The Odd Case of the “W” in Oregon Free Press

Oregon Free Press

Oregon Free Press. (Oregon City, OR.) August 19, 1848, image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022661/1848-08-19/ed-1/seq-1/

The Oregon Free Press, published for only a year in 1848 by George L. Curry, is the second oldest newspaper in the state. Originally an employee of Oregon’s first published newspaper, the Oregon Spectator, Curry began the Free Press after a falling out with the editor. However, the periodicals curious amount of inconsistencies with the letter “w” is perhaps one of the more interesting nuances of this early Oregonian newspaper.

Starting up a newspaper during the early pioneering days of the Oregon territory was no easy feat, and Curry struggled with acquiring the supplies he needed. As a consequence of the difficulty of acquiring goods and services, the letter “w” in the Oregon Free Press has a variety of forms.

Pictured in the clippings below, the letter ‘w’ has either been formed by a normal piece of type, two ‘v’s’, or whittled out of wood by Curry himself.

Oregon Free Press. (Oregon City, OR.) June 3, 1848, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022661/1848-06-03/ed-1/seq-1/

Oregon Free Press. (Oregon City, OR.) June 17, 1848, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022661/1848-06-17/ed-1/seq-1/

Oregon Free Press. (Oregon City, OR.) June 17, 1848, Image 2. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022661/1848-06-17/ed-1/seq-2/

Oregon Free Press. (Oregon City, OR.) June 17, 1848, Image 2. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022661/1848-06-17/ed-1/seq-2/

 

The press in which Curry printed with was at one point owned by Catholic Missionaries operating in the Oregon Territory. The variations in the letter “w” can be attributed to its seldom use in French, the common language the missionaries printed in. Thus Curry, forced to accommodate for the lack of “w’s” used a combination of the above methods in his newspaper editions.

The Oregon Free Press offers fascinating insight into the struggles pioneers faced in the early years of Oregon. To read more about this newspaper title, check out ODNP’s essay on the paper here You can also read full issues of the title on our site here.

Written in reference to:

Turnbull, George S. History of Oregon Newspapers. Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1939.

Posted in Project Highlights

The Newest Addition to Historic Newspapers: Coquille City Herald

Thanks in large part to the generosity of a group of donors from Coquille, we were recently able to add the Coquille City Herald to the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, covering a time period between 1883 and 1894. The earliest issue currently available from this weekly paper is from September 11, 1883, while the last one is from December 11, 1894. More issues will be added later from that time period, as well as from the rest of the paper’s run through 1917.

Coquille City Herald

Coquille City herald. (Coquille, Or.) July 1, 1884, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn93051617/1884-07-01/ed-1/seq-1/

Incorporated in 1885, Coquille remains a relatively small town to this day. These issues of the Coquille City Herald offer insight into the town’s early days and neighboring areas, featuring not only recent news related to the area, but also plenty of ads for some of the local businesses and trades. In fact, the paper often promoted the city itself in an attempt to help its growth, emphasizing the natural charms and availability of reasonably affordable properties.

Coquille City Herald

Coquille City herald. (Coquille City, Or.) January 4, 1887, Image 2.
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn93051617/1887-01-04/ed-1/seq-2/

Interestingly enough, the property agent listed in the ad for the city is J.A. Dean, who was also the publisher and editor of the newspaper during this time. In fact, Dean was also one of the incorporators of the Occidental Water company, which was created in 1885 to transport water into the town for its citizens and business to use. His dual roles as newspaper man and property agent likely worked well for him, as the paper afforded him a mouthpiece with which to encourage others to move to this “blossoming” city.

As with all historic newspapers available on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, each of the Coquille City Herald can be browsed and searched by keyword, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR) technology. In addition, this historic Coquille, Oregon, newspaper can be downloaded as a PDF or JPEG file and saved for future reference or research purposes at absolutely no cost to visitors to Historic Oregon Newspapers. So, check out these newly added issues and learn a little more about late-nineteenth century Coquille!

Coquille Tombstones Ad

Coquille City herald. (Coquille, Or.) September 29, 1885, Image 4.
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn93051617/1885-09-29/ed-1/seq-4/

Posted in New Content

2016: Year in Review

It’s been an exciting and eventful year for ODNP! We have added more historical newspaper content to the site. For current newspaper submissions, we have refined the process and workflow, and we are looking forward to adding more titles this upcoming year. We also won the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award!

We have had staffing changes. Sheila Rabun left the University of Oregon in August 2016 to become the Community and Communications Officer for IIIF, the International Image Interoperability Framework. Her years of service and the advancement of ODNP have been invaluable- thank you for everything, Sheila!

To fill her shoes, Carolina Hernandez, Journalism and Communication Librarian, and Sarah Seymore, Digital Collections Metadata Librarian, are now the primary contacts for ODNP. Carolina’s roles will be in research, outreach, collection development, and instruction for the ODNP content. Sarah is the primary contact for technical questions for submissions, digitization, ingest, and other back-end management and concerns. Please email us with any questions at cahernan@uoregon.edu and sseymore@uoregon.edu.

Our goals for 2017 are those of increasing our impact with greater access, promotion, and use of our collections. We call on your help to do this by spreading the word about the program and the importance of digitizing and preserving this content. Do you have stories about the impact of ODNP at your institution and for your patrons? Please let us know as we will be featuring user stories on our blog throughout the year! Moreover, we want to know: what do you want to see from ODNP this year? Let us know and share your stories!

Promotion of the services of ODNP is vital, and offering free, open access to content of historical record is important and necessary. ODNP would not be possible without the support of our subscribers and submitters. Thank you for helping us preserve Oregon history and stay tuned to the blog for more in the year ahead!

Posted in Project Highlights

ODNP Wins Oregon Heritage Excellence Award!

Greetings from the University of Oregon Libraries’ Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP)! We have been so busy lately, that we are just now announcing the exciting news – the ODNP has been awarded a 2016 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award from the Oregon Heritage Commission! Recognition, praise, and a beautiful ceramic plaque featuring the Oregon state capital building were presented to ODNP representatives on May 5, 2016 at the historic Reed Opera House in Salem as part of the 2016 Oregon Heritage Conference.

Six individuals pose for a photo, holding the award.

Representatives from the University of Oregon Libraries, Oregon Heritage Commission, and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department celebrated ODNP’s achievements in Salem on May 5, 2016.

We are thrilled to receive this award and recognition! Special thanks to all of the ODNP Advisory Board members who have helped us determine priority content for digitization over the years, all of the partners that we have worked with to add content to the Historic Oregon Newspapers site, all of the staff involved in the ODNP since its inception in 2009.

Posted in Announcements

Hood River Papers Available, Thanks to Hood River Library!

Two historic newspapers from Hood River, Oregon the Hood River Sun and Hood River Glacier are now online at the Historic Oregon Newspapers website. These particular Hood River titles are available online thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the people at Hood River County Library and the History Museum of Hood River County.

The Hood River sun. (Hood River, Or.) October 26, 1899, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2015260100/1899-10-26/ed-1/seq-1/

The Hood River sun. (Hood River, Or.) October 26, 1899, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2015260100/1899-10-26/ed-1/seq-1/

If it weren’t for the people at Hood River County Library and History Museum, the Hood River Sun especially would not be available. Amazingly, print copies of this historic Hood River paper were discovered in a closet at the museum! If they hadn’t found them, this content would have been lost forever! After this discovery, volunteers at Hood River County Library scanned issues of the Hood River Sun (and the Hood River Glacier) from print. This process veers from normal procedure in that historic newspapers are typically scanned from microfilm. Scanning these newspapers from print allowed these historic titles from Hood River, Oregon, to be accessible online at the Historic Oregon Newspaper website. Special kudos to Buzzy Nielsen, director of Hood River County Library, and Arthur Babitz, a local volunteer who is writing a book about the Hood River Sun.

Eleven issues of the Hood River Sun have been added to Historic Oregon Newspapers. The dates of publication of the newly added issues range from September 28, 1899, to February 8, 1900. This date range spans the entire existence of the newspaper, of which only twenty issues were printed. Notable newspaperman Sloan P. Shutt established the Sun, which initially was delivered to homes throughout Hood River at no charge. Eventually the Sun became available by subscription, with a yearlong subscription costing $1.50 and a six-month subscription $1. Shortly after the release of the first issue, Shutt walked away from the Sun to pursue mining interests in Sumpter, Oregon. Eber R. Bradley took over and was editor and publisher of the Hood River Sun until its final issue, which rolled off the presses on February 8, 1900.

The Hood River Glacier was the Sun‘s rival. As a matter of fact, the Hood River Glacier preexisted the Hood River Sun by an entire decade. The Glacier was the first ever newspaper in Hood River, Oregon, established in 1889 by postmaster George T. Prather. In an early issue, Prather claimed he did not enter the newspaper business to gain fortune. As a play on the paper’s title, he wrote, “If the little Glacier will slide along slowly and grind out its own expenses we [the publishers] shall be satisfied.” The first issue of the Glacier was published on June 8, 1889. The newspaper would remain in print for more than forty years, far outlasting its onetime rival, the Sun. Nearly 1,650 issues of the Hood River Glacier have been added to Historic Oregon Newspapers, with publication dates ranging from June 8, 1889, to December 28, 1922.

As with all newspapers on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, these newly added issues of the Hood River Sun and the Hood River Glacier can be searched by keyword because of optical character recognition (OCR) technology. In addition, every issue of these historic Hood River, Oregon, newspapers can be downloaded and saved for future use as a PDF or JPEG file, at absolutely no cost to readers of Historic Oregon Newspapers. Thanks again to the incredible people of Hood River County Library for making it possible for these historic papers to be online!

The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) January 13, 1916, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1916-01-13/ed-1/seq-1/

The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) January 13, 1916, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1916-01-13/ed-1/seq-1/

Posted in New Content

Plenty of Newly Added Historic Papers!

Nearly 10,000 pages of historic Oregon newspapers are now online! This is an abundance of content, spanning from 1868 to 1931, that is newly available for research or reading pleasure.

The Weston leader. (Weston, Umatilla, Or.) May 14, 1915, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn94052320/1915-05-14/ed-1/seq-1/

Weston leader. (Weston, Umatilla, Or.) May 14, 1915, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn94052320/1915-05-14/ed-1/seq-1/

More specifically, eight yes, EIGHT historic newspaper titles from the state of Oregon are now available online. These newly added historic Oregon newspapers are as follows:

Corvallis, Benton County, OR. The Corvallis Gazette (Jan. 20, 1882-Nov. 9, 1888)

Corvallis, Benton County, OR. The Corvallis Times (June 2, 1900-Dec. 30, 1903)

Corvallis, Benton County, OR. Corvallis Gazette (Jan. 1, 1906-Dec 28, 1906)

Albany, OR. The Albany Register (Oct. 3, 1868-Dec. 31, 1880)

The Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Or.) November 13, 1885, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022650/1885-11-13/ed-1/seq-1/

The Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Or.) November 13, 1885, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022650/1885-11-13/ed-1/seq-1/

The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) September 27, 1902, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn2002060538/1902-09-27/ed-1/seq-1/

The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) September 27, 1902, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn2002060538/1902-09-27/ed-1/seq-1/

Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) July 24, 1906, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn93051660/1906-07-24/ed-1/seq-1/

Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) July 24, 1906, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn93051660/1906-07-24/ed-1/seq-1/

Lebanon, Linn County, OR. The Lebanon Express (March 5, 1887-April 29, 1897)

Weston, Umatilla County, OR. Weston Weekly Leader (Dec. 21, 1878-Feb. 4, 1890)

Weston, Umatilla County, OR. The Weston Leader (Aug. 12, 1892-May 13, 1921)

Athena, Umatilla County, OR. The Athena Press (Jan. 1, 1926-Dec. 4, 1931)

As with all of the newspapers on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, each and every newly uploaded issue of The Corvallis Gazette, Corvallis Times, Corvallis Gazette, Albany Register, Lebanon Express, Weston Weekly Leader, Weston Leader, and Athena Press can be searched by keyword because of optical character recognition (OCR) technology. In addition, each issue of these historic newspapers can be downloaded and saved for future use as a PDF or JPEG file, at absolutely no cost to readers of Historic Oregon Newspapers. Go ahead and take a look today!

The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) February 15, 1929, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088356/1929-02-15/ed-1/seq-1/

The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) February 15, 1929, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088356/1929-02-15/ed-1/seq-1/

Posted in New Content

ODNP Featured on Jefferson Public Radio

The Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) was featured on Jefferson Public Radio this morning! Visit their site to listen to the interview with Sheila Rabun, Project Manager for the ODNP: http://ijpr.org/post/newspaper-history-preserved-online

Posted in Announcements

Current Newspapers (2015 and beyond) Now Online!

The Historic Oregon Newspapers site has expanded its scope to include born-digital current newspapers from participating publishers around the state! News from 2015 and beyond is current now, but in a number of years it will become “historic,” so we are getting started early.

Traditionally, the University of Oregon Libraries has microfilmed the majority of newspapers from around Oregon, but microfilm production is becoming increasingly unviable. As we phase out our microfilm production operation, we are now working directly with publishers to make their current content keyword searchable and freely available to the public online at http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu. The following newspapers are now becoming available for 2015 and beyond. Use the “calendar view” to browse issues, or do a keyword search for specific content:

Each of these newspapers has a different copyright statement, so please be aware of copyright restrictions when using current newspapers. Copyright information about each title can be found on our blog site at http://odnp.uoregon.edu/current-newspapers/participating-newspapers/, and copyright statements will appear at the bottom of the screen when viewing a page from one of these newspapers in the Historic Oregon Newspapers site.

Additional information about the digital program for current newspapers can be found on our blog site:

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program!

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Posted in Announcements, New Content

Now More Historic Newspapers from Independence, OR!

Thanks to a partnership with Independence Public Library, more Historic Oregon Newspapers from Independence, Oregon, are now online! Specifically, additional issues of the Independence Enterprise have been added, as well as the complete run of the Independence Monitor.

 Independence enterprise. (Independence, Or.) December 22, 1911. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088094/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/


Independence enterprise. (Independence, Or.) December 22, 1911. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088094/1911-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/

Newly added issues of the Independence Enterprise range in publication date from July 21, 1911, to December 15, 1922. The newspaper began life as the West Side Enterprise, which was in existence from January 14, 1904, to October 8, 1908, and was published on a weekly basis. Then veteran newspaper editor Charles E. Hicks took over as publisher and proprietor of the paper. Under Hicks’s leadership, the newspaper was given a new name: the Independence Enterprise. The first issue was first printed on October 15, 1908, and, like the West Side Enterprise before it, the Independence Enterprise was published on a weekly basis.

In the early years of the Independence Enterprise, an annual subscription to the weekly paper was $1.50; a six-month subscription cost 75 cents. For more than six decades, the newspaper would keep the people of Independence, Polk, Oregon, abreast of current events. Local, state, and national news was covered in its pages. A sampling of headlines from the inaugural issue, published October, 15, 1908, includes “Prize Winners at School Fair” (page 1), “Portland Markets” (page 8), and “White House Stable Fire” (page 6). A political cartoon from this same issue shows then president Theodore Roosevelt wielding his “Big Stick,” and advertisements tout businesses and products ranging from the Little Palace Hotel to California Medicated Soap. The last issue of the Independence Enterprise would be published on June 26, 1969.

 Independence enterprise. (Independence, Or.) January 3, 1913. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088094/1913-01-03/ed-1/seq-1/


Independence enterprise. (Independence, Or.) January 3, 1913. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088094/1913-01-03/ed-1/seq-1/

Besides more issues of the Independence Enterprise, the Historic Oregon Newspapers website now features the entire run of the Independence Monitor. The Independence Monitor was in publication for only six years, from 1912 to 1918. The first issue appeared on newsstands and doorsteps on August 1, 1912; the last issue was printed on July 6, 1918. The Independence Monitor was a weekly newspaper. At the beginning of its run, in 1912, the paper came out every Thursday. Beginning in January 1913, however, the newspaper was released every Friday. For much of its six-year existence, the Independence Monitor would be published on Fridays except toward the very end of its run. In its final weeks, the paper was printed on Saturdays.

In 1912, readers of the Independence Monitor could buy a one-year subscription to the weekly publication for $1.50. The $1.50 subscription rate remained constant throughout the life of the newspaper, and subscription payments were “strictly in advance.” G.A. Hurley was publisher and proprietor of the Independence Monitor during the entirety of the newspaper’s six-year run. The newspaper, under Hurley’s direction, published “Local News Items of Interest” and “Oregon News Notes of General Interest,” as well as national and international news stories. Headlines from the January 31, 1913, issue of the Independence Monitor include “Revival Meetings Closed Sunday” (page 1), “When Woodrow Wilson and W.J. Bryan Talked It Over” (page 2), and “Two Prominent Turks in the Balkan Peace Conference” (page 4). The Independence Monitor kept the citizens of Independence, Oregon, well informed of current events.

Independence monitor. (Independence, Or.) January 18, 1918. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2012260081/1918-01-18/ed-1/seq-1/

Independence monitor. (Independence, Or.) January 18, 1918. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2012260081/1918-01-18/ed-1/seq-1/

As with all historic newspapers available on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, each and every issue of the Independence Enterprise and the Independence Monitor can be browsed and searched by keyword, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR) technology. In addition, these historic Independence, Oregon, newspapers can be downloaded as a PDF or JPEG file and saved for future reference or research purposes at absolutely no cost to visitors to Historic Oregon Newspapers. So, check out the newly added issues of the Independence Enterprise and the entire run of the Independence Monitor at Historic Oregon Newspapers today!

 Independence monitor. (Independence, Or.) February 1, 1918. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2012260081/1918-02-01/ed-1/seq-1/


Independence monitor. (Independence, Or.) February 1, 1918. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2012260081/1918-02-01/ed-1/seq-1/

Posted in New Content

More Heppner Gazette-Times!

Thanks to a partnership with the Morrow County Museum in Heppner, Oregon, even more issues of the Heppner Gazette-Times have been added to Historic Oregon Newspapers!

Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) April 21, 1977. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/1977-04-21/ed-1/seq-1/

Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) April 21, 1977. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/1977-04-21/ed-1/seq-1/

The newspaper that would inform the people of Heppner in Morrow County, Oregon, for more than a century was first published as the Heppner-Weekly Gazette in 1883. It wasn’t until 1925, when the paper underwent a final name change, that the Heppner Gazette-Times as it is known today came to be. Familiarly called the Gazette-Times, the newspaper is published weekly.

Issues of the Heppner Gazette-Times that have been newly added to the Historic Oregon Newspapers website range in publication date from January 6, 1977, through June 28, 1984. That’s nearly 5,000 pages of historic Oregon newspaper content now available online! As is the case with all content on Historic Oregon Newspapers, these additional issues of the Heppner Gazette-Times can be browsed and searched by keyword. Newspaper content can also be downloaded and saved for later as PDF or JPEG files, at absolutely no cost to you!

Take a look at these newly added issues of the Heppner Gazette-Times on the Historic Oregon Newspapers website today! Plenty of great historic newspaper content awaits you online!

Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) July 22, 1982. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/1982-07-22/ed-1/seq-1/

Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) July 22, 1982. Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/1982-07-22/ed-1/seq-1/

Posted in New Content
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