Chronicling America: Using Historic Newspapers in the Classroom& for History Day

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project Part of the

National Digital Newspaper Program

Digitizing historic Vermont newspapers between 1836-1922

Vermont Content Online: • 59 Vermont titles • 260,000 pages• Every county

represented (except Grand Isle)

What is Chronicling America?Online tool to search historic newspapers from across the country.

8 million pages from 1836-1922 available to search by text.

You can search, save, download, print, and clip articles for free.

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Why is this a useful tool for

students?

Historical perspectives on international, national and local themes, events, and topics.

News as it happened, as it was perceived.

Culture and times! Great tool for looking at leadership and legacy at the local and national level.

Content-specific vocabulary & nonfiction, primary source reading experience.

Easy to use! Brings a historical primary source to the modern audience with modern tools.

Essex County herald., February 05, 1915, Image 5

Ways for Students to Access

Chronicling America

Vermont-specific Content:

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project Website:

library.uvm.edu/vtnp

Chronicling America:

Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

or

ChroniclingAmerica.com

Our Online Resources for

Teachers

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project

Website

Educator Resource Page:

library.uvm.edu/vtnp/

?page_id=1904

Also, VTDNP has a: Pinterest Flickr Facebook Blog SlideShare

Chronicling America: Historic

American Newspaper Prize

• Offered through the National Endowment for the Humanities

• Nation-level prize in Junior and Senior divisions

• Awarded to an outstanding entry in any category that utilizes the newspaper resources that are available on the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website.

• Each content item from Chronicling America (article, image, etc.) used for the entry must be noted in the Primary Sources section of the Annotated Bibliography and follow proper NHD citation guidelines for Web content.

Last Year’s Winners

Edsitement! edsitement.neh.gov Another

great website for teachers!

The Basics of Chronicling America: Let’s test this out!

Keyword searches Simple search Advanced search

All Digitized Newspapers

100 years ago Recommended Topics

Likely students will need to use only the simple search.chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Recommended Topics on Chronicling America Could be a good place

for students to start.

Important National Events, People, Inventions, Cultural Trends

Includes: Important Dates Suggested Search

Terms Sample Articles

Vermont-specific Topics in the works!

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/

How to search?

We’ll learn two ways:

Simple Search

Advanced Search

Important: The search technology searches the newspaper text, so think

about historical language!

Search Pages Tab

Pick a state or search all states.

Pick a year range or specific year.

Remember, years are between 1836-1922.

Enter a search word(s) here.

Let’s try a simple search!

The Search Pages tool will scan the newspaper text to

find results.

1. Scroll down to find Vermont

2. Keep the year range as

it is

3. Type in the word: library 4. Click on Go.

c

45,506 results!!

“Library” highlighted in

red on the newspaper

page.

The search tool searches the text to find the word/phrase you entered. In this case, “library.”

Let’s click on a page result & test it out!

Click on these two buttons to zoom in and out. Or, scroll with your mouse or fingers.

Click on this to go to full screen.

This shows which page of the newspaper is shown. Shown here is page 3. Use the arrows to go from page to page.

Use these arrows to browse surrounding newspaper issues.

Let’s try the clipping tool!

1.Zoom in to something you are interested in clipping.

2.Click on the scissor tool. 3.You can then print or save the image.

The red box shows what will be clipped.

Let’s see how the Advanced Search works with examples specific to History Day 2015.

Example: Justin Smith Morrill United States Representative

(1855-1867) and Senator from Vermont (1867-1898)

One of the founders of the Republican Party.

Morrill Tariff of 1861: Reception was mixed. Legacy?

Morrill Act 1862 (Land Grant College Act): established federal funds and land for colleges in each state.

Keywords: Senator Morrill, Justin Morrill, Morrill Tariff, Morrill Act, Land Grant.

Limit years depending on topic.

Could search state- or nation-wide content.

The Jasper weekly courier., Indiana, February 26, 1862, Image 1

Morrill’s Tariff of 1861: Differing Perspectives

Essential Questions: What was the response to the tariff of 1861? How is this an example of leadership? What was the immediate legacy?

Enter the advanced search.

Let’s split up into investigating north, west, and south newspapers. What about international responses?

Groups report in 5 minutes.

Example: James P. Taylor, Green Mountain Club, & the Long Trail

James P. Taylor (1872-1949)

Founder of Green Mountain Club (1909)

Long Trail built between 1910-1930, oldest long-distance walking trail in the country.

Could do a project on Taylor or the Green Mountain Club

The Bennington evening banner., July

30, 1914, Page 5

Search Strategies for the Green Mountain Club, James P. Taylor, the Long Trail

Try a simple search first, with keywords.

Could limit to Vermont, years 1900-1922.

Search words to try in combination, proximity, or as phrases:

Taylor, Long Trail, Green Mountain Club, J.P. Taylor, James Taylor.

Example: Edna Beard, Vermont’s First Female Legislator, 1921 Edna Louise Beard (1877-

1928) was the first woman elected to the VT House of Reps. and VT Senate for Orange County (1921-1922). Try a simple search first.

Can limit the years to 1919-1922.

Sort results by date to get a chronology.

Could limit by newspapers: United Opinion

Keywords: woman, legislator, Vermont, Edna Beard, Edna L. Beard, Miss Beard, Orange, Representative Beard

Example: James Hartness and Early Aviation Hartness (1861-1934) was

an inventor, astronomer, aviator, and VT Governor (1921-1923)

Built the first municipal landing field in Vermont (1919)

Started first Vermont flight school in 1921.

President of the Aero Club of Vermont (1916).

Keywords: Hartness, aviation, James Hartness, aero, Governor Hartness.

Example: Italian Anarchists in Vermont Barre’s granite industry

brought in Italian stone-cutters at the turn of the twentieth century.

Barre became a center of labor radicalism, anarchist ferment.

Luigi Galleani, one of the most notable anarchists, lived in Barre from 1903-1911.

Newspapers: Cronaca Sovversiva (Italian)

Questions?

This PowerPoint will be posted on our website

and available for download.

Contact us:library.uvm.edu/vtnp

Erenst Anip, Project Librarian: eanip@uvm.edu

Karyn Norwood, Digital Support: knorwood@uvm.edu

Phone: 802-656-0819