I started volunteering at my local library about a month ago. I go there once a week and do assorted things in the archives department. Since I've never worked in a library before, it gives me a nice opportunity to get a bit of exposure to all sorts of different things. In addition, the people are nice, the "work" is fun, and it's a 3-minute walk from my house. Win win win situation.
Add one more win to the pile. Today I scanned through microfilm of newspapers from 1905 to look for obituaries and death notices. The department is trying to put together a database on this sort of thing for genealogists, local historians, etc. The trick here is that in 1905, back before computers did the dirty work of newspaper layout, the good people of the Hudson Observer had to figure out how to configure their paper by hand. It wasn't an easy job apparently, and there was always extra white space left at the end of the process. Solution: scatter the obituaries in the white spaces! Yes boys, it's disorganized and amateur looking, but it's also midnight.
103 years later I sat poring over each page, looking for the needles in the haystack. As a result, I skimmed most of the contents of the paper. They're fascinating, funny, revealing, etc. A few examples below:
File this under "reasons I'm glad to be living in the 21st century". Modern dental methods, eh? Pulling out all your teeth? Yikes.
This "Crank" article was on a page full of advertisements for the upcoming "marvelous hot air balloon festival" that was to be "a delight for all". What really got me though, is the subheading and its description of the hot air balloon as a "huge gas inflated silk bag." Silk bag! I love that. Maybe that's just me.
Wait... is the opening line a direct quote? Not something made up by a reporter who longed to live a life of drama and romance? Really? "I - I can't go on." I don't know... I'm having a hard time believing that someone from Jersey City actually said that. It seems like something someone would say in an Errol Flynn movie. There's a life and tenderness here though, that makes me wish I could have met these people. "The teachers dab their eyes suspiciously"... very sweet.
This little article falls under the "Women Talk About" section. Apparently women used to talk about useless knicknacks and attractive trifles.
1 comment:
I love these! Back when my mom and I were scouring old Kenosha newspaper microfilm for ancestor obituaries, I was always getting distracted by all of the other things to read.
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