Free Access to Historical Newspapers

Fold3 has opened up access to their historical newspapers for the month of May. You'll have to register to see some of them, but it's free.

Historical newspapers are full of entertaining, informative and downright strange things.There are some great newspapers on the site. A few of my favorites are:

The Times (London) 1785-1820; 1860-1865; 1914-1919
The Times provides a great perspective on world and US events. You can browse by date here or read more and search here.

The San Francisco Chronicle (California) 1865-1923
This is a great paper that manages to combine a frontier feel with in-depth reporting on local, national and world issues. Browse or learn more.

The Atlanta Constitution (Georgia) 1868-1923
The Constitution provides a unique, southern viewpoint. Browse or learn more.

The Chicago Tribune (Illinois) 1829-1943
A great newspaper for a northern and mid-west perspective, but they did a great job reporting national and world news as well. Browse or learn more.

The Tangled Tale of Topsy the Elephant

Yesterday marked the 97th anniversary of the electrocution of Topsy the elephant.

For those of you not familiar with Topsy's sad story...

Topsy was a domesticated elephant who, as a baby, was popular with children, but got into trouble later in life. Reports say that she, "killed two men in Texas and a third in Brooklyn borough after he had fed her a lighted cigaret."

Topsy was part of a circus at Coney Island's Luna Park and her owners decided that she should be put to sleep and that they could take advantage of the opportunity. They announced that she would be executed for murder and invited people to come see the spectacle.

The original plan seems to have been to hang Topsy, but either the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals objected, or Topsy wouldn't walk out onto the gallows, or both, so a new plan was required.

At the time, Thomas Edison was busy trying to get people to adopt his Direct Current (DC) as the standard for electricity by electrocuting animals using the rival Alternating Current (AC) advocated by Nicola Tesla and Westinghouse. Topsy's case must have seemed the perfect opportunity for Edison and he proposed execution by electrocution.

On January 4, 1903, Topsy was wired up, fed some poisoned carrots (just in case) and then had 6,600 volts of AC passed through her. Within seconds, as the Atlanta Constitution reported, "Topsy, the man-killer, was no more," but she became a national celebrity.

As many as 1,500 people witnessed the event and newspapers around the country reported it.

The Atlanta Constitution


San Francisco Chronicle


Chicago Tribune

To help with his campaign, Edison filmed the event and showed the film to audiences around the country. Today, Edison's movie is available on YouTube:

You can learn more about Topsy on Wikipedia, from this article at Wired, or from this interesting webpage about Coney Island's Luna Park. Those with a darker sense of humor may enjoy the blog Topsy: the Electrocuted Elephant.

New Year's Art

In preparation for the new year, I looked at some old newspapers to see what the front page held on January firsts past. In my brief survey, I found several treatments of the Old Father Time and the baby New Year theme:

The Chicago Tribune 1 January 1900

The Chicago Tribune 1 January 1911

The Atlanta Constitution 1 January 1922

The Poughkeepsie Journal 1 January 1924

And then I came across this very odd image from the San Francisco Chronicle of 1 January 1920

I'm not sure who these people are, but they seem happy about starting the 20s.

It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the Happy New Year messages with the sensational and generally negative headlines on the front pages.

Most of the papers gathered stories of tragedy, murder and death from around the country to spice up the front page, which probably worked on most days, but seem a little out of place on a page with Happy New Year emblazoned across the top of it.

That 1920 San Francisco Chronicle is a good example. Headlines sharing the front page with the strange New Year's revelers include:

• "35 Poison 'Rum' Cases Bared by S.F. Officials"
• "Hunter Drowned, Companion Near Death as Result of Boat Mishap"
• "Poison Whisky Factory Found, Officers Say"
• "Woman Plunges Knife to Hilt in Man Refusing to Clear Her Name"
• "Shots Fired at Police Captain"
• "U.S. Building is Set on Fire"
• "Four Scalded to Death in Steamer Explosion"
• "3 Motorists Hurt in Jitney Collision"
• "Four Women Shot by Baltimore Celebrants"

Happy New Year in deed. Here's hoping 2010 rings in on a better note.

Thanksgiving

I meant to post a few tidbits from the history of Thanksgiving last week, but I just never had the time. Here you go, a little late and hoping you had a nice holiday...

The Poughkeepsie Journal publishes President George Washington's declaration of "a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer"

The Chicago Tribune prints President Abraham Lincoln's declaration of the last Thursday in November 1863 "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

The December 27, 1941 Poughkeepsie Journal reports on President Franklin D Roosevelt (who in the years previous had moved Thanksgiving earlier to extend the Christmas shopping season) signing a law designating the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving.

And here are some folks from the National Turkey Growers Association presenting President Harry Truman with a Thanksgiving turkey, November 16, 1949.

World War I Ends - November 11, 1918

On November 11, 1918, Germany agreed to the terms of an armistice ending World War 1.

Here are a few newspaper pages reporting the end of the war:

The Chicago Tribune Nov 11, 1918


The Atlanta Constitution - Nov 11, 1918


San Francisco Chronicle Nov 11, 1918


Washington Post Nov 12, 1918


The Times (London) - Nov 12, 1918

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871

On October 8, 1871 a fire that started in a barn on Chicago's west side grew until it had engulfed nearly 4 square miles of the city.

The Chicago Tribune described the fire as "a conflagration which has no parallel in the annals of history, for the quantity of property destroyed, and the utter and almost irremediable ruin which it wrought." But, rebuilding projects created a boom for the city, paved the way for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and helped create the Chicago of today.

Lizzie Borden

Today I came across this Footnote Page about Lizzie Borden by Edward1026 which brought back memories of my college days and a professor I had who was an expert on the case.

I took a few minutes to see what I could find in contemporary newspaper reports and a few minutes was enough to find...

An Aug 13, 1892 San Francisco Chronicle report of the arraignment of Lizzie Borden, "charging her with the homicide and murder" of her father and stepmother, complete with illustrations.

Here's a similar report from the Aug 13, 1892 Atlanta Constitution

Two days later the Constitution took a stand on the case. You don't see statements like, "New England criminal justice is stupid and barbarous," too often in news reports these days.

Here are reports of Lizzie Borden's acquittal from the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and Atlanta Constitution.

Can you find something interesting about Lizzie Borden on Footnote?