Posts Tagged ‘America’s Historical Imprints’

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Cutting-edge Biographers, Corporate Crimes, Seductive Cards and a Deadly Sport in the new Readex Report

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

In our latest issue: A recent New York Times op-ed posits digitized newspapers have “the potential to revolutionize biographical research”; digital archives expose corrupt corporate governance across history; how sailing cards leveraged an idealized picture of manhood and masculinity; and the lethal legacy of an ephemeral American sport—plus three featured posts from this blog.

The Biographer’s New Best Friend

From The New York Times Sunday Review (Sept. 11, 2011)

By Stephen Mihm

Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia

 

Improving Public Policymaking with the Help of Digital Archives

By Robert E. Wright

Author of Fubarnomics: A Lighthearted, Serious Look at  America’s Economic Ills  

 

Nineteenth Century Imperial Manhood in Clipper Ship Cards 

By Jeffrey Gagnon

Ph.D. candidate in Early American Literature, University of California, San Diego

 

“Thrills and Funerals”: Researching the Board Track Era of Motorcycle Racing in America‘s Historical Newspapers

By Larry Lawrence

Creator of “The Rider Files”

From the Readex Blog

“Information Wanted” Advertisements: Searching for African American Family Members

By Reinette F. Jones

Librarian, Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky  

“A Dastardly Outrage”: Kate Brown and the Washington-Alexandria Railroad Case

By Betty Koed

Associate Historian,  Senate Historical Office,  United States Senate

Anti-Flirtation: There Ought to Be a Law

By August A. Imholtz, Jr.

Vice President, Government Publications, Readex, A Division of NewsBank

Subscribe today to receive the November 2011 issue in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to contribute or suggest an article, please write to The Readex Report editor by emailing readexreport@readex.com.

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Posted in Announcements, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Have you attended a Readex ETC training session yet?

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

ETC (Enhancements, Training and Content) is an ongoing, multifaceted program that provides Readex customers with web-based historical content unavailable elsewhere, the latest and most useful product features and functionality, and online access and storage support. In addition, as part of the ETC program we feature regularly scheduled training sessions that are highly valued by many of our customers.

Led by experienced product experts, these online sessions provide guidance and suggestions for making the most of your Readex collections. Faculty and students are welcome to attend, and ample time is provided for questions.

Following is our 2011 Training Schedule. Register for one or more of the sessions today!

America’s Historical Imprints

Including Early American Imprints, Series I and II: Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker, 1639-1819; Supplements from the Library Company of Philadelphia; and American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1760-1900. Sign up for training, or learn more about this collection.

America’s Historical Newspapers and World Newspaper Archive

Including Early American Newspapers, American Ethnic Newspapers, 20th-Century American Newspapers, American Newspaper Archives and World Newspaper Archive. Sign up for training, or learn more about America’s Historical Newspapers or World Newspaper Archive.

America’s Historical Periodicals

Including African American Periodicals—the largest database of its kind and the inaugural collection in America’s Historical Periodicals. Sign up for training, or learn more about this collection.

America’s Historical Government Publications

Largely untapped by traditional research, these collections—U.S. Congressional Serial Set, American State Papers, House and Senate Journals and Senate Executive Journals—enable students and scholars to study, as never before, events as they unfolded and decisions as they were made. Sign up for training, or learn more about this collection.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), 1941-1996

The FBIS Daily Report has been the United States’ principal historical record of political open source intelligence for nearly 70 years. This one-of-a-kind archive of foreign broadcasts and news provides fascinating insight into the second half of the 20th century. Sign up for training, or learn more about this collection.

The Civil War: Antebellum Period to Reconstruction

This thematic subset of the Archive of Americana features primary materials from America’s Historical Newspapers, American Broadsides and Ephemera, and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Sign up for training, or learn more about this collection.

Other Training Options

In addition to the scheduled sessions above, Readex offers institutions participating in the ETC program the opportunity to request customized Webinars for its staff, faculty and students, as well as on-site training from a Readex expert. Contact bkolcun@readex.com for more information.

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Posted in American History, Announcements, Collection Development, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Writing the First Biography of Noah Webster in the Digital Age

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

More than America’s greatest lexicographer, Noah Webster (1758-1843) published a supremely influential spelling book, served as confidant of both George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, effectively supported the U.S. Constitution through a widely read essay, edited New York City’s first daily newspaper American Minerva, served as a state representative in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, and helped to found Amherst College.

To bring this “full-bodied human being to life,” award-winning journalist Joshua Kendall, author of The Man Who Made Lists, recently published The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of American Culture (Putnam, 2011). Joseph J. Ellis calls Kendall’s new biography “by far the best, and best written, life of Webster,” and James McGrath Morris says “Kendall single-handily rescues the least-known founder of American politics and culture and gives him his long overdue place of importance.”

In his note on sources used to write The Forgotten Founding Father, Kendall explains:

From America's Historical Newspapers. Click to open full advertisement in PDF.

“I aimed not to write the definitive academic biography but to introduce Noah Webster to the broad reading public, who know him largely as a name pasted onto a reference book. Intrigued by the psychological turmoil which fueled his literary activity, particularly the dictionary, I was interested in bringing the full-bodied human being to life.  To tackle this assignment, I deemed it necessary to peruse as many primary sources as possible, especially since Webster’s descendants had done so much to sculpt his public image….

“I also immersed myself in Webster’s own published words.  As the first Webster biographer of the digital age, I could do much of this reading on my own laptop.  The online resource The Archive of Americana now features scanned copies of most American newspapers between 1690 and 1922.  By searching Webster’s name, I was able to find countless newspaper articles by and about this prolific journalist, including some not mentioned in the six-hundred-page tome A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster, edited by Edwin H. Carpenter (New York, 1958). Likewise, the early American imprints section of the database includes the full text of many of Webster’s books and speeches, such as his various Independence Day orations and his 1806 ‘compend.’”

As Kendall notes, the Archive of Americana provides online access to cohesive collections of historical newspapers and books. This growing family of searchable printed materials, which also includes essential U.S. government publications, puts tens of millions of pages of primary documents at researchers’ fingertips.

For more information about the Archive of Americana, please contact readexmarketing@readex.com or visit our website.

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Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Civil War Imagery on Clipper Ship Sailing Cards

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Our guest blogger today is Bruce D. Roberts, author of Clipper Ship Sailing Cards (2007) and Mechanical Bank Trade Cards (2008). His new article on “The Development of the American Advertising Card” appears in the April 2011 issue of The Readex Report.

In the mid-nineteenth century, clipper ships sailed from New York and Boston to San Francisco. Shipping lines advertised voyages of clipper ships via sailing cards, most of which were issued between 1856 and 1868. The American Civil War fell right in the middle of this span, and Civil War imagery is seen on many cards. The examples below are found in American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, a Readex digital archive created in partnership with the American Antiquarian Society.

Invincible

Star-spangled banners and boughs of oak (strength) and laurel (victory) frame a Union general—bearing an idealized likeness to Ulysses S. Grant—on this Invincible card. Grant became widely known in the United States after his victory at Chattanooga in late 1863.

Rattler

Pro-Union imagery fills an 1864 Rattler card: Union soldiers, the American flag, and a huge gun emplacement that the Rebels couldn’t possibly touch. All is patriotic, including the African American (presumed freed) loading cannon balls.

Although turned away by the Union army at the start of the war, 200,000 blacks ultimately served in some capacity. Still, this is the only known clipper card design to include an African American.

Volunteer

This Volunteer card contains the ultimate in Civil War battle imagery. An armed standard bearer leads massed Union troops forward as a Confederate soldier falls. Rifles with fixed bayonets frame the image, as well as the flag-backed panel with the sailing information.

 

About the Author

Bruce D. Roberts has studied, collected, and written extensively about nineteenth-century advertising cards for more than three decades. His articles on “The Development of the American Advertising Card” and “Images of American Historical Figures on 19th-Century Clipper Ship Cards” appeared in The Readex Report. He has published Clipper Ship Sailing Cards (Lulu.com, 2007) and Mechanical Bank Trade Card (Lulu.com, 2008). Up next: a book on Ford’s late, unlamented car, the Edsel.

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Posted in American History, Cataloging and Indexing, Collection Development, Digital Humanities, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use | No Comments »

Latest Newsletter Available: The Readex Report (April 2011)

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

In our new issue, you’ll find the deliciously rich history of chocolate; cavalier attitudes toward a deadly plague in a Brazilian port; forgotten battles of the Revolutionary War; and the intriguing rise and demise of the advertising card.

Chocolate: A Readex Sampler

By Louis E. Grivetti

Professor of Nutrition, Emeritus, at the University of California, Davis, and co-editor of Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage (Wiley, 2009)

Finding Fatalism and Overconfidence in a Cruel Port: The Bubonic Plague’s First Appearance in Brazil

By Ian Olivo Read

Author of The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822-1889 (Stanford University Press, forthcoming)

The Importance of Newspapers in Chronicling the American Revolution

By Norman Desmarais

Author of Battlegrounds of Freedom and The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in Canada and New England

The Development of the American Advertising Card

By Bruce D. Roberts

19th-century advertising card expert and author of Clipper Ship Sailing Cards (2007) and Mechanical Bank Trade Cards (2008)

Subscribe today to receive the September 2011 issue in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to contribute or suggest an article, please write to The Readex Report editor by emailing readexreport@readex.com.

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Posted in American History, Announcements, Digital Humanities, Journalism History, Primary Sources in the Classroom, Print Culture, Trends in Database Use, World History | No Comments »

New Issue Available: The Readex Report (February 2011)

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

In our latest issue, you’ll find an overlooked lion of abolitionism; a humorous commentary on a dated matrimonial primer; unsung talents from the golden age of radio; and a fresh conversation with a Beat Generation icon.

Writing the David Ruggles Biography: Newspapers Help Complete the Portrait of a Radical Black Abolitionist 

By Graham Russell Gao Hodges, George Dorland Langdon Jr. Professor of History and Africana & Latin American Studies, Colgate University

Avoiding Errors, Fopperies, and Follies: How to be a Good Wife

By Elizabeth Hopwood, Graduate Student, English Department, Northeastern University

Early Radio Broadcasting: Solving Mysteries with America’s Historical Newspapers

By Donna L. Halper, Assistant Professor of Communication, Lesley University

Talking News with Carolyn Cassady: A Conversation with the Matriarch of the Beat Generation

By David Whittaker, Writer and Content Specialist, NewsBank

Subscribe today to receive the April 2011 issue in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to contribute or suggest an article, contact The Readex Report editor by emailing readexreport@readex.com.

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Explore Our Newest Resources at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Learn more about new Readex collections for 2011, including African American Periodicals from the Wisconsin Historical Society, 1825-1970, by visiting us next month in San Diego at NewsBank booth 2432.

To explore the recently released resources below, please either stop by our booth or email us today at sales@readex.com. (more…)

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Posted in American History, American Literature, Announcements, Collection Development, Interface Usability, New Collections, Product Updates | No Comments »

New praise from abroad for the Readex Archive of Americana

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Dr. Eran Shalev, Department of History, Haifa University and author of Rome Reborn on Western Shores: Historical Imagination and the Creation of the American Republic writes:

“I cannot tell you how much the Readex historical databases have helped me over the years in my research and writing. Early American Imprints and Early American Newspapers have become integral to the way in which I write and conceptualize. And the new Supplements from the Library Company will be another valuable addition to the Archive of Americana.

“As much as I cannot think of writing without a word processor, it is impossible for me to envision historical research before Readex’s digital editions. These collections are especially crucial for scholars working from outside of the United States.”

Have Readex digital collections been valuable for your own research or for research by students and faculty at your institution?  We want to hear from you!  Please comment below or write to dloiterstein@readex.com.

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New issue of The Readex Report available

Monday, September 27th, 2010

In the September 2010 issue: the dark descent of an American literary icon; using 19th-century government documents to right wrongs against Native Americans; and a private collector’s zeal adds depth and diversity to an eminent historical collection. (more…)

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Sign Up for Readex Webinar Training

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Beginning September 14 and running through November 2, Readex will be conducting live training webinars on various digital collections. These webinars are open to all librarians, faculty and students at institutions participating in the Readex Enhancement, Training and Content (ETC) program.

While each training session will focus on interface functions and features, it will also provide important background on Readex collections from expert product specialists.

To register, please select the training session(s) you would like to attend using this ETC Training form. If you have questions of any kind, please contact Brett Kolcun, Readex Product Director at bkolcun@readex.com.

There is still time to sign up for the upcoming webinars. We hope you can join us!

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