El Mundo is now available!

Este blog también está disponible en Español. El Mundo (San Juan, Puerto Rico) printed its first issue on February 17, 1919. This Spanish-language publication self-identified as the “Diario de la mañana” (“the morning daily”). In its first years,  El Mundo‘s content primarily focused on providing information from the Americas and Europe, frequently including news services fromContinue reading El Mundo is now available!

Introducing El Imparcial

Este blog también está disponible en Español. The self-proclaimed “Diario de la tarde” (“the afternoon daily”), the newspaper El Imparcial (San Juan, Puerto Rico) was one of the main witnesses to Puerto Rican and international history of the 20th century. It began publication on November 1, 1918 and frontpage headlines included the end of the WWI, theContinue reading Introducing El Imparcial

The Case for Building a House for the Dead

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The first line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel “The Go-Between,” often comes to mind when one is perusing newspapers from another time. It’s fascinating to try to imagine what captivated people throughout history. According to one staff writer for the St. Croix Avis, JanuaryContinue reading The Case for Building a House for the Dead

More than 400,000 pages digitized

Today, August 31, 2021, marks the end of Phase 4 of our project. We accomplished so much in the last eight years, primarily the digitization of more than 400,000 pages of historical newspapers published in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The summary below breaks down our accomplishments into some data points. TitlesContinue reading More than 400,000 pages digitized

Meet the Flyest Woman of the 1900s

While browsing the pages of our historical newspaper collection, we stumbled upon an article featuring Jean Dawson. An educator, Dawson, led a seemingly successful campaign against the housefly in the 1900s to combat the spread of diseases like polio. About Polio In the early 1900s, polio was making its way across the United States. However,Continue reading Meet the Flyest Woman of the 1900s

The Southern Jewish Weekly

About the newspaper The Southern Jewish Weekly began publication in 1939, when editor Isadore Moscovitz (a University of Florida Journalism graduate) merged the Florida Jewish News and the Jewish Citizen to create a new newspaper that would be “an independent weekly serving American citizens of Jewish faith”. The Weekly considered itself the “oldest and mostContinue reading The Southern Jewish Weekly

Chronicling America travels to the Caribbean

This post was co-authored by project Advisory Board members at the University of the Virgin Islands, Jennifer Jackson, Cynthia Richards, and Judith Rodgers, Project Coordinator at the George A. Smathers Libraries (UF) Melissa Jerome, and NEH Program Officer Hadassah St. Hubert. The St. Croix Avis is the first newspaper from the Virgin Islands to be includedContinue reading Chronicling America travels to the Caribbean

What Happened To Tom Tiger? The Battle for a Seminole Chief’s Remains

  The Seminole Indians have a long and storied past with the settlers of Florida. Following the Third Seminole War (1855-58), the few hundred remaining Native Americans settled deep within the Everglades where they could live without conflict. Relations gradually improved between the two groups, and by the 1890s, white residents were offering opportunities forContinue reading What Happened To Tom Tiger? The Battle for a Seminole Chief’s Remains