[Ads-l] Databases for Historical U.S. Searching

Wed Jun 29 19:11:13 UTC 2022

And, long shot, some non-US newspapers reprint US reports occasionally not
available otherwise.
And some transcripts are revisable.
Example: Australian Trove Newspapers:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/__;!!BhJSzQqDqA!Um3BVIfNvezruT5Ei9U_rqRBcPdmDRlW7FrO_VE8PkEfwI04kSo2FWqrS4i83h7vk8QoVotZFL2zVg8$

Stephen Goranson beat me to this.  I have been wallowing in Trove of late
-- it offers an (absurd) amount of stories copied from American sources --
British sources, too.

For a taste:

DOE'S SLEEP ON RAILWAY.

            A sleeping doe, on the tracks of the Wallkill Valley Railroad,
a few miles from Middleton (U.S.A.) caused a train to halt, as the engineer
swung his car around a curve.  He saw what appeared to be a bundle
stretched across the rails.  He blew his whistle and started the engine
bell ringing. When the car neared the object he was startled to discover
that it was a deer fast asleep.

            Just as the train stopped the deer lifted its head, gave a
startled glance at the mechanical monster that had interrupted its slumber
and bounded off into the woods that border the tracks.

            Western Mail (Perth, WA), November 1, 1928

1928-11-01 -- Western Mail (Perth, WA)

Perhaps little in that to excite a lexicographer, but who knows what else
may lurk in Trove.

Is there a similar database of South African newspapers?

GAT

On Wed, Jun 29, 2022 at 10:49 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> And, long shot, some non-US newspapers reprint US reports occasionally not
> available otherwise.
> And some transcripts are revisable.
> Example: Australian Trove Newspapers:
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/__;!!BhJSzQqDqA!Um3BVIfNvezruT5Ei9U_rqRBcPdmDRlW7FrO_VE8PkEfwI04kSo2FWqrS4i83h7vk8QoVotZFL2zVg8$
>
> SG
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Bill
> Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 10:38 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Databases for Historical U.S. Searching
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2022 8:36 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Databases for Historical U.S. Searching
>
> Two examples come to mind, Fred.
>
> I was able to find a 1922 appearance of "the whole six yards" (sorry,
> everyone) in that Georgia database and several "whole mary anns"
> (1909-1925) in that California database. I couldn't (and didn't) find them
> over at Chronicling America.
>
> I'm not sure whether the latter has holes or whether some small-town
> newspapers just aren't offered up to Chronicling America or whether I'm
> just not skilled at using that database, but these experiences have
> prompted me to dig into these and other state databases whenever I can.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> On Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 8:06 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks, Bonnie, for your usual helpfulness.  But I have always assumed
> that
> > all these state newspaper databases are covered by searching Chronicling
> > America.  Is that not true ?
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
>
>
> It's my understanding that Chronicling America came from a State Newspaper
> program that was originated by the Library of Congress and the National
> Endowment for the Humanities.  Each state gets grants to do a census of
> existing newspaper titles (paper and microfilm) and further grants to
> digitize the titles.  I used to keep up with how the program was going, but
> haven't looked into it for a while, and don't know how far along the
> project is (I think the census is more or less complete, but the
> digitization is ongoing).
>
> So, while Chronicling America is a database on a national scale, many
> states have databases that capture only that state's titles.  And quite
> often the State collection will have more than Chronicling America will for
> the state in question.  For example, Ben Zimmer recently did a WSJ column
> on "maverick", and I found cites in the Texas state collection that I
> didn't find elsewhere.  Chronicling America typically doesn't include much
> after 1926 (the current "public domain" transition year, which advances
> every Jan 1), but state collections don't seem to be so limited (an issue
> that may not mean much to Fred, given that he's looking for collections
> from the 19th century.)
>
> The Google Sites "fulltextdatabases" link that I included in my
> immediately previous email has links to many of the state collections, but
> not all of them.  Further, as I recall, some states may have more than one
> digital collection (and I have no explanation for that).
>
> Google "Alabama State Newspaper digital Archives" or similar strings to
> find the current link(s) for any given state's collection.
>
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-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851

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