Monday, April 4, 2011

Virginia Tech Launches First of Civil War Newspapers Online - FREE

 

https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Index

April 02, 2011

Virginia Tech Launches First of Civil War Newspapers Online

CCWSlogo17The American Civil War Newspapers website is now online, coinciding with the observance of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. The new web site has started with an index to one newspaper: the Macon, Georgia, Daily Telegraph for the period July 1860 to June 1865. 

The site is available free of charge. Users may search by keyword, or browse the pages either on their own or by predefined topics. Each page provides options for downloading and viewing printable digital images of the newspaper columns in which a search finds a hit, and also to browse the pages throughout an issue.


The ultimate goal of the American Civil War Newspapers database is to select a representative group of journals to index, with digital images of the newspapers themselves, for use by students and scholars. The newspapers selected will be a representative sampling of Union and Confederate, urban and small town, Eastern and Western, pro– and anti–administration.

The online American Civil War Newspapers may be found at https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Index
 
 
https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Index
 
American Civil War Newspapers
Overture

For many years the newspapers of the Civil War era were probably the most neglected of all sources, and yet they are one of the richest. The reason no doubt lay in the sheer mass of them, their inaccessibility, and the fact that they were not indexed. Few if any scholars had the time or resources to spend weeks and months scanning page by page in the hope of finding something of use to their projects. Yet the newspapers are the surest windows on the attitudes of the time, despite their inevitable editorial bias.

All of the daily affairs of the common people play out in the pages of newspapers, only perhaps in smaller type than the antics of the great and powerful. Moreover, thousands of soldier letters, military reports, general orders, and even occasionally diaries, found their way into ink on newsprint, many of them items available nowhere else. Thanks to the policy of editors exchanging newspapers among themselves and borrowing stories from each other, often newspapers for which not a single issue survives, still live in excerpts published in other journals. Even the advertisements are mirrors of consumers and their concerns in the 1860s.

The goal of the American Civil War Newspapers database is to select a representative group of journals to index, with digital images of the newspapers themselves, for use by students and scholars. The newspapers selected will be a representative sampling of Union and Confederate, urban and small town, Eastern and Western, pro– and anti–administration.

The tools on the left can be used to search the collection’s index using keywords, or choose the browsing options to explore specific newspapers, dates, or general subject areas. Please refer to the “Using the Repository” link for details on viewing content and navigating the site. Background information on the project and the newspapers in the collection can be found by clicking the “About the Site Collections” button.

William C. Davis

Director of Programs, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies

Professor, Department of History

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

 

 

 

Browse by Topic

Jump to: 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

… or enter the first few letters: 

https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Browse/Date

Browse by Publication Date

https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Communities

Below is a list of filters that can be used to limit searches to specific communities and collections in the database.

Macon Daily Telegraph (4771)

https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Help

Information on accessing the contents of the American Civil War Newspapers Repository.


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Repository Contents(Pages and Columns)

Two types of objects exist in the repository representing Pages and Columns:

  • Page Objects
    • The digitized version of a newspaper page is referred to as a Page Object.
    • Page Objects are stored and displayed as low resolution images representing each page of the newspaper.
    • Page Objects do not have an index of keywords but can be found by searching or browsing for a specific date. For searching, dates must be entered in the format of Year–Month–Day (i.e. 1860–11–03).
    • Clicking on a page in a table list of titles will open the Page Object display screen.
    • Page Object Display Screen
      • A Page Object display screen contains a reference image, a link to the Page Viewer, metadata about the Page Object with links to other repository objects, and a citation tool.
      • Clicking on the reference image or selecting “Click here to browse the individual columns on this page” will link to a special Page Viewer that can be used for reading that page of the newspaper.
      • “Title” is a link to a table listing the objects in the repository associated with that particular page of the newspaper.
      • “Date” is a link to a table listing all of the objects associated with the whole newspaper on that particular publication date.
      • The Item Citation box at the bottom of the screen shows the bibliographic citation for that page of the newspaper. The citations can be printed, saved, or emailed using a number of different formats and styles that can be selected from the drop–down lists.
    • Page Viewer
      • The Page Viewer recreates a newspaper page providing the capability for scrolling and reading each of the columns on that page.
      • The Page Viewer opens in a new tab or a new window depending on browser preference settings. Using the Mozilla Firefox browser is recommended for the best results using the Page Viewer.
      • The date and number of the page being viewed is shown above the columns.
      • The label at the top of each column is a link that leaves the Page Viewer and opens the display screen for that particular Column Object.
      • Clicking a column on the left side of the viewer shows the selected column on the right side of the screen. The column currently being viewed is outlined in blue.
  • Column Objects
    • As part of the scanning process, each newspaper page was segmented into individual column files.
    • The digitized version of a newspaper column is referred to as a Column Object.
    • Column Objects are stored and displayed as medium resolution image files.
    • Column Objects have been indexed and can be found using keyword searches and the Browse Topics tool.
    • Clicking on a column in a table list of titles will open the Column Object display screen.
    • Column Object Display Screen
      • A Column Object display screen contains a reference image, a link for viewing a larger version of the column and for downloading a copy of the file, and metadata about the Column Object with links to other repository objects.
      • “Source” is a link to a table listing the objects in the repository associated with that particular page of the newspaper.
      • If a column has been indexed, the Column Object display screen shows the Indexed Items for that column. Each item in the index is clickable and provides a link to all the other Column Objects that contain the same indexed terms.
      • Clicking on the reference image or selecting “Click here to view or download this column” links to a larger version of the Column Object for online viewing. It also provides options for viewing the column JPEG file in an external application on your system and for downloading the column and saving a copy of the file on your computer.


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Navigational Tools(Search, Advanced Search, Filtered Search, and Browse)

Search Tool

To do a simple keyword search of the repository’s indexed items:

  • Type your search term(s) in the blank text box in the “Discovery Tools” section of the tool column on the left, and then click the “Search” button.
Hints:
  • If you type more than one search term, the system assumes there is an AND between the terms and will find only objects that have both terms.
  • You can search using a phrase, which must be in quotation marks, for example, “cotton market.”
  • You can use wildcards in your search. A question mark (?) represents a single wildcard character, and an asterisk (*) represents one or more wildcard characters.

Advanced Search Tool

To do a precise keyword search using multiple terms and filters:

  • Click the “Advanced Search” link in the tool column on the left.
  • Use the available filters, alone or in combination, to narrow and refine your keyword searches of the repository’s indexed items.

Filtered Search Tool

To limit a search using the repository’s organizational structure:

  • Click on “Filtered Search” to perform a search within a specific newspaper community. To further refine a search, choose a collection representing a particular publication year within a newspaper community.

Browse Tools

To explore the newspapers using pre–defined options:

  • Click on one of the links in the tool column on the left to select from different methods of browsing the repository contents.
    • “Browse Dates” lists the publication dates for each of the newspapers in the repository.
    • “Browse Topics” provides an extensive list of keyword references collected as part of the newspaper indexing process and linked to individual columns of the newspaper pages.


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Additional Tools(Quick Collection)

Quick Collection Tool

To collect a list of objects viewed in the repository:

  • Save a collection of bibliographic citations for viewed objects.
    • Each Object in the repository has a bibliographic citation that can be printed, saved, or emailed using a number of different formats and styles. These citations can be collected during a viewing session using the “Quick Collection” feature.
    • All the Page and Column objects in a table list, or on an object’s display screen, have a green “Quick Collection” button. Clicking that button for an object adds it to the Quick Collection list.
    • The “Green” button changes to a “Star” when clicked to show that the object has been added to the Quick Collection. Clicking the Star removes the object from the list.
    • Selecting the “View the Quick Collection” link in the tool column on the left will open a screen showing the current Quick Collection. The number of items in the list is shown beside the Quick Collection link.
    • A box at the bottom of the Quick Collection screen shows choices for printing, saving, or emailing the collected citations using a number of different formats and styles that can be selected from the drop–down lists.
  • Bookmark objects of interest discovered while exploring the repository.
    • The “Quick Collection” can be used as a tool for marking objects found during a viewing session. This feature is useful for returning to specific objects for additional viewing or for comparing items in a list of objects from different areas or collections within the site.
    • All repository objects have a green “Quick Collection” button. Clicking that button for an object adds it to the Quick Collection list.
    • The “Green” button changes to a “Star” when clicked to show that the object has been added to the Quick Collection. Clicking the Star removes the object from the list.
    • Selecting the “View the Quick Collection” link in the tool column on the left will open a screen showing the current Quick Collection. The number of items in the list is shown beside the Quick Collection link.

 

https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/AdditionalResources

Background information on the digital collections of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech.

Acknowledgements

It has required years of collaborative effort to bring the American Civil War Newspapers project to the public. First and foremost acknowledgment goes to the Watson–Brown Foundation of Atlanta, Georgia, for the generous grant that funded creation of the website and supported the indexing of the first journal selected, the Macon, Georgia, Daily Telegraph. Similarly, a vital component of the enterprise was the cooperation of Marta Lee–Perriard and Brett Kolcun of ProQuest of Ann Arbor, Michigan, for allowing access to, and almost unrestricted usage of, its microfilmed run of the Daily Telegraph from which almost all of our digital images have been produced.

Creating the viewable images of the pages of the Daily Telegraph involved a team of professionals who performed the necessary steps involved with scanning each frame of the microfilm, editing that information for digital display, and finally, verifying the image quality for each newspaper page and column presented here. For their accomplishments we recognize three individuals, Catherine Gorman, Verner Plott, and John Baird, who contributed directly to the visual quality of the project. Site development also stands out as a significant contribution to this project and we especially acknowledge the work of Donald Inman as a key contributor to the overall site design used for presenting the Daily Telegraph. We would also mention the efforts of Michelle Ervine who serves as the database administrator for the repository; her efforts to support the technical aspects of this project have been outstanding. Gary Worley, Director for Imaging and Repository Initiatives at Virginia Tech’s Digital Imaging and Archiving Department, acted as overall coordinator for the efforts of all in bringing the images to the site and the site to the public, and was a vital element in the entire process.

The actual work of reading and indexing the thousands of pages of the Daily Telegraph was done by graduate assistants in the History Department at Virginia Tech, and we happily acknowledge the hard work of Tara Ashley, Jared Peatman, Samuel Thomason, and Jeremy Whitlock. Wayne Campbell of Blacksburg devoted countless hours to collating the entire index product and distilling it into the form in which it now appears on the site itself.

Database Contents

  • Newspapers published during the American Civil War period from July 1860 through June 1865.
  • Files digitized from microfilm acquired from the ProQuest Newspapers in Microform collection.
  • Each newspaper page segmented into individual columns saved as JPEG formatted files.
  • A searchable index of names, subjects, and keywords compiled from the newspaper columns.

The Newspapers

Macon Daily Telegraph

One of the better barometers of feeling toward secession and the war that followed in the Deep South is to be found in the pages of the Macon, Georgia, Daily Telegraph. Under its two wartime editors, Joseph Clisby and Henry L. Flash, it reflected well the division in thought between those who felt supremely confident of Confederate success, and those subject to increasing doubt and pessimism at the course of the war. Clisby, like many Georgians, had not favored secession despite his sympathy with Southern concerns in 1860, and his words made it clear that he felt independence, if it was to be achieved, must be won early, and would only come if European powers intervened on the South’s behalf. After 1862 he became increasingly pessimistic toward Southern hopes. When he left the paper and handed it over to Flash in September of 1864, the new editor tried to infuse new spirit into the journal, and new hopes and optimism into its readers, but by then only the blind foresaw Confederate victory.

One of the great features of the Telegraph is that through most of the war it actually managed to live up to its title as a “daily” paper. Like all Confederate newspapers, it reflected the hardships of war. The pages got smaller in size and number. Its type became worn and dull, and sometimes illegible. As hard times and scarce cash reduced the number of advertisers, some advertisements ran almost indefinitely just to fill column inches, while a scarcity of news, labor shortages, and limited type, also often led to the same articles appearing in several consecutive issues. On two or three occasions in 1864 and 1865 when Union cavalry raiders came close to Macon, the paper did not publish at all, though it always resumed operations when the threat passed.

Best of all, however, the Telegraph represented views and opinions, and news coverage, beyond the often parochial dominant influence of the Richmond, Virginia press. Its interests extended from Atlantic to Mississippi, and it reprinted substantial material from other Deep South Confederate journals, some of whose issues are no longer extant. And by being at a remove from the national capital, its pages often reflected the divisions within Confederate society more eloquently.

For more on this newspaper see the masters thesis by William Herbert Wilken, “As the Telegraph Saw it: A Study of the Editorial Policy of the Macon Daily Telegraph (and Confederate), 1860–1865,” Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 1964. Additional information on the newspaper’s bibliographic record can be found at this link for the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

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