Americas and Oceania Collections blog

Exploring the Library’s collections from the Americas and Oceania

3 posts from December 2014

18 December 2014

Christmas, locked in the ice

Illustrated Arctic News 1

Above: winter in the Arctic, from The Illustrated Arctic News [BL: 1875.c.19]. Courtesy of Images Online.

While researching Lines in the Ice one thing that has repeatedly struck me is the scale of the Arctic expeditions. Today we tend to embody these journeys in a single person, Amundsen, Franklin, Frobisher, Parry, Ross, and so on, but the reality is that even the smallest expeditions (such as those led by Dr John Rae) were made up of at least a handful of men. Meanwhile the largest expeditions, such as that led by Franklin in 1845, were more like mobile communities, over a hundred men all sharing adventure, danger and cramped surroundings.

At no time of year is this brought home more than Christmas. While many prepare for a break, time with family and all the comforts of the festive season, my mind is drawn back to the various documents the Library holds that recount how sailors in the Arctic tried to make the winter more bearable. The Illustrated Arctic News, on display in the exhibition, is a wonderful example of how crews attempted to pull through the darkness and boredom of the Arctic winter. The heavily illustrated newspaper, published on board HMS Resolute then reprinted upon the crew’s return to London, depicts various winter celebrations, a Guy Fawkes bonfire (seen above), a festive ball (complete with formal dress for men and women) and note on Christmas Day celebrations, but its production was also a tool for warding off boredom.

Sun at Midnight

Above: the winter may be long and dark but the sun would eventually return (and hang around), from Arctic Expeditions from British and Foreign Shores [BL: 10460.g.1]

It may be hard to imagine today, given the level of access to learning in the UK, but many sailors signed up for Arctic expeditions to get an education. While the winter may have been cramped, cold and dangerous it also meant little work could be done and so sailors would be taught how to read, write and do maths. This was not purely philanthropic on the part of the officers, it was mostly a way to keep the crew occupied and avoid depression, but, combined with good pay, the possibilities offered by a winter’s education were appealing to many sailors. Papers such as The Illustrated Arctic News, while organised by officers, were part of this system of education as they provided an output for the lessons learned by the crew. 

Of course, should the crew make it through the winter (low supplies, the ship being ‘pinched’ by the ice and many other risks were a constant danger) the sun would eventually return and a summer of back-breaking work would begin. As the temperature rose and the sun stayed in the sky for longer the crew could look forward to trying to navigate (and manually cut) the ships through the ice, man-hauling impossibly heavy sledges over land and all the other chores involved in Arctic exploration. Should they make it home, however, even if the Northwest Passage remained undiscovered, the crew would hopefully carry a unique record of their endeavour and a little more education with them.

Illustrated Arctic News 2

Above: the return of the sun means getting back into the field, from The Illustrated Arctic News [BL: 1875.c.19]. Courtesy of Images Online.

Lines in the Ice will be open until spring 2015 but, given Christmas is such a feature of the exhibition (even Santa makes an appearance), the festive season may be a good time to come and have a look around (just be sure to check the Library’s opening times). Meanwhile, Team Americas are gearing up for the festive break, so happy holidays everyone!

[PJH]

16 December 2014

Access World News/ NewsBank

 

As mentioned in my previous blog, this time we’re going to shine a light on Access World News, an extraordinary database from NewsBank Inc. which currently provides access to more than 1800 American news sources and is accessible in all British Library Reading Rooms (you can find it listed here).

On the United States ‘homepage’ the sources are listed by state but can also be searched by region. Clicking the ‘Source Types’ tab reveals the following categories, as well as the number of sources for each of them: audio, blogs, journals, magazines, newspapers, newswires, transcripts, videos and web-only sources. A summary of each source provides the date range covered, the media type, publishing frequency, circulation, ownership and – where applicable – the URL or ISSN. In addition, the news magazines can also be accessed under ‘Short-Cuts/America’s News Magazines’ on the left-hand side of the home-page. Finally, clicking the ‘Source List’ tab reveals an alphabetical list of all news sources, along with their date range, location and source type.

The database’s many notable highlights include:

Full-text coverage of more than 1300 newspapers, including: Boston Herald (1991 – );  Daily News (NY) (1995 – ); The Dallas Morning News (1984 – ); The Denver Post (1989 – ); The Detroit News (1999 – ); Los Angeles Times (1985 – ); The Miami Herald (1982 – ); New York Post (1999 – ); Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (1990 – ); Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1990 – ); and the San Francisco Chronicle (1985 – ).

Transcripts of features on nearly seventy news programmes, including: 60 Minutes (CBS; 2004 – ) ; CBS Evening News (2005 – ); The Charlie Rose Television Show (PBS; 2004 – ); CNN (2004 – ); Face the Nation (CBS; 2010 – ); Fox News Channel (2003 – ); Meet the Press (NBC; 2012 – ); MSNBC (2003 – ); NBC Nightly News (2014 – ); NPR (1990 – ); and PBS NewsHour (2006 – ).

Full-text coverage of more than twenty news magazines, including: The Atlantic (1994 – ); Foreign Affairs (1994 – ); The New Republic (1993 – ); The New Yorker (2012 – ); Newsweek (1991 – ); and The Saturday Evening Post (1994 – ). NB: These are all listed under ‘Short Cuts/America’s News Magazines.

Output from more than 270 web-only sources, including Accuracy in Media(1998 – ); The Centre for Investigative Reporting (the oldest non-profit investigative reporting organisation in the US) (2003 – ); The Center for Public Integrity (2007 – ); The Daily Beast (2008 – ); Newsmax.com (2002 – ); and Slate (1996 – ).

Access to 64 newswires, including: Associated Press News Service (1997 – );  AP State Wires (from all states, 2010/2011 – ); CNN Wire (2009 – ); and UPI NewsTrack, (2005 – ).

Audio of The Diane Rehm Show (2000 – ), a daily news, arts and discussion show airing on NPR since the 1970s; a transcript is available from 2010.

The newspapers and news magazines in this database are text-only – they do not include the original page-layout, photographs or advertisements.

[J.P.] 

05 December 2014

American news dailies and weeklies: current acquisitions

Inspired by the recent opening of the Library’s Newsroom, we thought we’d write a few blogs about the American newspaper holdings, both historic and contemporary. First up, a guide to the dailies and weeklies we currently subscribe to. On microfilm these titles may only be read in the Newsroom and there is usually a three month time-lag in availability; any relevant indexes are held in the Newsroom on open access. In the Reading Rooms, access to the online version of both the dailies and weeklies is variable, so please check the listing below.

DAILIES

Chicago Tribune, 1849 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark for the Chicago Tribune is MFM.MA207, although our holdings are imperfect for the first decade or so; its Index (1972 – ) is on open access in the Newsroom at shelf-mark NRR071.94. Online access to the Tribune’s business-focused articles is provided via two databases: Gale Cengage Business & Industry (1987 – 2002), which is available in all Reading Rooms, and Factiva (from 2003) which is available in the Business & IP Centre, the Social Sciences Reading Room and two PCs in the Newsroom.

International New York Times, 2013 –  : This paper was first published as The New York Herald (European edition) on 4 October 1887. Since then it has had numerous titles, including the International Herald Tribune (1966 – 2013). In all its incarnations it has microfilm shelf-mark MFM.MA1*. Full-text access to the International Herald Tribune (1994 – 98) is available on CD-ROM in the Humanities 2 Reading Room; this may be extended to other Reading Rooms soon.

Los Angeles Times, 1881 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark is MFM.MA46 and the Index (1972 – ) has Newsroom shelf-mark NRR071.94.  Full-text online access to the LA Times (from 1985) is available in all Reading Rooms via Newsbank/Access World News; my next blog will focus on this extraordinary database.

 The New York Times, 1851 –  : The microfilm version has shelf-mark MFM.MA3 and the Index (1851 – present ) has Newsroom shelf-mark NRR071.47. The New York Times, 1851 – 2010, is available as part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database: this provides full facsimile page and article images and can be accessed in every Reading Room. Beyond 2010, access to business-focused news is offered via Factiva (from 1980), which can be accessed in the Business & IP Centre, the Social Sciences Reading Room and two PCs in the Newsroom, and Gale Cengage Business & Industry (from 1994), which is accessible in every Reading Room.

The Wall Street Journal, 1889 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark for the American edition is MFM.MA78 and its Index (1967 – ) has Newsroom shelf-mark NNR071.47. Online access (1990 – today’s edition) is available via Factiva in the Business & IP Centre, the Social Sciences Reading Room and on two PCs in the Newsroom.

The Washington Post, 1877 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark is MFM.MA370. Full-text online access to the Post’s business articles (from 2007) is available via Factiva in the Business & IP Centre, the Social Sciences Reading Room and two PCs in the Newsroom.

 WEEKLIES

The New Republic, 1914 –  : Now published twice a month, for most of its life The New Republic was published weekly, hence our decision to list it here; it has microfilm shelf-mark MFM.MA57. Online access (from 1993) is available in every Reading Room via Newsbank/Access World News: once in this database, click on ‘America’s News Magazines’ which is listed in ‘Shortcuts’.

Newsweek, 1933 –  : The American edition  (1933 – 1998) has microfilm shelf-mark MFM.MA390 and the hard-copy Overseas edition (1948 – 2009) has shelf-mark LOU.A391. Full text online access to Newsweek (from 1991) is available in every Reading Room via Newsbank/Access World News: as above, once in this database, click on ‘America’s News Magazines’ which is listed in ‘Shortcuts’.

Time, 1923 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark is MFM.MA397. Online access to Time’s business articles is available in every Reading Room via ESBSCOhost Business Source Complete (from 1990) and ProQuest ABI/Inform (from 2000, excluding the last three months).

The Village Voice (New York), 1955 –  : The microfilm shelf-mark is MFM.MA481.

- Plus, see our guide to US historical newspapers 

[J.P.]