For the Public

This week, Gordon Russ, another longtime volunteer, shares his impressions of early pioneer newspapers.

As part of the State Library's participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) we've been researching Washington's historic newspapers. In the process we take a chronological snapshot of the life of a paper. It is a bit like doing genealogy work.

"... and before us was a dark sea-wall of mountains..." With those words, Caroline Leighton ended a journey from the civilized eastern states and began recording her responses to fifteen years on the Pacific coast. Born and educated in New England, she worked in a school for former slaves in Washington DC during the Civil War. There she met her future husband, Rufus Leighton. After the war they married and sailed for the Pacific Northwest where Rufus had an appointment as a customs official.

One of the benefits of volunteering for the Historic Newspapers Online Project at the Washington State Library is the opportunity to read fascinating articles written in the 1800's. Recently, Deb Ross, a dedicated volunteer of several years, discovered an article titled, A Cannon For Every Boy, from the 4/30/1891 issue of the Yakima Herald, which included detailed instructions on building a homemade cannon using common household ingredients.

Would you like to bend time and travel to pioneer days in Washington territory? Volunteers at the Washington State Library find themselves re-living the lives of settlers through the pages of historical newspapers published from 1852 to 1889. If you enjoy Washington State history, you may want to work a few hours a week reading articles electronically and entering keywords, titles, and subjects into a searchable database. Library users can then access the newspapers online.

Attention Washington students! Have you entered this year's Letters About Literature contest yet? The deadline is fast approaching! All entries must be postmarked by this Saturday, December 6, 2008 in order to be considered.