Tennessee State Library and Archives to Host Free Workshop on the History of Slavery in Tennessee

Author Bill Carey examines slavery in Tennessee based on newspaper articles

The Tennessee State Library and Archives will host local author Bill Carey as part of a “workshop series” on Saturday, September 14th. Carey’s latest book, Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee, examines slavery through slavery ads appearing in Tennessee newspapers.

Carey will speak with attendees about the research he conducted for Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls. Carey researched every newspaper printed in Tennessee from 1791 until 1864, including newspapers on microfilm held at The Tennessee State Library and Archives.

When examined collectively, these ads provide scholars and family historians a number of details about the people named within them. Carey said, “They give insight into slavery and how it was supported by governments as well as by industries such as banking and journalism."

Bill Carey has a background in journalism as a reporter for The Tennessean, Nashville Scene, WPLN, and NashvillePost.com. He is the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Tennessee History for Kids and author of six books. He also writes a monthly column for Tennessee Magazine.

The workshop will be held from 9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. CDT Saturday, September 14, in the auditorium of the Library and Archives, located at 403 7th Ave N. in Nashville. Following the presentation, signed books will be available for purchase from the author. Free parking is available around the Library and Archives building.

While the workshop is free, reservations are required due to limited seating. To make a reservation visit click HERE.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Library and Archives Hosts Free How-to Workshop on Using Historical Newspapers for Research

Newspapers are some of the most valuable resources for piecing together history. On Jan. 26 the Tennessee State Library and Archives is hosting a free workshop with tips and tricks to make your newspaper research more fruitful.

Attendees will watch Old News is Good News: Using Historical Newspapers for Your Research presented by Genealogist Taneya Koonce, MLS, MPH. Koonce is an avid genealogist with more than 18 years of professional experience in information organization and management. Koonce is also the State Coordinator of the TNGenWeb Project, is a Board Member of the Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society, and is President-elect of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

“The Tennessee State Library and Archives has one of the largest collection of Tennessee newspapers in the country,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. “I’m glad this workshop will highlight the newspaper collections and records available to the public and teach how to use them most effectively. There is a vast amount of information waiting to be re-discovered.”

Koonce will navigate attendees through the benefits of using historical newspapers and highlight strategies to make the newspaper research process even more successful. Improve your skills, speed, and accuracy when searching newspaper collections and learn more about the print, microfilm, and digitized formats available through the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

The workshop will be held 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, in the Library and Archives auditorium. The Library and Archives is located at 403 Seventh Ave. N. Free parking is available around the Library and Archives building.

Although the presentation is free and open to the public, registration is required due to seating limitations in the auditorium. To reserve seats, please visit newspaperresearch.eventbrite.com.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Tennessee State Library Gives Free Access to 190 Years of The Tennessean

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is pleased to announce that Tennesseans will have free online access to the full run of The Tennessean (1812 to today) through the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL).

Tennessee State Library Gives Free Access to 190 Years of The Tennessean

Previously, Tennesseans were only able to access full-text articles from The Tennessean back to 2002. With the addition of the historical Tennessean, Tennessee residents will be able to search and view news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries and cartoons from 1812 to 2002. The Tennessean began in publication 1907 but this service includes earlier titles such as the Nashville Whig and the Daily American. These papers reported not only Nashville-area news, but carried stories from around the state and the nation.

TEL has been providing access to electronic resources to libraries, schools and Tennesseans since 1999 in order to enhance the quality of their everyday lives, the depth of their educational experience, and the economic prosperity of their communities. TEL is administered by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, a division of the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office.

“By providing access to The Tennessean though TEL, we will greatly enhance access to first-hand accounts of Tennessee history as it unfolded,” Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “Libraries and newspapers keep the pulse and record of the state; both are essential to quality information and research in our communities.”

“Online access to Nashville newspapers from 1812 to the present will be a great asset for students and everyone who enjoys history,” notes State Librarian and Archivist Chuck Sherrill. “Until now, newspapers have been virtually unsearchable unless one knew the date of an event. And access was limited to those that were able to come to the State Library through onsite microfilm readers and library computers. Now everyone can search these files from any computer in the state”

Visit www.tntel.info to access The Tennessean today. For more information, call (615) 532-4627or e-mail tel.tsla@tn.gov.


About Tennessee Electronic Library (https://www.tntel.info)

The Tennessee Electronic Library is made possible through funding provided by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. TEL is administered by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, a division of the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office.

About ProQuest (https://www.proquest.com)

ProQuest is committed to supporting the important work happening in the world’s research and learning communities. The company curates content that matters to the advancement of knowledge, assembling an archive of billions of vetted, indexed documents. It simplifies workflows so that people and institutions use time effectively. And because ProQuest connects information communities, complex networks of systems and processes work together efficiently. With ProQuest, finding answers and deriving insights is straightforward and leads to extraordinary outcomes.

ProQuest and its companies and affiliates – Ex Libris, Alexander Street, Bowker – stand for better research, better learning, better insights. ProQuest enables people to change their world.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Butter or Margarine? A 147-Year Old Question

By Heather Adkins

Advertisement for Swift’s Premium Oleomargarine, The Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville American, Sept. 24, 1916.

In an era fraught with diet fads, fitness programs, and the constant search for the next best way to get healthy, it may come as no surprise that food can sometimes be subject of great debate. A common one is whether butter or margarine is healthier. While this may seem like a modern dispute, the discourse is actually more than a century old.

Description telling how to differentiate between butter and margarine, The Daily American, Nashville, Feb. 28, 1880.

Margarine was invented by French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès. He patented it as “oleomargarine” in 1869. He created the substance for a contest that was the brainchild of Emperor Napoleon III. The French emperor sought a butter alternative that could be used by the armed forces and lower classes. In 1871, a margarine-making process (combining vegetable oils with animal fats) was patented in the United States by Henry W. Bradley.

Impression that oleomargarine is for lower economic classes, The Daily American, Nashville, May 11, 1880.

Impression that oleomargarine is bad for consumers, The Daily American, Nashville, May 8, 1880.

Despite its popularity in Europe and the U.S., public opinion of margarine was polarized in the late 1800s. Margarine was cheaper than butter, meaning it could be considered a money-saver or an indicator of low economic class. It was also more sustainable than butter, which could become rancid in transit between manufacturers and vendors. As a processed substance, margarine was seen by some as complete adulteration of food. The combination of oils and fats rendered a white, lard-like appearance that was unappealing to many. When margarine manufacturers began adding yellow coloring for a more visual appeal, the dairy community started arguing that margarine was unhealthy and unnatural. Negativity towards margarine reversed during World War I when butter was rationed. Food preparedness programs advocated the “patriotic” use of margarine. The cheaper margarine was also invaluable during the Great Depression. After World War II, the use of butter or margarine became more a matter of preference.

Examples and weight conversions of fat alternatives during wartime butter rationing, The Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville American, Oct. 12, 1917.

The lower price for margarine, combined with the relative ease of creating a product similar-looking to butter, made the marketplace susceptible to fraud. In one example, F. Giardina, a grocer in Greenville, Mississippi bought 6,000 pounds of “dairy butter” from A.H. Kortrecht & Co, general produce dealers in Memphis. During a routine checkup by a U.S. Revenue inspector, four tubs of what Giardina supposed was butter were seized and revealed to be oleomargarine. The inspector reported Giardina to the Internal Revenue Service for having sold oleomargarine without paying the special tax on margarine required by law. Giardina was forced to take out a license as a retail dealer under threat of arrest. When the fraud became apparent, Giardina claimed financial loss because his customers did not want to buy margarine. He took Kortrecht to court for fraud, eventually getting a large payout for damages and fees.

RG 170 – Supreme Court trial case files, Giardina v. Kortrecht (1896, WT 441), pages 3-4.

The outcry from the dairy and vendor communities prompted federal and state legislation regulating the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine and all other “imitation butter.” The first law in Tennessee appeared in 1895 – Public Act 101 provided “for labeling, stamping or marking oleomargarine, butterine and imitation butter, and [provided] against coloring of the same, and [affixed] the punishment for violation of this Act.” Grand juries were empowered to investigate fraud cases.

The dairy community publicly denounced the production and consuming of oleomargarine. The Daily American, Nashville, Jan. 5, 1878.

In 1931, Tennessee enacted its first large-scale “oleomargarine law” which described regulations in great detail (Public Act 19). Under the law, manufacturers and vendors were required to buy licenses for making and selling margarine. A 10-cent tax stamp was required for sale. The act specifically required that no state, county, municipal or other institution supported by public funds could use margarine, and establishments not supported by public funds were required to display state-regulated signs (that they had to buy) notifying the public that they were using margarine. The act even described the labeling on margarine packaging, so as not to be confused with butter. Labeling was required on top, bottom, and sides of the containers in no less than 20-point type plain Gothic letters, in conspicuous colors contrasting the colors of the containers.

"Special Tax on the for Business of Retail Dealer in Oleomargarine," RG 170 – Supreme Court trial case files, Giardina v. Kortrecht, (1896, WT 441)

The law was amended in 1941 (Public Act 6) to provide for inclusion of vitamins and nutritional content in margarine and restrict the comparison of margarine and butter in advertisements. One revision repealed previous provisions restricting the coloring of margarine, allowing that coloring “shall be held to be yellow in color when it has a tint or shade containing more than 1.6 degrees of yellow, or of yellow and red collectively, but with an excess of yellow over red, measured in the term of Lovibon tintometer scale or equivalent.” Acts since then have continued to adjust nutritional content, fees and other regulations.

Newspapers frequently reported the decisions made by the General Assembly to control the manufacture and sale of margarine. The Daily American, Nashville, March 27, 1883.

The Tennessee General Assembly continues to influence food production and packaging today. Recently, bills have come before the legislature proposing the regulation of plants and seeds sold in Tennessee. Even the labeling of Tennessee honey has become standardized, with a push to require labeling for “100% pure honey” or “not pure honey.” Bills such as these help regulate what is sold to the public, deter fraud and promote honesty and integrity in the food industry.

Advertisement for Swift’s Premium Oleomargarine, The Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville American, March 8, 1918.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State

Before Sully, There Was Hatch

By Ed Byrne

On Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger saved the lives of all 155 people on Flight 1549 when he crash-landed his Airbus 320 on the Hudson River. Sullenberger and his crew successfully evacuated the flight’s 149 passengers before the airplane sank. His courage and resourcefulness in performing a “dead stick” landing on a liquid runway have been justly celebrated, and the Clint Eastwood film based on his feat is currently leading the nation in box office returns.

It was not the first time that a determined and courageous pilot successfully crash-landed an unpowered airliner after takeoff, saving the lives of all his passenger and crew. American Airlines pilot Ed Hatch had performed a similar feat 60 years earlier, on June 23, 1949, in Memphis.

SIGHT FROM AIR -- Hundreds flocked to the scene after the "Convair" crash-landed in a field beside Getwell Road, less than a mile from Kennedy General Hospital. Note skid marks across field. At the controls were the pilots shown in insets [Capt. Ed Hatch and Officer N. E. Lundeen]. they said right engine quit on takeoff.
Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 23, 1949.

On a hot Wednesday afternoon (it had to be hot in Memphis in late June), Hatch was captain of an American Airlines Convair CV-240 airliner, the “City of San Antonio,” taking off from Memphis on a flight to Nashville “and points east.” None of the contemporary accounts give the number of the flight, but several note that the twin-engined, 40-passenger aircraft was considered “big” or even “huge” in its time.

An illustrated flight path map published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 23, 1949.

Hatch reported that his engines performed normally as he warmed them up for the flight and started down the runway. As soon as the aircraft became airborne, one engine failed. While the Convair was designed to stay airborne with only one of its two 2,400-horsepower engines, the remaining engine immediately began to overheat. Fearing his second engine would explode and burn, Hatch shut it down. His aircraft had gained just enough altitude to clear a nearby power line “by 10 or 20 feet,” but lost airspeed in the process. Hatch was flying at an altitude of about 100 feet with absolutely no power.

He spotted a small open field ahead and set the aircraft down in it. According to contemporary news accounts, the plane slid more than 100 yards across the field, skipped across a road, and plowed under a 12,000-volt power line before stopping with its nose against a tree. The flight had lasted about 90 seconds and ended three and a half miles from the end of the runway. Providentially, the crash landing site was only one mile south of Kennedy Veterans Hospital, where some of the injured passengers were taken.

Thirty-four of the 43 people on board suffered injuries, and 17 were hospitalized. But everyone survived. Hatch and his flight officer walked away with minor injuries and the single flight attendant was unhurt.

A photograph of the wreckage published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 23, 1949.

Judging from the grainy newspaper photos of the time, the lack of fatalities seems miraculous. The photos show the front end of the aircraft smashed and the fuselage broken open. One engine burned, but a fire crew reached the site within four minutes and extinguished the blaze before it reached the fuel supply. The piston-powered aircraft was fueled with 115 octane aviation gasoline so a fuel tank explosion would have been catastrophic.

Front page headline, Memphis Press-Scimitar, June 22, 1949.

It was a simpler age. Today Captain Sully Sullenberger has a film named for him, and his own website promoting his consulting practice. Hatch, by contrast, seems to have disappeared from the media almost immediately. A search of the Internet produced a few articles from contemporary newspapers, complimenting his skill in saving his passengers and crew. But there is no evidence that fame and fortune followed Hatch in later life.

It may be that a nation so recently embroiled in the greatest war in history had grown accustomed to aviation heroics. The Berlin airlift had ended successfully less than six weeks before the Memphis crash and Americans in 1949 were still celebrating the wartime contributions of their Navy and Army Air Forces pilots. Most Americans of the time probably saw Hatch’s feat as one more example of an American doing his duty in the face of life-threatening circumstances, as countless Americans had done over the preceding decade. People today crave heroes; Americans of the late 1940s had them by the millions.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State

A Footnote to the Whiskey Menace

As most of our readers will be aware, the temperance reformers of the late 1800s and early 1900s were unsparing in their denunciation of the menace that they felt whiskey posed to society. They focused their attacks almost exclusively on the dangers posed by the contents of whiskey barrels. In the process, they overlooked another danger - posed by the barrels themselves. Even when emptied of their contents, whiskeys barrel could wreak disaster on the unwary, as a quick search of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database at the Tennessee State Library and Archives can attest.

Cooperage, barrel making, at Southern States and Lime Corporation, circa 1910.
Looking Back at Tennessee Collection. Tennessee State Library & Archives.

On April 5, 1888, Nashville’s Daily American reported “A Whisky* Explosion” in Lebanon. This “very singular occurrence” took place in front of Ligon’s Saloon on South Cumberland Street. For reasons that were not reported, the proprietor of Ligon’s laid a “parlor match” beside a hole in an empty whiskey barrel and “struck the match with his knife.” The barrel, the article noted, had been full of “Lincoln County whisky,” although it had been emptied some three weeks previously. Unfortunately, the three weeks were not sufficient to clear the volatile whiskey fumes from the barrel. The resulting explosion blew Ligon 10 feet through the front door of his saloon, inflicting serious and painful injuries.

The commotion associated with an exploding whiskey barrel did not escape the attention of the small boys of the era. On August 22, 1883, a Daily American story, headlined “The Small Boy’s Work,” described an experiment two youngsters undertook with an empty whiskey barrel between Cooney & Co. and Freeman & Co. on Nashville’s Broad Street. Perhaps in response to a dare, one stood on top of the barrel while the other pushed a burning match into the bung-hole. The boy standing on the barrel was thrown into the street by the resulting explosion, but apparently escaped serious injury.

This miscreant was somewhat luckier than young Herbert Nicholson of Clarksville, who tossed a lighted match into an empty whiskey barrel behind Pulley Bros. Saloon on Strawberry Street and then leaned over the barrel to see if the match was still lit. According to the report in the June 2, 1906 edition of the Nashville American, Herbert’s face was badly burned when the head of the barrel blew out. Herbert was arrested and tried in City Court, but escaped a fine when a lenient magistrate judged his injuries constituted sufficient punishment.

Three men, one sitting on a barrel that notes, "Mune Shine Wisky." Another sign notes, "The Mugs We Met in Hot Springs."
Looking Back at Tennessee Collection. Tennessee State Library & Archives.

Matches and mischief were not the only hazards. Whiskey barrels apparently were sometimes repurposed to store other commodities, but attempts to modify them for reuse could spell disaster. On July 4, 1884, the Daily American reported that Robert Davis of Franklin, the 18-year old son of a prominent family, had decided to use an empty whiskey barrel to haul water to a threshing machine. When he attempted to enlarge the bung-hole of the barrel by burning it out with a hot iron rod, the resulting explosion inflicted near-fatal injuries. The article explained that “exactly a similar occurrence” had happened a few miles away in the previous year, when an exploding barrel inflicted “painful wounds” on a man named George Hughes.

The Nashville American reported yet another such accident in its “Out of the Ordinary” column of August 22, 1900. A farmer named Herizler, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, reportedly “sat astride” an empty whiskey barrel while he attempted to enlarge the bung-hole with a white-hot iron. “The explosion was heard a mile away,” the item reported, and it was not certain that the farmer would recover.

The Infotrac database of 19th century newspapers yielded similar accounts of fatal or near-fatal whiskey barrel explosions in Waco, Texas (in 1875 and 1883), St. Louis, Missouri (in 1884), and Galveston, Texas (in 1892).

"A Whisky Explosion," (Nashville) Daily American, April 5, 1888.

In the early 1900s, some years before national prohibition, Tennessee passed a series of laws forbidding the manufacture, possession, and transportation of liquor within the state. The advent of prohibition in Tennessee appears to have reduced the incidence of whiskey barrel explosions, as reports of these events appear to fade out of the newspapers after the 1906 account mentioned above.

Today, like the makers of soft drinks, Tennessee distillers ship their whiskey in bottles. The exploding whiskey barrel, like the exploding soda fountain, has disappeared from the newspaper headlines.


*EDITOR'S NOTE: The difference between whiskey and whisky is simple but important: whisky usually denotes Scotch whisky and Scotch-inspired liquors, and whiskey denotes the Irish and American liquors. Source material located in our research of this topic cites the spelling of the word “whisky” without an "e" in several sources. Tennessee whiskey, however, is spelled with the letter "e." In publishing this article, we chose to remain true to the original source material, so we left intact the word "whisky" cited within quotes. In all other places, we made note of the proper spelling of whiskey, with an "e."

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State

Lots to "like" about TSLA...

The Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) Facebook page has been very active lately with updates on several events and programs going on at TSLA...


The Chronicling America Project
First, we're proud to announce the addition of more than 1 million newspaper pages to the Chronicling America project, making historical newspapers from Greeneville, Jonesborough, Memphis, Sweetwater, and Winchester freely available on the Internet. These newspapers focus on the period from the 1850s to almost 1900. In cooperation with the University of Tennessee, TSLA has already provided more than 120,000 pages of historical Tennessee newspapers to the site. In the previous phase of the project, TSLA focused its efforts on digitizing newspapers from the Civil War era, roughly 1850 through 1875.


Saturday Workshop Series
On Saturday, October 26th at 9:30 am, the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) is hosting the latest in its series of workshops, titled "Andrew Jackson: Frontiersman or Elite Southerner?" Dr. Mark R. Cheathem, author of the recently published book, Andrew Jackson, Southerner, will lead the workshop. Dr. Cheathem is an associate professor of history at Cumberland University in Lebanon. In addition to Andrew Jackson: Southerner (2013), he is the author of Old Hickory’s Nephew: The Political and Private Struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson (2007).

Those wishing to attend this free workshop must contact TSLA to reserve a seat as the number of attendees is limited. Due to construction, parking is limited around the Library and Archives building. Patrons can register by telephone by calling 615-741-2764, or by e-mail at: workshop.tsla@tn.gov.


Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month
And last but certainly not least, people who visit the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) during the month of October will have an opportunity to see award-winning artwork created by students from the Tennessee School for the Blind. This is the fourth year TSLA has displayed art from the school to commemorate "Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month," an annual event sponsored by Art Education for the Blind, a New York-based nonprofit organization.

"Dot" the tiger is the mascot of the Tennessee School for the Blind's athletic department. Constructed entirely of Braille Paper Mache, Dot represents a "team effort" of all the art classes at Tennessee School for the Blind.

This free exhibit is located in the lobby of TSLA’s building at 403 Seventh Avenue North in downtown Nashville. The library is open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. Among the items in the exhibit is a paper mache version of "Dot," a tiger who serves as the school’s mascot, that is on permanent loan to TSLA. Visitors are encouraged to feel the texture of the scraps of braille paper used to make the nearly life-sized tiger.

For more updates like this, we encourage you to "like" us on Facebook, and continue following the TSLA Blog for additional features.
 

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.

The first rough draft of history

April 21-27 marks Preservation Week, and May 1st is "MayDay," an annual event observed each year to raise awareness of the importance of taking simple steps to protect historical records. So the timing is perfect to bring awareness to the public about the work of the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) Preservation Services Section.

The Preservation Services Section of the Tennessee State Library and Archives provides preservation and increased access for the collections housed at TSLA and other records across the state. These services include microfilming, digital imaging, document restoration and preservation, and photographic duplication. The extensive microfilming program preserves state records -- both traditional and digital -- as well as local county records, newspapers, and manuscript collections.

Newspapers, in particular, provide the public with a window into what life was like in communities throughout the State of Tennessee. They are an important part of the collections held at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and it is the duty of the Preservation Services Section to microfilm newspapers from across the state, preserving this critical information for future generations.

One of the earliest newspapers on microfilm at TSLA,
The Knoxville Gazette, published on November 5, 1791.

Preservation Services has microfilmed newspapers for almost 60 years. As early as the 1930s and 1940s the State Library began collecting the early examples of Tennessee newspapers. With the help of the Tennessee Historical Society and others, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore -- State Librarian and Archivist from 1929 to 1949 -- established an active collecting policy to preserve these historic newspapers. One of the earliest newspapers collected from these efforts was an edition of the Knoxville Gazette published on November 5, 1791.

By the 1950s, TSLA began to look for ways to collect even more newspapers from our state's past and preserve them for posterity. On September 4, 1957, "Operation Newspapers" was launched, and continued through the late 1960s, acquiring newspapers from anyone willing to donate or loan newspapers published prior to 1920.
  
The project, considered ground breaking at the time, was promoted by then State Librarian Dr. Dan Robison and operated by Horace Blades and James E. Pike. It unearthed many interesting examples such as the Pioneer of Jackson, Tennessee for 1822, Mrs. Grundy of Tracy City, and Pearl’s Gazette and Lottery Exchange Register just to name a few of the unusual titles. Mr. Blades and Mr. Pike even went to Houma, Louisiana to film a large collection of the Winchester Home Journal.

Thanks to these early efforts, TSLA maintains the largest collection of historic (and new) Tennessee newspapers in the country, providing the public with a rich chronicle of the history and current events of the Volunteer State.

In 1957 the call went out for “old newspapers” and thousands of pages in every condition came into TSLA. Almost all were salvaged, stabilized and microfilmed. By 1966 the project proudly preserved over 6,000,000 pages, 1200 rolls of microfilm and over 1000 different Tennessee titles.

Today TSLA's Preservation Services Section continues microfilming of current newspapers for preservation and access, preserving 200 Tennessee community newspapers from across the state.

Additionally, the Preservation Services Section microfilms any old newspapers that are sent to us. Just recently two unique titles arrived for filming that previously did not exist in the film collection -- the Quid-Nunc of Grand Junction and the Mason Call of Mason, Tennessee. 
 
Microfilming is a process that demands attention to detail. Individual newspapers are meticulously checked, collated and flattened, to make them ready for microfilming. Microfilming then takes place, with the camera operator taking a picture of each page, and the film is processed, reviewed, and duplicated.

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Traditional 35mm microfilm camera dedicated to newspaper preservation microfilming.

Many public libraries hold their community papers until the film is ready, and then purchase this film from TSLA for use by their own present and future patrons. Were it not for the diligent efforts of public libraries throughout the state to save these papers from certain destruction, we would not have such a vast record of community activity and important events in our state's history.
 
Digitization is also an important part of how we preserve newspapers at TSLA. We are actively participating in several digitization projects, including a collaborative effort with the University of Tennessee and the Library of Congress. Maintained by the Library of Congress, the "Chronicling America" Digital Newspaper Project provides access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages. It is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. So far, more than 200 rolls of microfilm containing 98,765 pages of Tennessee newspapers have been posted to the Chronicling America website as a sample of the whole collection. To see more about Tennessee's historic newspapers see: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

The UT project also maintains a blog of interesting items found in the Tennessee papers at: http://wp.lib.utk.edu/tndp/news/

For more newspaper titles, visit TSLA’s website and its online catalog and search for newspapers by community name: http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/newspapers/tn-paper.htm

The Preservation Services Section of TSLA never stops in its quest to preserve the newspapers of Tennessee's communities. Newspapers are, after all, the "first rough draft of history." They provide valuable information about our shared past, and are an important piece of the puzzle of preservation.

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.