diff --git a/src/client/components/perspectives/PerspectiveArrayMMM.js b/src/client/components/perspectives/PerspectiveArrayMMM.js
index eee25ba2a579843c9662b89d2cc4afcb8baf0d45..f1fd28f62b7ae785cbe72842036da4a979b9af09 100644
--- a/src/client/components/perspectives/PerspectiveArrayMMM.js
+++ b/src/client/components/perspectives/PerspectiveArrayMMM.js
@@ -124,11 +124,12 @@ export const perspectiveArr = [
     label: 'Places',
     mainPageDesc: 'Places related to manuscripts and works.',
     perspectiveDesc: `
-      Use this perspective to access data related to places. The map is default,
-      showing clusters of places named in the datasets. This includes everything
-      from continents ("North America") to countries ("Canada") to
-      regions/provinces ("British Columbia") to cities ("Vancouver").
-      The table view will give you a list of the same places.
+      Use this perspective to access data related to places named in the source datasets
+      (Schoenberg, Bibale, and Bodleian). The places have been linked to Getty Thesaurus
+      of Geographic Names when possible. Place types include everything from continents
+      ("North America") to countries ("Canada") to regions/provinces ("British Columbia")
+      to cities ("Vancouver"). The map result view is default, showing all the places that
+      have coordinates. The table result view includes all places in MMM data.
     `,
     perspectiveDescHeight: 99,
     defaultActiveFacets: new Set(['prefLabel']),
diff --git a/src/client/reducers/actors.js b/src/client/reducers/actors.js
index 4f633eb6a5e159ae0f4f18ce1a5155c21ee90849..7431cf9c3ef925e89d74c4d0e55bf1530b52265f 100644
--- a/src/client/reducers/actors.js
+++ b/src/client/reducers/actors.js
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'prefLabel',
       label: 'Name',
-      desc: 'Label description',
+      desc: 'The standardized name of the actor.',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -56,7 +56,10 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'type',
       label: 'Type',
-      desc: 'Type description',
+      desc: `
+        Indicates whether the actor is an individual (Person) or an institution,
+        corporation, or family (Group)
+      `,
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: false,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -67,7 +70,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'birthDateTimespan',
       label: 'Birth / formation date',
-      desc: 'Birth/formation year description',
+      desc: 'The date when the actor was born or established.',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: false,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -78,7 +81,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'deathDateTimespan',
       label: 'Death / dissolution date',
-      desc: 'Date of death/dissolution description',
+      desc: 'The date when the actor died or dissolved.',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: false,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -89,7 +92,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'place',
       label: 'Activity location',
-      desc: 'Activity location',
+      desc: 'Place(s) of activity linked to this actor.',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -100,7 +103,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'work',
       label: 'Work',
-      desc: 'Work description',
+      desc: 'Work(s) linked to the actor. ',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -111,7 +114,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'manuscript',
       label: 'Manuscript',
-      desc: 'Manuscript',
+      desc: 'Manuscript(s) linked to the actor.',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -122,7 +125,14 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'source',
       label: 'Source',
-      desc: 'Source description',
+      desc: `
+        The source dataset(s) (Bibale, Bodleian, or SDBM) contributing the
+        information on the actor. If two or more source datasets include the
+        same actor and this has been manually verified, the information from
+        the source datasets has been merged into one MMM actor.
+        Click on the result table link(s) to view the original record on the
+        source’s website.
+      `,
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: true,
diff --git a/src/client/reducers/places.js b/src/client/reducers/places.js
index 97c71649f8ae37ed91aeaeb23104d3f3d9ebea9a..1d5f0389c212e00161a108c71f35143151186791 100644
--- a/src/client/reducers/places.js
+++ b/src/client/reducers/places.js
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
   tableColumns: [
     {
       id: 'prefLabel',
-      label: 'Label',
-      desc: 'Label description',
+      label: 'Name',
+      desc: 'The name of the place. ',
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'placeType',
       label: 'Place type',
-      desc: 'Place type description',
+      desc: 'The place type from Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.',
       valueType: 'string',
       makeLink: false,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -66,8 +66,11 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     },
     {
       id: 'area',
-      label: 'Area',
-      desc: 'Area description',
+      label: 'Parent Place',
+      desc: `
+        The preferred parent place in the hierarchy used by the Getty
+        Thesaurus of Geographic Names.
+      `,
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: false,
@@ -78,7 +81,11 @@ export const INITIAL_STATE = {
     {
       id: 'source',
       label: 'Source',
-      desc: 'Source description',
+      desc: `
+        The source dataset (Schoenberg, Bibale, and Bodleian) and the place
+        authority (Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names and GeoNames)
+        contributing the information on the place.
+      `,
       valueType: 'object',
       makeLink: true,
       externalLink: true,