Local history researchers can immerse themselves in the stories of workers, unions and businesses of the anthracite coal industry in the northeast, now that the Evening Herald, a Shenandoah, Pennsylvania newspaper, is available in digital format online. Eight years of the Evening Herald (1891 to 1899) have been uploaded to the online newspaper repository Chronicling America. All articles, advertisements and images can be viewed online, downloaded, saved and printed from any computer, offering researchers unparalleled access to this historic publication.
The Chronicling America website is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress. An NEH award program funds digitization projects at the state level. To date, more than four million pages of news from 28 states and the District of Columbia have been digitized, ensuring access to historic newspapers from many parts of the country for generations to come. The site is free for all to use, whether for school history assignments, genealogy projects or university research. Of added value to researchers is the rich level of metadata provided by the Library of Congress for every title, which makes it easier to find specific information.
Penn State's involvement in the project began in 2008, when the University was awarded a grant to digitize four newspapers from the time period 1880 to 1922—the Scranton Tribune, Pittsburg Dispatch, Lancaster Daily Intelligencer and Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. An additional $393,489 was awarded under phase two, which covers the years 1836 to 1922. Project Manager for the Pennsylvania Digital Newspaper Project Karen Morrow said title selection depends on many factors, including geographical location, completeness of coverage and condition of the microfilm.
"At present we can't digitize fraktur print, although the Library of Congress is working on accepting German text. This impacts the selection of Pennsylvania titles, as German-language newspapers were prevalent during that time period," noted Morrow. She said two other Pennsylvania titles would soon be added to the database -- the Jeffersonian Republican (1840 to 1866) published in Stroudsburg, Pa., and the Carbon Advocate (1873 to 1893).
Penn State collaborates with a number of partner institutions in the state -- the State Library of Pennsylvania, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Bloomsburg University Library and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Other newspapers that will be uploaded during phase two of the project will be titles from Columbia, Wayne, Elk and Northumberland Counties. To read the Evening Herald directly from the Chronicling America website, go to http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87078000/.
For more information on the program, please contact Karen Morrow at kkm111@psu.edu.