Inspired by the above the fold feature at The Edge of the American West, I thought of trying to do the same thing for a historical newspaper. Much to my surprise, thanks to the Library of Congress, this just might be possible.
Here’s the New-York Tribune for April 21st, 1908:
(click on the image to be taken to the full issue)
Some thoughts:
Either the type is smaller than what the Sacramento Bee uses or the paper is wider (or something else is going on). In any case, you really have to click through to be able to read the headlines. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing: if you click through, you’ll be able to read the whole day’s paper. I don’t really have time to read the articles, but I can highligh some of the headlines.
If I do more with this – and there are years of daily issues to choose from (not to mention other papers in the collection) – I’ll experiment with larger image sizes. I don’t have the best in image software, but getting an image of the top of a front page* seems easy enough.
*This raises the question of “the fold”: since the archived image is unfolded to get the full page, there’s no way to be sure where the fold was. But if you look carefully at the quality of the type, it looks like there was a crease part way down. If I keep this up, I’m just going to go with my best guesses.
Thanks — this is way cooler than The Bee. Problem is, though, I always find these old newspapers to be addictive. I just get sucked into reading the whole thing — down to the ads and the ball scores. Maybe that’s why it took me ten years to finish the dissertation.
Thanks for the kind words. I have the same problem, though I’ve gotten better at limiting my curiousity over time. I’m trying to stick to the top headlines and an article here and there, or else I’d never get anything done.
Clearly, cooler than the Bee. Can I quit now?