Tag Archives: vermont newspapers

Chronicling America celebrates 10 Millionth Page and More!

Free, searchable database of historic newspapers reflects Vermont’s history

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project (VTDNP) today joins the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities in celebrating a major milestone for Chronicling America, a free, searchable database of historic U.S. newspapers. The Library announced today that more than 10 million pages have been posted to the site, which includes 260,000 pages from 59 Vermont newspaper titles.

Launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2007, Chronicling America provides enhanced and permanent access to historically significant newspapers published in the United States between 1836 and 1922. It is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint effort between the two agencies and partners in 40 states and territories.

The NDNP awards grants to entities in each state and territory to identify and digitize historic newspaper content. Awardees receive NEH funding to select and digitize 100,000 pages of historic newspapers published in their states between 1836 and 1922. Uniform technical specifications are provided to ensure consistency of all content, and digital files are transferred to the Library of Congress for long-term management and access. The first awards were made in 2005. Since then, NEH has awarded more than $30 million in support of the project.

cronaca sovversiva first page for 10 million poster
Our digitized page chosen to represent Vermont’s contribution on the poster above comes from Cronaca Sovversiva.

“Chronicling American unlocks a treasure trove of information that was previously accessible only through tedious scrolling through reels of microfilm,” said VTDNP project director Jeff Marshall.  “We are delighted to be part of this nationwide effort to make newspaper content easily available to anyone with access to a computer.”

“Having free and searchable content from Vermont newspapers means a whole lot to Vermonters. I have seen people uncovering gems and facts about their ancestors that were previously unknown. It’s a valuable primary resource for family historians, teachers, students, and researchers,” said VTDNP project librarian Erenst Anip. Continue reading Chronicling America celebrates 10 Millionth Page and More!

150 Years Ago: Lincoln’s Second Inauguration (as retold in the newspapers)

Saturday, March 4, 1865:

Abraham Lincoln’s second term commenced on “a day of gloom and tempest,” ever so near to the close of the bloodiest war in American history: the Civil War. The streets were muddy from a heavy rain, “rendered almost impassable for foot passengers,” but Lincoln’s procession trudged on despite the mucky and wet conditions toward to the Capitol in the late morning, where he was to make his second inaugural speech in the afternoon.

lincolns inauguration
“Crowd at Lincoln’s second inauguration, March 4, 1865.” Photo from the Library of Congress.

By the time he made his way to the stage, the skies had apparently settled to a murky gray color, with the rain desisting.  Lincoln’s speech was brief and to the point, and characteristically his own: “In pithy brevity, sagacity and honesty of purpose, the address is Lincolnian all over” (Evening Star, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1865). Two excerpts follow that this author found particularly poignant:

“With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it…Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came…

…With malice toward none, with charity for all, …let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wound, …to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

 Read the whole speech.

Following his speech, an account of the remaining portion of the ceremony was relayed in the Lamoille Newsdealer:

an account

The New York Tribune offered a hopeful summation of the day’s events: “May the President’s two terms of service together reflect the day of his second inauguration–so dark and angry in the morning–halcyon and radiant in the evening.”

Indeed, the Civil War was soon to end in April of that year. As Lincoln’s inauguration took place, Union troops were enclosing on Richmond, in a “coiling serpent of bayonets.”march4civilwar

Lincoln’s leadership, however, would be tragically cut short, and scarcely a week after the end of the war.

-K. Norwood

VTDNP at NELA Conference 2014 & History Day Workshop

It’s been a busy week for VTDNP crew. On Monday, October 20, 2014, our project librarian, Erenst Anip presented at the New England Library Association (NELA) Annual Conference in Boxborough, MA (about an hour drive from Boston). There, he co-presented with Gail Hurley from the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project (CTDNP) on NDNP to spread the word about Chronicling America to the wider New England area and hopefully other neighboring states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine will join NDNP soon. Gail presented on an overview of NDNP grant and Erenst talked about the details of the grant.

Gail Hurley CTDNP at NELA 2014

Continue reading VTDNP at NELA Conference 2014 & History Day Workshop

ALL content from VTDNP Phase 2 are available online

Today, October 14, 2014, marks another milestone for our project. All of the digitized newspaper pages from phase 2 are now accessible on Chronicling America, all 254,253 of them along with 15 newspaper title essays (more to come!). The last batch consist of Orleans County Monitor issues from 1908-1922.

As part of the NDNP requirement, we will send all of the duplicate negative microfilm reels of the newspaper digitized to Library of Congress for preservation and safe keeping. Here’s what it looks like before it gets packed and shipped to LC’s vault:

Vtdnp phase 2 microfilm reelsNow, onward with phase 3 and adding more Vermont historic content to the Internet!

-Erenst Anip, Project Librarian

VTDNP Celebrates Completion of Phase 2

Today, August 29, 2014, marks the last working day of VTDNP Phase 2. Vermont now have 243,952 pages digitized and made available online on Chronicling America. We have approximately 10,000 more pages under review before being added to the website. We will be in Phase 3 starting next work day (September 2, 2014) and working towards digitizing another 100,000 pages of Vermont historic newspapers. Last but not least, we would like to thank everyone involved so far for their support and energy. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

VTDNP phase 2 last day
Celebrating the completion of ‪#‎VTDNP‬ phase 2 with some sparkling cider while getting bookmarks & more mastheads printed. We’ll be doing more outreach in Phase 3. Be on the lookout or contact us for more info!