The first newspaper in Illinois, the Illinois Herald, was founded as a weekly publication in 1814 based in Kaskaskia. It soon became the Western Intelligencer and carried the title Intelligencer in one form or another for the rest of its existence. The town of Kaskaskia was the Illinois Territory’s capital until 1818 when it became the state capital after Illinois gained statehood. The Intelligencer was created by abolitionist politicians Daniel Pope Cook and Elijah C. Berry. While they were in charge, the paper shared their anti-slavery politics. The boundary between journalism and politics in the 19th century was porous. Multiple editors and publishers for the Intelligencer held elected offices during the Intelligencer’s time in print. William H. Brown notes in his 1857 biography of Cook, “With the printing of the Laws and Journals of the Territorial Legislatures, and blanks for public offices, at prices which would now astonish a practical printer it is certain that the business was lucrative”. As both the early state’s primary newspaper and the official printer of state documents, the Intelligencer wielded strong political clout. Continue reading “Vandalia Whig and Illinois Intelligencer: An Early Illinois Newspaper”
News
The Strike Bulletin: A Chronicle of a Failed Strike
The Strike Bulletin began publication in April 1913. The Strike Bulletin was a weekly paper marketed to labor unionists in the railroad industry. It was published from Clinton, Illinois for the entirety of its run. The Strike Bulletin was the creation of a labor organization called the Illinois Central System Foundation and was edited by Carl E. Person. Person was affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World. The Illinois Central System Foundation organized laborers who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad.
Continue reading “The Strike Bulletin: A Chronicle of a Failed Strike”
The Daily Worker
Daily Worker was created for Communist Party USA members in 1921. The paper was originally titled the Worker, centered in Chicago and marketed as a weekly newspaper for the first three years of its existence. It then moved to New York City and carried out a pre-planned expansion into a daily broadsheet with a new name, Daily Worker. Publication under this new title lasted from 1924 to 1958. Daily Worker was primarily focused on issues relating to organized labor. Continue reading “The Daily Worker“
New Digital Collections for Fall 2020
We have acquired several new digital collections for Fall, 2020, including major historical newspaper collections, module three of British Periodicals, two collections for the study of LGBTQ history, the latest release of records from the Mass Observation archive (1981-1990), over two centuries of U.S. government documents, and a major collection of Chinese gazetteers.
Will my students have online access to assigned readings (and films)?
Dear instructors,
As you prepare for the fall semester, we know that many of you are trying to make sure your students have online access to assigned readings. The Library is ready and able to help as much as we can with this.
Continue reading “Will my students have online access to assigned readings (and films)?”
New Library Catalog debuts June 24, 2020
In late June, the University Library will introduce its new catalog, Primo. The Primo Catalog is the search interface of a state-of-the-art library management system called Ex Libris Alma. The Alma/Primo system was designed to provide better access to, and management of, 21st-century library collections. It has been adopted by a number of research libraries including Harvard and Northwestern.
New Digitized Newspapers
We’ve purchased two new newspaper files for our collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers. We’ve also purchased additional years for seven titles already in our collection
Dewey → Library of Congress Classification
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL) and African American Studies Research Center (AASRC) are reclassifying their book collections, switching from Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to Library of Congress Classification (LCC).
Continue reading “Dewey → Library of Congress Classification”
New Collection: Advertising America
Digitized selections from the J. Walter Thompson Company Archives at Duke University. Although the archive has not been digitized in its entirety, the size of the digitized portion is nevertheless enormous. The J. Walter Thompson Company was one of the most important American advertising agencies of the twentieth century, and this digital collection documents its work in sixteen industries:
Halloween Reads at the Library
It is that time of year again! The leaves are changing and the weather is dramatically fluctuating between warm and astonishingly cold as Fall tries to get its footing. The perfect time to curl up under a blanket and read something eerie. If you’re looking for a good non-fiction book to read in honor of Halloween then this is the list for you.
Here are a few of the books in our collection that are excellent for this season: