UpFront with NGS: Chronicling America

Showing posts with label Chronicling America. Show all posts

12 September 2017

Visualize Chronicling America News via US News Map

Visualize Chronicling America News via US News Map

Chronicling America (via the Library of Congress) is a wonderful FREE historic newspaper (1789-1925) archive with an invaluable US Newspaper Directory (1690-present). We have frequently blogged about Chronicling America.

Sometimes the way the search results are presented can be a bit challenging to interpret (especially if there are many “hits”) as you try to “focus” on the results that you think will be most important to your research. To help with this The Georgia Tech Research Institute and Ehistory.org at the University of Georgia created a means to search on Chronicling American and then visualize the results across space and time via their US News Map portal.

Enter a search term and you can see the found articles located on a map and then you can correlate articles by time using that controller.

Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems) has a YouTube video illustrating how to use this website.

Slate, via The Vault article Interactive Map Lets You Track How 19th- and Early-20th-Century American Newspapers Covered Any Topic describes this wonderful new website also.

If visually processing information is for you, do check out this website! If you have not yet visited Chronicling America, you now have no excuse not to.

What result most surprised you?

Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) for including a mention of this database and the video from Lisa Louise Cooke in the September 2017 edition of its Genealogy Notebook.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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20 September 2016

Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey Join the National Digital Newspaper Program (aka Chronicling America)

Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey Join the National Digital Newspaper Program (aka Chronicling America)

More news about more digitized content coming our way!

From our friends at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) we learn …

We are happy to announce the addition of four new partners to the National Digital Newspaper Program! NEH has made awards to digitize historic newspapers to the Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums; the Colorado Historical Society; the Maine State Library, and Rutgers University in New Jersey. With forty-three states and one territory now participating in the program, NEH is approaching its goal of representing every state and U.S. territory in Chronicling America, the open access database of historic American newspapers maintained by the Library of Congress.

This year, NEH awards have also been issued to state partners in Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas to continue their contributions to Chronicling America. You can read more about all of the awards issued by NEH in August’s press release.

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is a partnership between NEH, the Library of Congress, and state partners. NEH awards enable state partners to choose and digitize newspapers representing their historical, cultural, and geographic diversity. To date, over 11 million pages of historic newspapers are currently available on Chronicling America, with more being added all the time. State partners also contribute rich essays about each newspaper title and its historical context. NDNP recently expanded its scope to include newspapers published between 1690 and 1963.

Historically, the program focused on newspapers between 1836 and 1922. As you can see, the time period has been expanded to include earlier and later newspapers. Our research will only benefit from this!

When researching your ancestry, this collection of digitized newspapers is a great place to start.

Congratulations to the winners.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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08 August 2016

NEH Announces Prize Winners -- Chronicling America Historic Newspaper Challenge

NEH Announces Prize Winners -- Chronicling America Historic Newspaper Challenge

We first shared with you about this challenge earlier this year in Chronicling America Data Challenge -- Prizes will be awarded! Basically, the National endowment for the Humanities (NEH) issued a challenge (with prizes) – “Create a web-based tool, data visualization, or other creative use of the information found in the Chronicling America historic newspaper database.”
We are excited to announce the winners of this challenge as reported in The NEH “Chronicling America” Challenge: Using Big Data to Ask Big Questions. Do read the article and/or follow the links provided to learn more about each of these projects. Congratulations to the winners.

The results are in. NEH has announced six open data challenge prize recipients. The winners will receive cash prizes and will attend the National Digital Newspaper Program annual September meeting in Washington, D.C. to present their work. We join with the Library of Congress in celebrating the questions and insights that can be gained from making open data and excellent primary sources accessible to the public.

And the winners are…

First Prize
American Public Bible: Biblical Quotations in U.S. Newspapers
Entry By: Lincoln Mullen, Assistant Professor, Department of History and Art History, George Mason University (Fairfax, VA)

Second Prize (Tie)
American Lynching: Uncovering a Cultural Narrative
Entry By: Andrew Bales, PhD Student in Creative Writing, University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)

Second Prize (Tie)
Historical Agricultural News
Entry By: Amy Giroux, Computer Research Specialist, Center for Humanities and Digital Research, University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)

Third Prize (Tie)
Chronicling Hoosiers
Entry By: Kristi Palmer, Associate Dean of Digital Scholarship, Indiana University-Purdue University (Indianapolis, IN)

Third Prize (Tie)
USNewsMap.com
Entry By: Claudio Saunt, Professor, Department of History, Co-Director, Center for Virtual History and Associate Director, Institute of Native American Studies, University of Georgia (Athens, GA)

K-12 Student Prize
Digital APUSH: Revealing History with Chronicling America
Entry By: Teacher Ray Palin and A.P. U.S. History Students at Sunapee High School (Sunapee, NH)

Are there any other currently run competitions of interest to family historians that you know of?

Editor’s Note: Check out past Upfront with NGS articles on Chronicling America here and NEH here.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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26 January 2016

Chronicling America Data Challenge -- Prizes will be awarded!

We often talk about Chronicling America as a great resource for digitized newspaper content.

NEH has issued a challenge (with prizes!) -- Create a web-based tool, data visualization, or other creative use of the information found in the Chronicling America historic newspaper database. Here’s a snippet about this challenge.

... What are we looking for? NEH encourages contestants to develop data visualizations, web-based tools, or other innovative and interesting web-based projects using the open data found in Chronicling America. There are over ten million pages of digitized newspapers in Chronicling America, published between 1836 and 1922, from towns and cities across the United States. The newspapers illuminate 19^th- and 20^th-century American life, with stories about politics, sports, shopping, music, food, health, science, movies, and everything in between. Entries should uncover trends, display insights, explore a theme, or tell a story.

For example, entries using the Chronicling America newspaper data could:

· Show how local news in various places covered the World Series of baseball

· Trace the developing motion picture industry across the country

· Follow the enactment of amendments to the Constitution

· Show coverage of a historic political campaign in various locations

· Map the travels of a president across the country based on local news coverage

· Show changes in advertising logos or newspaper mastheads over time

· Track the price or adoption of consumer goods over time in different locations

· Explore tourism in different locations in the United States

· Discover how various regions of the country celebrated Thanksgiving at different times...

Full details can be found here. I also found this related read, NEH Invites Entries for the Chronicling America Data Challenge on the Blog of the American Historical Association interesting as it gave a couple of examples of projects “such as An Epidemiology of Information, which uses text mining to explore how information about the 1918 influenza pandemic spread, and Journalism’s Voyage West, a visualization of the growth and decline of newspapers in the US, have shown some of the possibilities offered by computational approaches to this digitized archive.”

Understanding historical context always benefits our family history research.

What neat project, based on Chronicling America, would you like to see undertaken?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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15 December 2015

Don't Overlook Non-English Language Newspapers (U.S. & Canadian Published)

page 1152 from the 1910 N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual and directory, Hathi Trust Digital Library

I write about newspapers often as so many have become accessible through recent digitization efforts. Newspaper content can really help your research by adding in details that won’t be found in official documents – social news, farming news, community news, birth/marriage/death announcements, reunion news, sports reporting, fraternal organization membership, and so much more.

As a country of emigrants, not all U.S. newspapers published have been nor are currently published in English. There is the so-called Ethnic Press which most often means newspaper published in a foreign language.

Two articles have been written about Chronicling America and some of the American ethnic press included in its collection -- Chronicling America’s Historic German Newspapers and the Growth of the American Ethnic Press & New Mexico, New Spain, Old Cultures: Historic Spanish-Language Newspapers in Chronicling America.

These are a good place to get started on appreciating the scope and breadth of the American Ethic Press.

Once curiosity is peaked, I suggest visiting the Chronicling America, U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present. A search option is to select language and included are languages from Albanian to Asue Awye to Cebuano to Choctaw to Finnish to Inupiaq to Marathi to Persian to Uzbek, etc. I think you can appreciate the great diversity of languages represented.

Additionally, the Center for Research Libraries - Global Resources Network has a list of Ethnic Newspapers held in its collection. A great resource for early 20th-century ethnic newspapers in circulation is the N.W. Ayer & Son’s American newspaper annual and directory. You can access the years 1910-1923 via Hathi Trust Digital Library. Check out page 1152 from the 1910 directory, “Publications in Foreign Languages.” The list is organized by language and then state. Unfortunately, for my own personal research, MA was not a hot bed for non-English language newspapers in Finnish, Polish or Russian.

BTW, did I mention that the Chronicling America project hit the milestone of posting its 10 millionth page!?!?!

There are other newspaper collections that include Ethnic Newspapers. These are not free to access like Chronicling America and you may have access via a local university library -- Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971 & Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 (Readex).

Additionally, there are other resources for Ethnic Newspapers such as:

+ Historic Mexican & Mexican American Press (The University of Arizona)

+ Ethnic Newspapers Database and the Florida Digital Newspaper Library (Presentation on collection)

+ Multicultural Canada – includes digitized ethnic newspapers

These newspapers are invaluable as you research your emigrant ancestors.

Do you have a favorite ethnic newspaper and/or newspaper collection?

What is the best bit of “news” you learned from a non-English language U.S. or Canadian newspaper?

Editor’s Note: Previous Upfront with NGS blog posts on related topics.

+ British Library Using Robots to Preserve Newspapers

+ Will Digital Newspaper Archives for ALL Newspapers Be Available to Our Descendants?

+ Newspapers -- a new site for genealogists to consider and a reminder of some older sites that are goodies!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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05 November 2015

It's that time of year again! NEH is soliciting proposals for NDNP to add more to Chronicling America

We love newspapers, right? We especially love them when they are digitized and we can access them anytime from our current favorite computer or tech toy!

Every year National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) solicits proposals for participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program. The results of the accepted proposals are additional content which becomes part of Chronicling America. This is a great newspaper project which encompasses the years from 1836 to 1922. The goal of the program is to have newspapers from all U.S. states and territories included.

From NEH regarding the National Digital Newspaper Program ...

Division of Preservation and Access

Receipt Deadline January 14, 2016 for Projects Beginning September 2016

Brief Summary

NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is creating a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all the states and U.S. territories. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress (LC) and will be freely accessible via the Internet. (See the website, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.) An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information on the website directs users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats. During the course of its partnership with NEH, LC will also digitize and contribute to the NDNP database a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collections.

NEH intends to support projects in all states and U.S. territories, provided that sufficient funds allocated for this purpose are available. One organization within each U.S. state or territory will receive an award to collaborate with relevant state partners in this effort. Previously funded projects will be eligible to receive supplements for continued work, but the program will give priority to new projects. In particular, the program will give priority to projects from states and territories that have not received NDNP funding.

Program Statistics

In the last five competitions the National Digital Newspaper Program received an average of seventeen applications per year. The program made an average of twelve awards per year, for a funding ratio of 71 percent.

Projects are typically based on statewide collaborations between major repositories of microfilm of historic newspapers and institutions with the technical capacity to launch long-term digitization efforts. On the one hand, this results in a relatively small number of applications each year. On the other hand, the quality of the applications tends to be very high, so that most applicants have historically received funding.

The number of applications to an NEH grant program can vary widely year to year, as can the success ratio. Information about the average number of applications and awards in recent competitions is meant only to provide historical context for the current competition. Information on the number of applications and awards in individual competitions is available from preservation@neh.gov.

More details about applying are available on this page.

An overview of the NDNP program is found here.

If you live in one of the few states not yet participating (see this map), this is your chance to contact local, university, or other possibly interested authorities and see if a grant proposal might result. Existing programs can also apply to add to what they have already made available.

It’s a great program and saves us from having to “picket” for more newspapers. Instead of chanting “We want more newspapers digitized” we can sit comfortable somewhere and explore the ever expanding collection which just a few weeks ago surpassed 10 million pages!

Editor’s Note: Previous Upfront with NGS blog posts on related topics:

+ Will Digital Newspaper Archives for ALL Newspapers Be Available to Our Descendants? (2015)

+ Chronicling America ... More and More Newspapers! (2011)

+ Digital Archive Provides Access to Historic Atlanta Newspapers (2010)

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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10 December 2014

One Man Has Digitized Over 28 MILLION Historical Newspaper Pages

I couldn’t believe it when I realized that I apparently haven’t written about this website before – I’ve been using it for years and it’s a real gem! I always think of it as the Old Fulton New York Post Cards website, yet I only ever research “Newspapers” on it! Though the interface is very simple, what you can find is amazing. It currently includes over “28,300,000 Historical Newspaper Pages from the USA & Canada” though by far the majority of the newspapers are from New York.

Love this image of the staff (of one)!

I often put a name, location, and a year, each term in quotes in the search box to fine tune my searches. I sometimes will put a newspaper title (once I determine which one really interests me). I’ve searched using addresses, surnames, whatever I think it might take and I have found some really neat newspaper notices that have told me when someone died, married, lived, worked and much more.

Read more about Tom Tryniski’s wonderful & FREE-to-access project via these two articles:

· Amateur Beats Gov’t at Digitizing Newspapers: Tom Tryniski’s Weird, Wonderful Website (Jim Epstein, reason.com, 5 March 2013)

· A Retiree Digitizes 27 Million Old Newspaper Pages in His Living Room (and Libraries Fight to Catch Up) (same author & publication, 18 May 2014)

Both pages have a video link which describes his work and the video is also available directly you YouTube.

This website is an excellent example of what one person can do.

Want to contribute to contribute to his efforts? You can do so via PayPal or with used “working” hard drives.

Editor’s Note: Always be creative when searching online digitized newspapers. Love Hate Relationship with OCR -- So much digital content now available though accessing can still be a challenge

Editor’s Note: Another story about “what one person can do” Do-it-yourself book scanner preserving Pittstown PA history one page at a time!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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