Tag: history

Highlights from the IFLA Newspaper Conference: Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 4-5, 2014

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

The International Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA) Newspaper group recently convened in Salt Lake City for a two-day conference focused on “Spreading the News.” Representatives from across the United States, as well as from other countries such as Finland, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Japan, and Vietnam, presented and shared their processes, expertise, and experiences working with newspapers in a library setting:

History of Newspapers

  • Newspapers first appeared available to the public in England around 1620, covering mostly foreign news items. Because each sheet of paper was taxed, the font on these early papers was extremely small, so as to include as much content as possible on each page. The oldest surviving newspaper is the London Gazette, dating back to 1665.
  • In the early 1700s, vital records and news of the local common people began appearing in newspapers, and this practice continued into the 1800s. The Boston News-Letter was the first official newspaper published in the United States, appearing in 1704.
  • As we have blogged about before, the University of Illinois’ History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library (HPNL) has created several short videos focusing on the history of newspapers in the United States before the Civil War. The newest videos, each roughly 20 minutes long, are entitled:  “Introduction to American Newspapers, 1800-1860,” “American Newspapers, 1800-1860: City Papers,” and “American Newspapers, 1800-1860: Country Papers.” These and other informational videos are available online through the library’s guide on Antebellum American Newspapers or via YouTube.

Genealogy and Newspapers

Genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America, and genealogists are one of the largest groups of newspaper researchers – birth, death, and marriage notices published in newspapers often provide a starting point for the information that genealogists are seeking, and ancestors’ names can be found in other types of articles and listings in historic newspapers as well, including:

  • lists of letters remaining in local post offices
  • local news/gossip columns
  • tax notices
  • land claims
  • news/entries from past years published in current papers
  • school stories/honor role listings

There are 3200 county courthouses in the United States, and 644 of those have had records destroyed by fire or otherwise. Newspapers help to minimize these losses by providing an alternate record of vital information on ancestors, pinpointing people in time and space.

Social Media

  • The rise of social media is contributing to the changing face of current news media and journalism. Now that anyone can post their own news announcements and opinions for the world to see, often with little or no editing or censorship, it is increasingly important to remember to view news reports of all kinds with a critical eye, checking sources, facts, and credibility before spreading the word.
  • Social media outlets, such as Facebook, Flickr, and Pinterest, are increasingly being used by libraries to “spread the news” about collection materials, especially digital newspapers!
  • In Nigeria, about 70% of the population has access to social media, and Nigerian libraries are starting to use social media outlets to promote their resources.

Access to Newspaper Content

  • The University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History website contains over 1.4 million pages of digital newspaper content, made possible by strategic partnerships between newspaper publishers, local libraries, and the University.
  • The University of Utah’s Digital Newspapers website can be searched and browsed at the article level. In partnership with FamilySearch, the genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah is currently indexing all of the obituaries contained in their digital collection.
  • The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program is working on an interactive museum exhibit featuring Arizona’s historic digital newspapers, to debut in April at the Arizona State Capitol Museum.
  • The British Library in London is hard at work preserving and providing access to historic print newspapers, digitized newspapers, and current news, including current born-digital news websites, with a strategy of making all news media accessible to users in one location. The physical library space previously referred to as the “reading room,” is now called the “news room,” and users can research, collaborate, and network to celebrate all things news! The online British Newspaper Archive contains over 7.4 billion pages of newspaper content covering news from the 1700s up to the 1950s.
  • Collaboration is key to ensuring preservation and increasing access to both historic and current newspapers!

Scholarly Use of Newspapers

The Library of Congress’ Chronicling America newspaper website has proven to be a very useful resource for scholars and researchers of all kinds. A full list of tips, resources, and scholarly use of Chronicling America content can be found on the Library of Congress’ Extra! Extra! NDNP Extras! web page. Here are just a few examples of digital scholarship projects based on Chronicling America content:

Information on how to download bulk full text from Chronicling America’s newspapers can be found at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ocr/.

A recent content analysis of dissertations and theses at the University of Arizona Libraries found that students from a variety of disciplines, including history, communication/journalism, political science, sociology, education, literature, arts, and foreign language/literature, have used newspapers in their research. The majority of students used current newspapers published in North America, with a small percentage, mostly in the foreign language/literature discipline, using newspapers published in other countries. Historic newspapers were mostly utilized by history students.

Preservation of Historic Newspapers

  • Finnish national law, namely the “Act on Collecting and Preserving Cultural Materials (1433/2007),” requires that all newspapers published in Finland be kept in hard copy at the National Library of Finland, “to preserve the Finnish published heritage for coming generations” (National Library of Finland).
  • Likewise, the British Library in London has undertaken an extensive program to preserve and store the printed hard copies of all newspapers from the U.K.; bound volumes of historic newspapers are shrink-wrapped and stored in a temperature and oxygen-controlled facility, and a robotic system is used to retrieve papers for use by researchers.
  • Unlike our European counterparts, rather than go to great lengths to store printed hard copy newspapers here in the United States, we have turned to microfilm as the preferred archival format for newspapers. From 1982-2011, the federal United States Newspaper Project (USNP) provided over $50 million of funding for libraries across the U.S. to microfilm and catalog historic U.S. newspapers. However, no funding was allocated for preservation or storage of print hard copies, as these were considered local, rather than national, affairs.
  • Some concerned parties have compared historic print newspapers in the United States to the Passenger Pigeon, which is now extinct. Like the Passenger Pigeon, newspapers have been so abundant throughout history that it has seemed like no big deal to just throw them away, especially since many have been made available on microfilm, and now in digital format. Proponents of print newspaper preservation argue that the black and white images available on microfilm render many color printed graphics meaningless, not to mention that many newspapers have been filmed in poor condition or with gaps in content, leaving portions unreadable and thus un-usable. Also, who knows what kinds of future technologies might emerge in say, 5o years? For example, 3D digital might be the next advancement, and microfilm or current digital files might not suffice in a transition to future formats.
  • However, there are some institutions in the U.S. that have committed to preserving print copies, such as Duke University, which houses about 10,000 various titles in print, and the University of Utah’s ARC, or Automated Retrieval Center, where print newspapers are stored in lightweight, water-resistant Coroplast boxes.

Newspaper Image Quality and Oregon City History

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

The latest additions to the Historic Oregon Newspapers website come once again from Oregon City, but there is more to this story than just an announcement of new content!

As you browse through Historic Oregon Newspapers online, you might wonder why some newspaper pages look cleaner or more readable than others. Almost all of the images you see were scanned from microfilm negatives to create the best possible digital image. However, the condition of print papers at the time of filming, as well as the way in which the papers were filmed, underlies the readability of the digital images that we use today. For example, papers that were originally filmed as bound volumes have a center binding that often creates a gutter shadow and/or page curvature, which can obstruct some of the text on each page. Papers with any kind of obstructed text are often difficult to read on microfilm, and thus difficult to read in digital form, not to mention difficult for computer software to “read” when performing the optical character recognition (OCR) that allows us to find information in the papers through keyword searching.

Historic print newspapers are fragile and susceptible to water damage, mold, rips, tears, and fading ink:

photograph of a print newspaper from the early 1900s shows wrinkles on the page from water damage, as well as a mystery substance that could be mold.
A bound print newspaper from the early 1900s reveals wrinkles on the page from water damage, as well as a mysterious substance that could possibly be mold.

Newspapers tend to become brittle and damaged over time, so it’s rare to find many historic print copies that are still in good condition. In many cases, the original microfilm for these newspapers is all we have left to work with. However, if we can locate good quality print copies of a title that was originally filmed in poor condition, we can re-film the paper to create a better, more readable, and thus more usable image. Through our partnership with the Oregon City Public Library, with funding from the Library Services and Technology Act, we were able to re-film portions of the Banner-Courier, the Morning Enterprise, and the Oregon City Enterprise. Many thanks to the Milwaukie Historical Society’s Milwaukie Museum, where these bound volumes of old Oregon City newspapers were kept intact!

Notice the difference between papers that were filmed bound as opposed to those filmed flat:

Before:

Scan of the Morning Enterprise, filmed bound with gutter shadow obstructing text along the left side of the page.
Filmed bound: Morning Enterprise, July 2, 1913, page 1. Note the gutter shadow that obstructs text along the left edge of the page, not to mention the page curve that obstructs text on the preceding page.

After:

Scan from the same paper, filmed flat, reveals that no text is obstructed.
Filmed flat: Morning Enterprise, July 2, 1913, page 1. No text is obstructed.

To prepare the papers for filming, we first dis-bound the pages of each volume so that we could film them flat, one at a time. Tears or rips in the paper were repaired using Filmoplast (archival quality transparent tape made from paper) and wrinkles and creases were mitigated with a steam iron. The papers were microfilmed using best practices set by the Library of Congress, and then the microfilm was scanned to produce the digital images that are now viewable online at Historic Oregon Newspapers:

The combination of printed page, microfilming, and digitization has not only helped to preserve the history of Oregon City, but also to provide access to these newspapers to anyone in the world with an internet connection. We hope you enjoy the final product as much as we do! An initial browse through this newly added content has yielded the following clippings, but there are many more articles, images, and advertisements of interest just waiting to be discovered by you!

Clip from the Banner-Courier shows photos of the mayors of Oregon City and West Linn, the suspension bridge between Oregon City and West Linn, as well as the falls north of the bridge, under a headline that reads: "Oregon City and West Linn Dedicate New Span"
The banner-courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1919-1950, December 28, 1922, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn00063699/1922-12-28/ed-1/seq-1/
Political cartoon from the Morning Enterprise depicts two men seated outside of Uncle Sam's office. One of the men wears a tag that says "Government employee," and a note that says, "Wanted: raise in salary to meet high cost of living." The other man is wearing a hat that says, "Public," with a note that reads: "Wanted: reduction in high cost of living to meet salary." Meanwhile, Uncle Sam appears to be stressed out and hard at work in his office.
Morning enterprise. (Oregon City, Or.) 1911-1933, February 02, 1912, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn00063701/1912-02-02/ed-1/seq-1/
Clipping from the Oregon City Enterprise reveals a sample of headlines from 1922: "Prohibition Said Biggest Question in America Today. Herwig, Superintendent of Anti-Saloon League Talks to 400 at Congressional Church; Booze is Flayed. Education is Held Big Need of State. Clackamas County Condition is Lauded; Foreign Element Declared Worst Offenders."
Oregon City enterprise. (Oregon City, Or.) 1891-194?, October 20, 1922, Page Page seven, Image 7. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn00063700/1922-10-20/ed-1/seq-7/

Happy Searching!

The History of Tattoos in Early Oregon Newspapers

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

From the sailors of yesteryear to the hipsters of today, there have always been Oregonians who are inclined to “get inked.” The Oregon-centric IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia has gone so far as to declare this the place where “the tattoo ink never runs dry”–and even a brief stroll around Stumptown would probably convince any visitor that tattooing has never enjoyed greater popularity in the Beaver State than it does today. That impression is most likely correct, but Historic Oregon Newspapers confirms that our interest in tattoos goes back much further.

tattooed sailor, 1912
Tattooed sailor William Legg, from Medford Mail Tribune, October 3, 1912, p. 2. Note 'The Last Supper' on his stomach.

According to textual and archaeological sources, tattooing is an art form that has been practiced for thousands of years in practically every region of the globe. It had even been widely utilized by European peoples in bygone times–ancient Greeks, Gauls, Saxons, Scythians, Thracians and Britons all adorned their bodies in this fashion–but, by the early Middle Ages, the art form had been all but forgotten in the West. It would not be rediscovered until the Age of Exploration, when Europeans first came into contact with Polynesians, Inuit and American Indians. In fact, the word ‘tatau’ (meaning ‘to mark’) comes to us from the Tahitian language; it was first recorded in the journals of Captain Cook during his Pacific voyage of 1769. (Many of Cook’s journal observations on indigenous tattooing cultures of the Pacific Rim can be found online here.)

sketch of traditional New Zealand tattoo designs
"Black stains upon the skin called tattow": Designs worn by indigenous people of New Zealand, sketched by Sydney Parkinson during Cook's voyage of 1769. Image courtesy of the British Library.

One hundred years after Cook’s voyage, the South Seas Islanders’ traditional practice of tattooing remained an ethnographic curiosity, often remarked upon by observers from the West–as in ‘The Singular Samoans,’ a Salem Evening Capital Journal article dated March 11, 1889. However, even as the mainstream of Euro-American society continued to view tattoos as primitive, mysterious and even a little dangerous, certain Western subcultures were already beginning to adopt the practice by the latter half of the 1800’s. Primary among these were sailors and soldiers. Naturally, these professions were the ones that brought European men into contact with non-European cultures in those distant parts of the world–Africa, East Asia, Polynesia, etc.–where the tattooist’s art was still a living tradition. The first Western people to be tattooed in more than six centuries were inked by indigenous artists. Eventually, some of the soldiers and sailors learned the craft and brought it back to the ports of Europe and America. Tattoos are truly an antique commodity of global cultural exchange.

1900 illustration of man w/ backpiece tattoos in traditional Japanese motifs
Illustration from Portland Sunday Oregonian, May 6, 1900, Section 2, p. 19

The earliest story about tattoo art in a digitized Oregon newspaper is ‘An Admirer of Washington in Trouble,’ from the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel of December 10, 1870. The story tells how a notorious Portland criminal named Shultz could most easily be identified by “the effigy of [George] Washington on horseback, tattooed upon his breast, in India ink… Doubtless Shultz now regrets this indiscretion into which he was lead in his youth.” Here we have probably the first Oregonian ever to rue an impulsive tattoo decision–a sentiment to which many contemporary Oregonians still can relate!

A couple decades later, an influential sermon by Reverend Thomas DeWitt Talmage was reprinted in the Capital Journal on November 13, 1893. The text of this oration provides good evidence that tattooed Americans were already becoming a familiar sight by this time. For Talmage preached: “You have seen a sailor roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the figure of a favorite ship… You have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the picture of a fortress where he was garrisoned… You have seen many a hand tattooed with the face of a loved one either before or after marriage… Now, God says that he has tattooed us upon his hands.”

graphic image of English Army Officer's tattoo: girl's face in spider web
"Sweetheart-and-spiderweb" back piece popular with English officers during the Boer War. From Portland Sunday Oregonian, January 7, 1900, p. 16

By the turn of the 20th century, the Portland Oregonian is reporting on “the tattooing craze which has overspread all England.” The issue of January 7th, 1900 recounts that the fad began among aristocratic young men serving in the Boer War, but now “[it] is growing and spreading among civilians.” The article specifically alludes to one tattooed guardsman “who bears a title known the world over.” This seems to be a coy way for the editors to demonstrate that the trend indeed has reached the highest levels of society, but without going so far as to name names of the participating rich and powerful. (They are quite possibly referring to Edward, Prince of Wales. See below.) Tattooing was, after all, still regarded by most readers as exotic and fairly scandalous business. Another Oregonian piece from later in the same year puts forth the then-novel notion that tattoos, at their best, might rise to the level of fine art.

Twenty years later, we find evidence that tattoos have become still more commonplace and more widely accepted by society at large. By 1920, the Klamath Falls Evening Herald felt quite comfortable printing a story about tattooed European royalty: King Edward VII of England, Charles XIV of Sweden, and “the late Czar of Russia” are all named among the “decorated.”

London woman with tattoo on shoulder, 1922
"London's New Fad" from Klamath Falls Evening Herald, June 9, 1922, p.1

As the Evening Herald item pictured above indicates, tattoo art would continue to go in and out of style at various times throughout the 20th century. In 1922, even the ladies were getting in on the act, and more conservative-minded commentators were once again concerned that “it threatens to spread to America.” So the pattern was set: in the decades to follow, the tattoo “fad” would continue to wax and wane in popularity with the general public, right up to the latest revival that is still going strong today.

All those who are interested in the history of tattoo art should try to visit Astoria, Oregon in the upcoming months. The Columbia River Maritime Museum is featuring an exhibit titled ‘Tattoo: The Art of the Sailor’ through September 30, 2011.  —Jason A. Stone