All posts by VTDNP

New Flickr & Pinterest Album: Vermont Historic Architecture

Historic newspaper content can be invaluable for local history           research, particularly in regard to historic buildings in a community. Often newspapers would publish supplements about a town, its          industries, or businesses.  Articles would also be published on new construction, cornerstones being laid, dedication ceremonies, or other news about buildings in a community. We created an album showing just some of the different architecture found in Vermont’s historic newspapers on Chronicling America. Are these buildings still standing in your community? Enjoy!

nationalbankrutland
Baxter National Bank in Rutland, Vermont. Image from the Vermont Phoenix, February 4, 1910.

See the album on Flickr

See the album on Pinterest

Read our how-to on using Chronicling America to research historic buildings

Educators: Download a lesson plan using this album!

Have you had success using Chronicling America to research a             Vermont building? Share your story below and include a link! We’ll add it to our collection of images.

User Spotlight Series: Egbert Stolk

egbertstolk
Egbert Stolk examining a wall at New York’s Tenement Museum, while an intern there this summer. Photograph by Alexandra Brown.

*

Egbert Stolk writes as a guest blogger for our User Spotlight Series this month. Egbert                recently graduated from the University of     Vermont’s Historic Preservation Program with a Master of Science. Below he shares his experience of using Chronicling America to research immigrant stories for The Burlington Edible Food Tour.

************************************************************************

In my work for the edible food walking tour in Burlington, Vermont, we strive to gather immigrant stories who were working directly or indirectly in the food industry in Burlington. The different ethnic groups that came to America, and in our case specifically Burlington, also brought their food traditions with them. Sometimes traditional food was sold in shops or otherwise immigrants sold American food, while cooking ethnic food at home. In The Burlington Edible Food Tour we try to uncover immigrant and food stories, and places that relate to these stories. We used the online newspaper database Chronicling America to find more stories for the tour. For example: to locate street vendors and restaurants owned by immigrants and events pertaining to those businesses. It was very helpful as history is sometimes lost forever, but with the help of century-old journalism we are able to reconstruct part of Burlington’s immigrant              history. Continue reading User Spotlight Series: Egbert Stolk →

Save the Date: Webinar & Workshop for Librarians Coming Up!

We are pleased to announce that we will be offering a webinar and workshop for librarians on Chronicling America through the          Vermont Department of Libraries (VTLIB) this winter and spring!

Both are free and open to librarians. As an extra bonus: attending each program provides credits toward VTLIB certification!

Below, a quick description of the webinar and workshop, as well as a link for signing up for each. Many thanks to VTLIB for this                  opportunity.

******************************************************************

Friday, March 6, 2015, 10:00-11:00 am: Chronicling America Webinar with the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project (VTDNP)

If you haven’t heard about Chronicling America before or you want to know more about it, now’s your chance! Chronicling America is an online, searchable database of historic American newspapers from 1836-1922 on the Library of Congress website. It provides free access to over 8.4 million newspaper pages from across the country, including 250,000 pages and 59 titles from Vermont! Learn about how Chronicling America works, gather ideas on how you and your patrons can use it effectively, and find out how VTDNP can help you and your library community utilize this invaluable primary source tool.

  • Other Information: VTLIB certification credits: 1
  • Contact: Mara Siegel
  • Contact Number: 802.828.2727
  • Presenter: Karyn Norwood/Erenst Anip

Link to sign up: Register for this Webinar!

***************************************************************

Friday, April 17, 2015, 9:30-11:30 am: Chronicling America Workshop with the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project (VDTNP)

In this hands-on workshop explore the opportunities that Chronicling America holds for you and your library patrons. Chronicling America is an online, searchable database of historic American newspapers from 1836-1922 on the Library of Congress website. It provides free access to over 8.4 million newspaper pages from across the country, including 250,000 pages and 59 titles from Vermont! We’ll learn about how Chronicling America works, practice search strategies on Vermont topics, explore online resource guides, and learn about ways to re-purpose and reuse content.

  • Location: Midstate Library Service Center, Berlin – Conference Room
  • Registration Ends: 4/3/2015 at 12:00 AM
  • Other Information: VTLIB certification credits: 2
  • Contact: Mara Siegel
  • Contact Number: 802.828.2727
  • Presenter: Karyn Norwood/Erenst Anip

Link to sign up: Register for this Workshop!

How-to: Clip, Save, and Print Quality Images from Chronicling America

Many thanks to a patron who requested this how-to, as the ability to clip, save, and print quality images from Chronicling America can be a challenge! We have a few tried-and-true techniques  (and free!) to help you out.

Chronicling America offers a few different ways to easily clip, save, and print images, with varying quality of the images.

We’ve also  included a few alternative methods that have worked for the project. (Note: we are not promoting any of these resources; while we’ve had successes with these alternative methods and online tools, we understand they may not work well for everyone!)

1. Saving/Sorting Images:

  • Share/Save Button: Chronicling America has a share/save button on the top of each page that allows you to copy and paste the newspaper page’s link, save to your favorites folder, email, share with social media, or download the image to an RSS feed, as a jp2, or pdf.
sharebutton
Click to enlarge. This share/save button allows you to save or share content with a variety of tools.
  • Bottom Label: Every Chronicling America page has a bottom        label with the newspaper title, date, and a hyperlink. This allows you to copy and paste the information into a document. It’s a great tool for keeping relevant pages organized.
savebar
Click to enlarge. This image shows the bottom of a newspaper page on Chronicling America. A link and content information is given–making it a great way to save the page!

Continue reading How-to: Clip, Save, and Print Quality Images from Chronicling America →

Happy Holidays from VTDNP!

Happy holidays, everyone, from the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project! May you have a warm (emphasis on warm!!), happy, and safe holiday in whatever form that may take.

christmasradio
An advertisement for a radio from the Caledonian-Record in 1922.

 

Here’s to a fantastic 2014 and an even better 2015.  In honor of the holiday season, we put together a small  album of assorted holiday newspaper clippings from Vermont (all found on                              Chronicling America).

 

View the album on Flickr

View the album on Pinterest

 

airplanewyear1912
“The Arrival of the New Year” in the Spirit of the Age out of Woodstock, Vermont.

 

Cheers,

The VTDNP team

P.S. Also, a note on holiday craft ideas: old newspaper clippings make for great holiday cards!

P.P.S. Have you seen the Chronicling America Topics Pages for “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”?