Oregon Digital Newspaper Program Menu

The time we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived! Historic Oregon Newspapers online now contains the full 20th century public domain run of the Portland Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian! All newspapers published on or before December 31, 1922 are considered to be in the “public domain,” which means that copyright permission is not required for reproduction or use of the content.

In 1922, the Morning Oregonian successfully launched Oregon’s first commercial radio station, KGW, evidence of which can be found in the newspaper:

Also, by the time 1922 rolled around, the Morning Oregonian was publishing a political cartoon on the front page of every issue! These cartoons are just as telling of the times as the textual content, and can serve to remind us how much things have changed since then, but also how much things have stayed the same! For example, on this day, December 5, in 1922 (91 years ago!!!!), the following political cartoon appeared on the front page of the Morning Oregonian:

How does this scene compare to the Congress of today? Knowing the context of these cartoons is crucial to understanding their messages, and the textual articles within the papers help to build that understanding.

The Sunday Oregonian also consistently published a Comics Section at the end of each issue, with a more relaxed approach than the highly charged political cartoons of the Monday Oregonian. Stay tuned for our next blog, which will provide a guide to finding cartoons and comics on the Historic Oregon Newspapers site!

Happy searching!

Historic issues of the Portland Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian, from the late 19th century through the end of January 1922, are available for keyword-searching and browsing through Historic Oregon Newspapers online! Learn about the early history of the Oregonian newspaper and other titles online by clicking on the History tab at the top of the Historic Oregon Newspapers website. Browsing through the historic pages of the Oregonian alone can turn up countless interesting clips, advertisements, and images, like these for example:

1) What kind of music would be considered “toe-tickling dance music” today?

2) Medical masks may not be very fashionable, but they have survived over the years for their usefulness in preventing the spread of illness as well as showing off “civic patriotism!”

3) The changes we have made with cars in less than 100 years will always be fascinating…

4) Women’s fashion: will 1920s style (especially these hats) make a comeback in the 21st century?

5) Although some ailments had different names back then (for example, “catarrh” was used to refer to nasal congestion, and “rheumatism” refers to arthritis symptoms), it appears that alternative medicine might have been just as popular back then as it is today:

6) Men’s fashion: the clothes may not have changed much, but the prices sure have! (Note the use of the 1920s Candlestick Telephone!)

7) In politics, government, and economics, many of the same issues still plague our society today, judging from this political cartoon:

8) There are just some things that will probably never change:

What kinds of interesting clips will you find? Happy Searching!

It’s officially 2013, and what better way to celebrate the dawn of a new year than with the addition of more newspaper content from Portland’s Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian, now freely available through February 1916 for keyword searching online! Visit our Historic Oregon Newspapers online database to search and browse these and more Oregon titles; see how much things have changed (and stayed the same) from 1916 to 2013:

Happy New Year from the ODNP!

Excellent news for Oregon historic newspaper enthusiasts: 54,601 additional pages of the Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian have just been added to the Historic Oregon Newspapers keyword-searchable online database!

Content from the Morning Oregonian is now available from September 1878 through March 1914, and The Sunday Oregonian can now be searched from January 1895 through March 1914.

Happy searching, and stay tuned for more new historic content to be added soon!

We have recently announced that we will be digitizing select dates of the Portland Oregonian as part of the Oregon Digital Newspaper Project. These issues, mostly from 1900 and 1901, should be available online at some point later this year.

For those who are interested in accessing a more complete archive of past Oregonian issues, we are happy to note that there is now another resource available. The Multnomah County Library has recently announced that the paper will be available as a free, digital resource for library patrons:

“Multnomah County Library now features the only publicly available, complete full-text digitized archive of The Oregonian newspaper. Multnomah County Library cardholders can now access every article, editorial, illustration, photograph and advertisement published in The Oregonian between 1861 and 1972. By the end of this year, the archive will include all editions up to 1987.”

This is great news, as digitized content from The Oregonian had previously been accessible only on a for-pay basis. For more information, you can read the full article on the Multnomah County Library website.