Although it is possible to view a list of Tennessee newspapers on the Chronicling America website, the arrangement of the titles makes the list a little awkward to read. To make it easier, we’ve created a list organized by town. Use this link to open and download the spreadsheet: TNDP_TitlesOnChronAm_list
A list of essays about the Tennessee newspapers featured in Chronicling America can be found here: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/awardees/tu/
The first batch of microfilm for the TNDP 2014-16 award cycle is now with our digitization vendor, iArchives. We send microfilm to them in small batches and they return the digital images and metadata for each reel. The Library of Congress requires each of these batches to have a name. The choice of names is entirely up to each awardee. Here’s how LC explains it:
“Referring to a batch as “last month’s batch” or even the “fifth batch” can leave room for interpretation. The fifth hard drive sent in is not always batch 5. To accomplish this clarity, what evolved in NDNP is a standardized way of naming batches using a word unique among that awardee institution’s batches. For example, a series of data could use the names of aliens (e.g. “alf,” “beeblebrox”). Different institutions have pulled their lists of names from various sources. Some have used alphabetical lists of cities within their state, or a list of philosophers, or foreign countries or musicians.
We ask that the NATO radio alphabet no longer be used. Repeated use has caused confusion. See this page for existing naming schemes: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/ .”
For the previous two award cycles (2010-12 and 2012-14), TNDP used Tennessee musicians, or people with a strong Tennessee music connection. We’ve decided to keep that theme going through 2014-16. Pictured above are the new inductees into the TNDP batch hall of fame. How many did you recognize? (answers below)
Answers: Anita Kerr, Bertha Walburn Clark, Carla Thomas, Dinah Shore, “Smilin'” Eddie Hill, Fred E. Smith, Gus Nennstiel, Harry Nides, Ira Louvin, James D. Vaughan, Kathy Hill.
Announcing the inaugural Ida B. & Beyond Conference to be held at the University of Tennessee, March 26, 2015
“The conference begins at 9:30 a.m. in UT’s Black Cultural Center, 1800 Melrose Avenue. It is open to the university community and the public. During the daylong event, attendees will learn about the life, work, and legacy of daring anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett and other like-minded social justice campaigners from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”
The keynote speaker for this event will be Mia Bay, the director for the Center for Race and Ethnicity at Rutgers University, who recently released her second book about Wells-Barnett. Read more about the event in Tennessee Today.
The conference is part of the Ida B. Wells Initiative, spearheaded by UT’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media professor (and TNDP Advisory Board member!), Amber Roessner. Dr Roessner and her students have created an open access resource providing information about Wells and her work as a journalist, civil rights advocate, and suffragist.
Lost Newspapers: Wells spent several years as journalist and co-owner of the Memphis-based Free Speech and Headlight. Sadly there are no known extant copies of this paper. If you know of any, please contact us here at TNDP!
Dwight Teeter — journalist, professor of journalism, former dean, and friend of TNDP — passed away last week.
Details of Dwight’s extraordinary life and career can be found in the University of Tennessee’s Tennessee Today. Dwight was a great supporter of TNDP. He served on our Advisory Board and provided some of the newspaper essays for Chronicling America. He also shared numerous anecdotes with us about his life in newspapering. Dwight’s laughter and sense of humor will be foremost in our memories of him; it was an honor to work with him.
Thank you, Dwight Teeter, for your contribution to making Tennessee’s historical newspapers accessible to a wider audience.