Cinema & Censorship: The Hays Code

Content warning: This article concerns censorship of motion pictures. It contains mentions of difficult topics including violence, death, rape and sexual assault, drug and alcohol use, cruelty to animals and children, and racism. Some of the films mentioned in this article may contain depictions of this content. This article also contains a staged photograph depictingContinue reading Cinema & Censorship: The Hays Code

Introducing the St. Croix Tribune

This article was adapted by Lindsay Negrello, Librarian at the University of the Virgin Islands, from the St. Croix Tribune’s title essay forthcoming in Chronicling America.  The St. Croix Tribune (sn84037536) was an English-language newspaper produced by the St. Croix Co-operative Society in Christiansted, St. Croix, V.I., between 1922 and 1937. It was released daily, exceptContinue reading Introducing the St. Croix Tribune

Introducing the St. Croix Avis

This article was adapted by Lindsay Negrello, Librarian at the University of the Virgin Islands, from the St. Croix Avis’s title essay first published in Chronicling America.  The St. Croix Avis (sn84037526) began publication in 1844 under the direction of editor and publisher Richard Hatchett in Christiansted, St. Croix (VI). It is a successor ofContinue reading Introducing the St. Croix Avis

Bull and Bread Day/Liberty Day 

A small island can serve as a remarkable microcosm for driving social change and can also provide an optimal environment for cultivating bold community leaders. David Hamilton Jackson was an exemplar of such a leader. Born in 1884 and raised on the island of St. Croix, Jackson received his initial training as an educator. JacksonContinue reading Bull and Bread Day/Liberty Day 

Progress for the People: Newspaper History in the Virgin Islands

This grant cycle the US Caribbean & Florida Digital Newspaper Project has digitized new content from five US Virgin Islands newspapers: The St. Croix Tribune, The St. Croix Avis, The West End News, The Daily News of the Virgin Islands, and The Home Journal. These papers follow in the tradition of earlier papers from theContinue reading Progress for the People: Newspaper History in the Virgin Islands

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

We’re moving to Phase 5!

August 17, 2021 UF Libraries awarded additional funding from NEH to digitize and provide access to historic newspapers The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida received a grant award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to expand their newspaper digitization efforts and continue participating in the National Digital Newspaper ProgramContinue reading We’re moving to Phase 5!

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