Oregon Digital Newspaper Program Menu

The North Coast Times Eagle is a new addition to the Historic Oregon Newspapers database. Issues from this title cover 1979-2007. It was published in Wheeler, Astoria, and Cannon Beach, and has the spunky, DIY feel of a community newsletter with a global conscience. North Coast Times Eagle has numerous articles about the local fishing industry, the threat of nuclear arms, investigations into violence against women, editorials about racism at home and abroad, as well as poetry, local art, and cartoons.

The Oregon State Library has been a long-standing supporter of the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program through its LSTA grant funding to Oregon libraries to fund newspaper digitization. Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding is allocated from the federal government to states to support libraries and other cultural heritage institutions. In 2022-2023, we were glad to partner with seven organizations with LSTA grants to digitize newspapers from around the state:

• Cottage Grove Sentinel (1924-1929), sponsored by the Cottage Grove Museum
• Gresham Outlook (1911-1928), sponsored by the Multnomah County Library
• Hermiston Herald (1915-1945), sponsored by the Hermiston Public Library
• Hood River Glacier (1924-1928), sponsored by the Hood River Public Library
• Illinois Valley News (1937-1952), sponsored by the Josephine Community Library District
• Opportunity News (1965-1968), sponsored by Oregon Historical Society
• Toveri (1916-1921), sponsored by the Astoria Public Library

Issues from 2015-2016 of the Baker County Record-Courier newspapers are now available in Historic Oregon Newspapers. These are relatively recent issues compared to the the myriad historical newspapers we provide in the database, but it’s a great example of how ODNP digitization projects can focus on whatever content someone wants to make available from any time period. In this case, the director of the Baker County Library, Perry Stokes, had 77 print issues of the Record-Courier in his library, and he wanted to make sure they could be accessible and preserved for future research. He sent the issues to us in Eugene, where we digitized and processed them for access in Historic Oregon Newspapers.

Our collection of newspapers from the coastal community of Coquille continues to grow, thanks to the efforts of our stalwart champion, Bert Dunn. The latest additions are issues of the Coquille Valley Herald from 1936-1946. Small-town newspapers are full of interesting regional history, but it’s also fascinating to see local responses to global events, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into World War II in December 1941.

We’re pleased to announce the addition of several new historical titles from Scio:

• Scio News (1870-1871)
• Scio Press (1890)
• Scio Weekly Press (1890-1897)
• The Santiam News (1897-1917)
• Intermountain Tribune and Linn County Agriculturalist
• Scio Tribune (1919-1925)
• The Scio tribune and Santiam news, consolidated (1917-1919)
• The Scio Tribune (1915-1917)

The Scio Public Library sponsored this digitization project, which included microfilm and digital photography of original newsprint.

UO Libraries recently contributed six Oregon prison newspapers to American Prison Newspapers, a new open-access collection available through Reveal Digital, a project of JSTOR.

American Prisons, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside provides free online access to over 450 newspapers published from U.S. prisons.

UO Libraries provided the following titles, which were digitized from the original paper copies held in Special Collections & University Archives:

• Detour (24 issues, 1960-1965); Oregon State Correctional Institution
• Inside-Out (1 issue, 1972); unknown facility
• Lakota Oyate-ki (11 issues, 1973-1988); Lakota Indian Club, Oregon State Penitentiary
• Lend a Hand (52 issues, 1908-1922); Oregon State Penitentiary
• Shadows  (159 issues, 1935-1967); Oregon State Penitentiary
• The Walled-Street Journal (2 issues, 1969-1971); Oregon State Penitentiary

Reveal Digital develops open access primary source collections from underrepresented 20^th century voices of dissent. Reveal Digital partners with libraries, museums, historical societies, and individual collections to curate and source materials, which they digitize and host on the JSTOR website.

The Oregon Daily Emerald is an independent newspaper, produced by students at the University of Oregon. Issues from 1909-1952 are now available to view on our website. Starting in 1909 the paper was named the Oregon Emerald and ran twice a week until 1920 when it was renamed the Oregon Daily Emerald and published five days a week during the fall, winter, and spring terms. The Oregon Emerald (1909-1920) is available here and the Oregon Daily Emerald has been digitized through 1952 and is available here. The entire archive will be digitized and online soon! 

The start of the fall term at U of O was chronicled each year in the Emerald. In September 1933, amidst news about fall registration, sports, and the state board of higher education, one columnist took the time to explain campus slang to incoming freshmen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World War II affected most aspects of life on campus, including the Emerald. With most college-age men in the armed forces, women took over most positions on the Emerald staff, going from a significant minority to a comfortable majority. In October of 1943, the Emerald reported that fall registration dropped 35% from 1942 and women made up 83% of the student body.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some things never change, football was always a prominent feature of back-to-school coverage. In September 1948 the Emerald ran this photo of right guard Sam Nevilis  as part of its analysis of the Ducks’ preparedness for their season opener against Santa Barbara. 

The Oregon Emerald and the Oregon Daily Emerald are a valuable resource for exploring the history of U of O and we are excited that it is available on our website and to digitize the remainder of the archive soon! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog post compiled and edited by Allia Service, University of Oregon undergraduate student and Libraries student employee.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor and a partnership with the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN) and the Oregon Historical Society Library, Just Out: “Oregon’s lesbian and gay newsmagazine” is now available to view on our website.  

Just Out was published and distributed for free twice a month in Portland, Oregon from 1983–2013 and we have issues available from 1983-2011. We’d like to say a special thank you to the former editors of Just Out, Marty Davis and Jonathan Kipp, for allowing us to digitize and make this great publication open access! 

Just Out covered news surrounding the LGBTQ community in the Pacific Northwest. It had a distinct editorial voice and provided a place for LGBTQ people to discuss issues that mattered to them without the censorship of traditional newsrooms. Reading Just Out today gives you a unique look at the LGBTQ community in Portland, and Oregon’s slow path toward acceptance.  

Just Out had iconic illustrated covers like this issue from July 6th 1984 about military homophobia, and this issue from January 1st 1987 about spirituality:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with its substantive articles covering everything from local politics, to HIV/AIDS response to national news, Just Out maintained an active Letters page. Sometimes the letters were from disgruntled, homophobic readers (in which case the next issue would be full of sometimes snarky, sometimes heartfelt responses). Other times the letters were from Queer people in Portland organizing events or looking for community. The letters were as diverse as the magazine itself: serious, funny, broad or extremely local to Portland. Many letters focused on AIDS, either people’s response to proposed policies, activism, scientific breakthroughs, or simply how they were coping with an AIDS diagnosis. As the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, we can look back on these letters and learn how the Queer community supported each other through a past epidemic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a much lighter note, here’s a letter encouraging Pope John Paul II to stay away from San Francisco:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Out is a rich resource for researching Portland’s Queer community between 1983 and 2013 and we are excited that we were able to digitize it and make it available on our website.  

Blog post compiled and edited by Allia Service, University of Oregon undergraduate student and Libraries student employee

Please welcome The Turner Tribune to Historic Oregon Newspapers!

The City of Turner, Oregon, was incorporated in 1905 and by 1920 publisher Pearl P. Hassler had already established a newspaper for this new Marion County municipality. Each Thursday, The Turner Tribune brought four (or more!) pages of world, national, state, and local happenings to Turner’s nearly 300 residents.

The oldest issue of the Turner Tribune in Historic Oregon Newspaper’s database was published on August 18, 1921; the most recent issue is from July 30, 1931. That’s ten whole years of news captured in 456 issues of the Turner Tribune.

Many thanks to the organization, Yesterday in Turner, for sponsoring this digitization.

 

Thanks to the generosity of the Morrow County Heritage and Agricultural Museums, our website has new content for the Heppner Gazette-Times! Issues from 1987 to 2014 were recently added to our preexisting online collection of issues for this title. Since this addition coincides with the Halloween season, check out how the local community of the Heppner area has celebrated Halloween over the years.

Throughout the years the small town of Heppner has celebrated Halloween in a variety of ways. Scarecrow making contests have been enjoyed by the residents of Heppner along with hunting for the homes of scarecrows.

Take a look at the “spooktacular” carnival hosted by Heppner Elementary School almost twenty years ago!

Along with scarecrows, carnivals, and pumpkin carving, Heppner also participated in other fun Halloween activities, such as guessing the weight of a gigantic pumpkin to win it. There was also a “Guess the Ghoul!” contest where pictures of employees from local businesses dressed up in costumes were displayed in the paper for the townspeople to guess which “ghoul” belonged to which business in order to be entered to win a gift certificate.

The town of Heppner has been creative when it comes to decorating and dressing up for Halloween. To get a glimpse of even more spooky delights from Heppner, browse through other issues of the Heppner Gazette-Times found on our website. Thanks to optical character recognition, this title along with all other titles located on our website, can easily be browsed or searched using keywords. In addition to this, all of our content can be downloaded as a PDF or JPEG and saved for future reference or research.