After a couple of weeks of shutdown, the government is operating again. While they were on hiatus, VTDNP continued to work on production and have gathered three batches (including two reworks) to be sent to the Library of Congress. They are on their way to DC now.
Furthermore, we have new content that will come out together with the next Chronicling America update. In the meantime, check out our newly-created FLICKR and PINTEREST account. Read and see more about it…
Our friends at the Arizona Digital Newspaper Project blogged about the annual National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) Awardee Conference. We’ll have our own recap very soon!
Project Director (Birdie MacLennan), Project Librarian (Erenst Anip), and Digital Support Specialist (Karyn Norwood) will be attending the National Digital Newspaper Project (NDNP) Awardee Meeting, September 11-13 in Washington DC.
Karyn will have a poster presentation:
Through the lens of historic newspaper advertisements and articles, I delved into the history of a rural Vermont town’s opera house in the early twentieth century.
Erenst will do a lightning talk:
[Still] Bringing the Past to the People
Following up last year’s topic on ‘Outreach, value added content, and utilizing Chronicling America in Hawai’i’ and now Vermont. This presentation was originally done at the recent IFLA WLIC 2013 in Singapore. The NDNP version will include a recap of what we have learned.
Birdie will also do a lightning talk:
Newspapers in a Global Microcosm: Updates & Activities from IFLA
An overview and summary of IFLA Newspapers Section activities from the 2013 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Singapore — including highlights from the Newspapers Section main conference programme and from the Satellite pre-conference developed in collaboration with the IFLA Genealogical and Local History Section (GENLOC). NDNP was well represented. IFLA is also planning a mid-year international newspaper conference for February 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Additional details will be forthcoming. The Call for Papers is now available.
More on these presentations after the meeting.
In the spring of 1919, William Dudley Pelley, the owner and editor of St. Johnsbury’s Evening Caledonian, took the unusual step of listing all of the paper’s staff on the masthead, under the heading “Responsible for a good newspaper in St. Johnsbury.”
Pelley was a successful short story writer, and we learn more about the Caledonian staff from one of his stories that appeared in the November 1919 issue of American Magazine. A photograph of the Caledonian staff accompanies “Human Nature–As the Country Editor Knows It.” Pelley provided a lengthy caption that describes what he saw as the duties and talents of the five women and five men standing in front of the paper’s office on Eastern Avenue.
From left to right, some highlights from Pelley’s caption:
They were, Pelley concluded, “a happy bunch who never speak a cross word to one another.”
Issues of the weekly Caledonian from 1837 to 1884 are available now on Chronicling America, and more years of the weekly and the daily Evening Caledonian will be added soon.
“In Vermont the hills are source of fertility to the bottom lands, and will be forever. The valley of the Nile was referred to. The same process is going on here. We want farmers to feel that farming is the best profession, and Vermont is the best state to farm in.” (From the State Board of Agriculture, Manufactures and Mining meeting notes published in the Vermont Farmer, February 18, 1876, p. 1)
Farming has long been an established part of Vermont culture, economy, and community, and this is clearly demonstrated in the publication of the Vermont Farmer from 1870 to 1877 in Newport, Vermont. As a supplement to VTDNP’s contribution to the newest exhibit up at UVM Bailey-Howe Library, “Growing Fields,” we thought we would share a little more about the Vermont Farmer, a historic Vermont newspaper that certainly testifies to the notion that Vermonters in the past, as in the present, have deep roots and interest in agriculture as a livelihood.
The Vermont Farmer was, as its banner indicated, “an agricultural and family newspaper for the ruralists of the Green Mountain State.” Published weekly, it included a myriad of topics for the farm family in Vermont in the late nineteenth century, including news about fairs, markets, politics, strategies, technology, and more. People from all over Vermont subscribed, wrote, read, and contributed to the Vermont Farmer; at its height, over 3,500 people were subscribed.
The newspaper covered all kinds of farming, including, as shown in this advertisement from 1875, maple sugaring. It thoughtfully addressed agricultural topics ranging from maintaining bee hives to the varied benefits of different types of cows.
Of particular interest, the newspaper, as its banner indicates, made an effort to include materials of interest for all members of the farm family. In most issues of the paper, a “Ladies’ Department” column offered poems, stories, and advice for the farm wife and daughter on the farm. In the clipping to the left from 1874, a poem sent from woman in Waterbury Center, Vermont, demonstrates her clear preference for gingham over ruffles as the ideal apron for the “Farmer’s Wife.”
The Vermont Farmer, through its advertisements and news columns, also sheds light on the developing technologies and strategies for farming. In the image below to the left, Gray & Sons from Middetown, Vermont, showcases a variety of machines for the farmer to enhance production on his farm. To the right, a new wheel rake, “The Gleaner,” is advertised in 1875 as indispensable for the farmer.
This newspaper provides a rare glimpse into Vermont farming culture of the 1870’s. It is clear in reading any issue of this paper that it was strongly inclusive of all audience members in the Vermont farming community, from the young boy on the farm, to the farm wife, to the politician, to the farmer. You can browse issues of this fascinating newspaper online on Chronicling America.
We’ll end this post with some tasty pie and cake recipes from the October 28, 1871 issue (Let us know if you try them!):
by Karyn Norwood, edited by Erenst Anip
