Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 8.14 (Archives) Many Mountains, Much News: Digitizing Appalachia’s Historic Newspapers
Session Abstract or Summary
This panel session will discuss various aspects of the digitization process and highlight actual newspaper stories now available on the Chronicling America site.
Abstract:
For centuries, newspapers in Appalachia were a vitally important source for reporting local and state news. Their pages circulated through the many mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, carrying reports to the people on the day’s news from Civil War battles to the Hatfield & McCoy Feud, to the violence of “Bloody Breathitt” County, to the massacre at Matewan, from the roots of mountain music to the final vote cast in the debate over the 19th amendment to the US Constitution.
Today, Appalachians can now read the pages and papers coveted by their great-great-great-grandparents, discover stories from the past, and explore more than a century’s worth of rich genealogical data from birth, marriage and death notices through the website for the Library of Congress and their newspaper portal: Chronicling America.
Recipients of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, three universities, West Virginia University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, along with the Library of Virginia, are digitizing Appalachia’s historic newspapers from the nineteen century through the early years of the twentieth century for the Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Project.
Presentation #1 Title
Many Mountains, Much News: Digitizing Appalachia’s Historic Newspapers
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This panel session will discuss various aspects of the digitization process and highlight actual newspaper stories now available on the Chronicling America site.
Abstract:
For centuries, newspapers in Appalachia were a vitally important source for reporting local and state news. Their pages circulated through the many mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, carrying reports to the people on the day’s news from Civil War battles to the Hatfield & McCoy Feud, to the violence of “Bloody Breathitt” County, to the massacre at Matewan, from the roots of mountain music to the final vote cast in the debate over the 19th amendment to the US Constitution.
Today, Appalachians can now read the pages and papers coveted by their great-great-great-grandparents, discover stories from the past, and explore more than a century’s worth of rich genealogical data from birth, marriage and death notices through the website for the Library of Congress and their newspaper portal: Chronicling America.
Recipients of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, three universities, West Virginia University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, along with the Library of Virginia, are digitizing Appalachia’s historic newspapers from the nineteen century through the early years of the twentieth century for the Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Project.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Stewart Plein is the Rare Book Librarian, Assistant Curator for Books and Printed Resources, and Managing Director, West Virginia Digital Newspaper Project at the West Virginia and Regional History Center at West Virginia University.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
JoAnne Deeken is the Government Documents Librarian, the Subject Librarian for Political Science, Women’s Studies and Sociology in addition to being the PI for both the Tennessee Newspaper Project and the Tennessee Digital Newspaper Project.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Kopana Terry is Curator of Newspapers at the University of Kentucky Libraries as well as oral history archivist and library manager for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. She has managed the National Digital Newspaper Program for Kentucky, and created the film-to-digital teaching tutorials meta | morphosis. http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/NDNP//metamorphosis/
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Errol Somay is the Director of the Virginia Newspaper Project at the Library of Virginia. Henry Morse is the Project Assistant Cataloger at the Library of Virginia.
Many Mountains, Much News: Digitizing Appalachia’s Historic Newspapers
This panel session will discuss various aspects of the digitization process and highlight actual newspaper stories now available on the Chronicling America site.
Abstract:
For centuries, newspapers in Appalachia were a vitally important source for reporting local and state news. Their pages circulated through the many mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, carrying reports to the people on the day’s news from Civil War battles to the Hatfield & McCoy Feud, to the violence of “Bloody Breathitt” County, to the massacre at Matewan, from the roots of mountain music to the final vote cast in the debate over the 19th amendment to the US Constitution.
Today, Appalachians can now read the pages and papers coveted by their great-great-great-grandparents, discover stories from the past, and explore more than a century’s worth of rich genealogical data from birth, marriage and death notices through the website for the Library of Congress and their newspaper portal: Chronicling America.
Recipients of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, three universities, West Virginia University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, along with the Library of Virginia, are digitizing Appalachia’s historic newspapers from the nineteen century through the early years of the twentieth century for the Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Project.
