoa specimens\", \"1884(...TRUNCATED)	historical	"THE WORLD’S\nINDUSTRIAL.\n& COTTON\nCENTENNIAL EXPOSITION\nNEW ORLEANS, LA, ?\n1884 k 4885,\nMEDI(...TRUNCATED)	null	null	null	null	null	null	null
15thcensus1282unit	null	15th census, population, 1930. [microform]	"[\"United States. Bureau of the Census\", \"United States. National Archives and Records Administra(...TRUNCATED)	[Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Administration]	2,002	["Registers of births, etc", "Nebraska"]	"[\"Microfilm copy of original data as collected by the Census Bureau\", \"Research guide with conte(...TRUNCATED)	english-handwritten	government/general	all	U.S. Government Work - Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/15thcensus1282unit	null	null	null	null	texts	pdf	null	null	null	null	null	modern	null	15thcensus1282unit	"[\"1930_census\", \"microfilm\", \"americana\", \"us_census\", \"genealogy\", \"additional_collecti(...TRUNCATED)	Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)	2025-11-05T17:24:41.000450	null	null	null
1308036R.nlm.nih.gov	null	Protective measures, individuals and small units	United States. War Department, author	Washington : U.S. Government Printing Office	1,942	["Military Science", "Military Personnel -- education", "Warfare", "United States"]	"[\"iii, 154 pages : 17 cm\", \"Earlier ed. issued as U. S. War Dept. Basic field manual, v. 1, chap(...TRUNCATED)	eng	military	all	U.S. Government Work - Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/1308036R.nlm.nih.gov	null	null	null	null	texts	pdf	null	null	null	"FM 21‑45, Protective Measures, Individuals and Small Units, is a World War II Army field ma(...TRUNCATED)	"[\"protective measures\", \"individual security\", \"small unit tactics\", \"concealment techniques(...TRUNCATED)	modern	"OFM 21-45\nWAR DEPARTMENT\nBASIC FIELD MANUAL\n5d\n- PROTECTIVE MEASURES,\nINDIVIDUALS AND\nSMALL U(...TRUNCATED)	1308036R.nlm.nih.gov	["usnationallibraryofmedicine", "medicalheritagelibrary", "americana", "medicallibrary"]	Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)	2025-11-05T17:23:07.775426	108,414	19,318	null
101624968X38.nlm.nih.gov	null	News notes (Number 46, June 30, 1946)	United States. Department of the Army. Office of the Surgeon General, author	"[\"Washington, D.C. : Office of the Surgeon General, Technical Information Division\", \"Washington(...TRUNCATED)	1,944	"[\"United States. Department of the Army. Office of the Surgeon General\", \"Military Medicine -- o(...TRUNCATED)	"[\"Issued by: Technical Information Division, 16 November 1944-15 May 1946 and 31 July 1946-June 19(...TRUNCATED)	eng	military	all	U.S. Government Work - Public Domain	https://archive.org/details/101624968X38.nlm.nih.gov	null	null	null	null	texts	pdf	null	null	null	"The “News Notes” (No. 46, 30 June 1946) is a brief briefing from the Surgeon General’s (...TRUNCATED)	"[\"uranium isotopes\", \"medical research\", \"Army Surgeon General\", \"Manhattan Project\", \"rad(...TRUNCATED)	modern	"N o. 46 DIMED IATE RELEASE 30 June 1946\nNEWS NOTES\nOEEICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL\nPublic Relation(...TRUNCATED)	101624968X38.nlm.nih.gov	["usnationallibraryofmedicine", "medicalheritagelibrary", "americana", "medicallibrary"]	Public Domain (17 U.S.C. § 105)	2025-11-05T17:20:54.562057	33,281	5,230	null

End of preview. Expand in Data Studio

Historical Training Manuals Dataset (1800-2021)

A comprehensive collection of 1,597 U.S. Government training manuals spanning 221 years (1800-2021), with 53.7% enhanced by local LLM (gpt-oss-20b) with professional summaries and topic tags.

Dataset Summary

This dataset combines historical (1800-1926) and modern (1928-2021) training manuals from U.S. Government sources, all in the public domain. Over half the dataset (858 manuals) has been enhanced with AI-generated summaries and topic categorization.

Key Statistics

Total Manuals: 1,597
Date Range: 1800-2021 (221 years)
With Full Text: 1,345 (84.2%)
LLM Enhanced: 858 (53.7%)
Standard Splits: Train (80%), Validation (10%), Test (10%)

Split Breakdown

Split	Total	With Text	With LLM Enhancement
Train	1,277	1,073 (84.0%)	680 (53.2%)
Validation	160	136 (85.0%)	97 (60.6%)
Test	160	136 (85.0%)	81 (50.6%)

Dataset Structure

Data Fields

Core Metadata:

identifier: Unique document identifier
title: Manual title
creator: Author/organization
publisher: Publishing organization
publication_year: Year of publication
publication_era: "historical" (1800-1926) or "modern" (1928-2021)
subject: Subject classifications
description: Manual description
language: Language code (primarily "en")
industry: Categorized industry (military, healthcare, agriculture, etc.)

Content:

full_text: Complete extracted text content (when available)
full_text_length: Character count
full_text_word_count: Word count

LLM Enhancements (53.7% of manuals):

llm_summary: AI-generated 3-sentence summary
llm_tags: Topic keywords (5-7 per manual, JSON string)
llm_qa_pairs: Question-answer pairs for training (some manuals, JSON string)

Archive Information:

archive_url: Internet Archive source URL
copyright_status: Public domain status
license: CC0-1.0 Public Domain
mediatype: Media type ("texts")
format: File format (primarily PDF)

Data Sources

Historical Manuals (1800-1926)

Source: Internet Archive historical collections
Count: 1,097 manuals
Topics: Civil War records, religious texts, early technical manuals, 19th-century medical documents
LLM Enhanced: 610 (55.6%)

Modern Manuals (1928-2021)

Source: Internet Archive U.S. Government collections
Count: 500 manuals
Topics: Military medical, NASA technical reports, U.S. Census data, Department of Transportation, National Library of Medicine
LLM Enhanced: 248 (49.6%)

Government Collections Included:

U.S. Army & Navy Medical Department
NASA technical documentation
Department of Defense manuals
National Archives
U.S. Census Bureau
Department of Transportation
National Library of Medicine

LLM Enhancement Process

858 manuals (53.7%) were enhanced using gpt-oss-20b (OpenAI's 20B parameter model) running locally:

Enhancement Features:

Summaries - Professional 3-sentence overviews focusing on purpose and key topics
Topic Tags - 5-7 relevant keywords per manual for categorization
Q&A Pairs - Educational question-answer pairs for select manuals

Sample Enhanced Manual:

Title: "Fact Sheet: An Introduction to Clandestine Meth Labs"

Summary: "The fact sheet outlines a National Institute of Justice‑sponsored training program that equips first responders with the skills to identify and safely handle clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, especially the volatile 'shake‑and‑bake' method. It emphasizes recognizing meth‑user signs, detecting lab hazards such as lithium strips and pseudoephedrine, using proper protective gear (notably respirators), and following specialized decontamination and hospital protocols."

Tags: clandestine meth labs, first responder training, drug lab detection, chemical safety protocols, protective equipment, decontamination procedures, shake and bake meth hazards

Use Cases

1. Historical Language Modeling

Train models on authentic historical text spanning 221 years to understand language evolution.

2. Technical Document Summarization

Use LLM-enhanced summaries (858 examples) to train summarization models on technical content.

3. Topic Classification

1,493 unique topic tags across 858 manuals for training classifiers.

4. Question-Answering

65 Q&A pairs for training QA systems on technical manual content.

5. Information Retrieval

Rich metadata enables testing search and retrieval systems on government documents.

6. Historical Research

Primary source documents for studying U.S. Government training practices across centuries.

Licensing & Attribution

License

CC0-1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)

All documents are U.S. Government works in the public domain per 17 U.S.C. § 105.

Attribution

While not legally required, we appreciate attribution:

Source: Internet Archive (archive.org)
Dataset: robworks-software/historical-training-manuals
Enhancements: gpt-oss-20b (OpenAI)

Data Sources:

Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Internet Archive
National Archives
U.S. Government agencies (NASA, DoD, NIH, etc.)

Ethical Considerations

Historical Context

Historical documents (1800-1926) reflect the language, attitudes, and perspectives of their time periods. Content may include:

Outdated medical practices and terminology
Historical military operations and conflicts
Period-specific social and cultural norms

Users should interpret historical content within its appropriate historical context.

No PII

This dataset contains no Personally Identifiable Information (PII). All data comes from published government documents.

Educational & Research Use

This dataset is intended for:

Academic research
Machine learning model training
Historical analysis
Educational purposes

Dataset Creation

Collection Process

Historical Collection (Phase 1): Scraped 1,373 manuals from Internet Archive (1800-1926)
Modern Collection (Phase 2): Collected 500 U.S. Government manuals (1928-2021)
Text Extraction: Extracted text from 1,345 PDFs using pdfplumber
LLM Enhancement: Enhanced 858 manuals with gpt-oss-20b
Dataset Merging: Combined and created standard 80/10/10 splits

Processing Pipeline

PDF text extraction (pdfplumber, PyPDF2)
Metadata normalization
LLM enhancement (local gpt-oss-20b)
Quality validation
Standard dataset splits

Data Quality

Text Extraction Success Rate: 84.2% (1,345/1,597)
LLM Enhancement Coverage: 53.7% (858/1,597)
Average Document Length: ~34,865 words (historical), ~14,666 words (modern)

Citation

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite:

@dataset{historical_training_manuals_2025,
  title={Historical Training Manuals Dataset (1800-2021)},
  author={Robworks Software},
  year={2025},
  publisher={HuggingFace},
  url={https://huggingface.co/datasets/robworks-software/historical-training-manuals}
}

Changelog

Version 1.0 (2025-11-05)

Initial release
1,597 manuals (1800-2021)
858 LLM-enhanced manuals (53.7%)
Standard 80/10/10 splits
Full metadata and text content

Contact

Organization: Robworks Software
Repository: robworks-software/historical-training-manuals
Issues: Please report issues on the dataset repository

Acknowledgments

Internet Archive for preserving and providing access to historical documents
U.S. Government Agencies for making training materials publicly available
OpenAI for gpt-oss-20b model used in enhancements
LM Studio for local LLM inference capabilities

Downloads last month: 61

Size of downloaded dataset files:

150 MB

Size of the auto-converted Parquet files:

150 MB

Number of rows:

1,597