Using Digitized Newspapers for ResearchEverglades National Park

Melissa JeromeProject Coordinator

UF George A. Smathers Libraries

• Creation of a digital version of an analog source

• For example: sound, image, object

• Why digitize?

• Preservation

• Including avoiding obsolescence

• Broader access

• Teachable Content

• Newspapers an excellent candidate for digitization

Source: 2010 Smithsonian Digitization Plan https://www.si.edu/content/pdf/about/2010_SI_Digitization_Plan.pdf 2

Microfilm reel

What is Digitization?

“ a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories”

3www.loc.gov/ndnp

National Digital Newspaper Program

• International

• World War I

• Spanish American War

• Travel Technologies

• Heads of State

• National

• Governance and Elections

• Suffrage Movement

• Prohibition

• Sports News

• Presidents and their Families

• Ads for National Brands

• Nativism

From The Ocala Evening Star (Ocala, FL) November 4, 1908. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

From The Daytona daily news (Daytona, FL) January 8, 1910. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

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Content

• Florida

• State Politics and Elections

• Creation of University System

• Travel Reports

• Entertainment

• Agricultural Reports

• Railways and Steamboats

• Natural Disasters

From La Democracia (San Juan, PR) June 9, 1902. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Puerto Rico• Spanish Governance • Sale of Land and Slaves• International News• Epidemics• Social/Cultural• Education• Politics• Autonomy

From The Ocala evening star (Ocala, FL) June 17, 1916. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

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Content

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Access

ChronAm is a database of historic newspapers published in the United States and its territories

-date range expanded to now include 1690-1963

Currently houses over 14 million pages of newspapers contributed from 46 states and one territory

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov 7

Chronicling America

Search options:

• General

• Advanced

• All newspapers

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov 8

ChronAm Functions

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov 9

Advanced Search

Zoom in/out by clicking

these buttons. Can also use mouse scroll

Full screen view!Use these options to change page

Use these options to change issue

Save pdf

Zoom in and clip something of interest.

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Additional Functions

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About the Papers

• Chronicling America is fully searchable

• Not perfect technology

• Extraneous marks on page

• Unusual Fonts

• Misreading text or combining words

• Be patient with searches and think outside of the box

• Context

• Time period

From The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) August 16, 1908. Article retrieved from Chronicling America. 12

From the Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL.) May 3,1913. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

Optical Character Recognition

When searching think about…

• Vocabulary

• Historic spelling

• Change in terms

• Typos

• Search parameters

• Change scope to get more useful results

• Diversify name searches

• Affiliated organizations, businesses, and governing bodies

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From the Monroe City Democrat (Monroe City, MO) August 22, 1907. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

From the Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) November 11, 1919. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

Tips & Tricks

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Note on Historical Language

• Until the early 20th century, most people lived in the north portion of Florida

• Post Civil-War, there’s more railway development

o Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad and Henry Plant's Plant System

o They also built resorts and hotels

• Movement of people led to development of new towns/cities

o Some were company towns

o Turpentine, cypress, phosphate, and other industries rapidly developed during this time

From The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) April 21, 1913.

Retrieved from Chronicling America. 15

Environment & Development in Florida

From The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola,

FL) April 9, 1911. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Land viewed as “empty” or having the potential for development since mid-19th

century• Gov. W.S. Jennings supported drainage • “the was no real settlement in the Everglades

until after 1910” (Dovell 190)• The availability of drained land was heavily

advertised and resulted in the Florida Land boom of the 1920s

• Damaged the ecosystem of the Everglades

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The Everglades

From The Sun (Jacksonville, FL) March 10, 1906. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

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From The Pensacola journal (Pensacola, FL) March 18, 1917. Image retrieved from Chronicling America.

Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward

“Beginning in 1906, the drainage of the everglades started without any study at all….Broward believed that drainage of the state’s interior wetlands depended on nothing more than gravity. Indeed, he ran for governor on the campaign slogan “water will run downhill” (David McCally 144).

From The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) January 4, 1905. Retrieved from Chronicling America.

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From “The Everglades and the Florida Dream” in Paradise Lost?: The Environmental History of Florida eds. Jack E. Davis and Raymond Arsenault

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From The sun (Jacksonville, FL) March 10, 1906. Retrieved from Chronicling America.

From The weekly true Democrat (Tallahassee, FL) October 19, 1906. Retrieved from Chronicling America.

20From The Lakeland Evening Telegram

(Lakeland, FL) May 5, 1913. Retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Wright Report (1909)• “contained egregious errors, all of

which added to the optimism of drainage boosters. These errors were especially glaring with regard to the relationship among rainfall, evaporation, and runoff” (McCally 146).

• Randolph Report (1913) • “From 1913 until 1928, the Randolph

Report served as the template for Everglades drainage.” (McCally 149-150).

Other Attempts to Reclaim

• Involved in early conservation efforts• Utilized their Social Networks

• Women’s Clubs• Especially prior to the passage of the 19th

Amendment• Raised money to purchase land for

conservation purposes• In doing so they “claimed new public ground and

established themselves as important public advocates” (Poole Dissertation 15)

• In our papers, reports on their activities can be found on the Society pages

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Women in the Environment

• “Mother of Florida Forestry”

• Life

• Born April 25, 1872 in New Jersey

• Family moved to Crystal River, Florida in 1874

• Assisted her father while he served in the state legislature (Vance 38)

• Married W.S. Jennings in 1891

• Causes and Civic Work

• Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs

• Y.W.C.A

• Conservation

• Improved Public Education

Photo of May Mann Jennings, taken in 1901 while serving as Florida’s First Lady. Image retrieved from Florida Memory.

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May Mann Jennings

From The Ocala evening star (Ocala, FL) November 27, 1916. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Approached environmental stewardship as an extension of their social roles as mothers and caregivers

• Park creation was linked to their larger efforts to save Florida forests

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Women’s Clubs

• Dedicated in 1916 • Result of efforts led by May Mann

Jennings• Supported by Florida Federation of

Women’s Clubs• Eventually the “nucleus” of Florida’s

first National Park• Still two visitor centers in the area

Postcard, date unknown. Image retrieved from

America’s Swamp.

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Royal Palm State Park

• Jennings learned of the existence of the area from Mary Barr Munroe

• Munroe suggested “the group try to protect” the area at the 1905 Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs convention (Poole Diss 86)

• Jennings used her ties to Tallahassee to lobby the state to purchase and maintain the land

• Park was a priority in the FFWC’s legislative plan in 1915

From The Lakeland evening telegram (Lakeland, FL) September 7, 1915. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

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Creating Royal Palm

From the Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) May 9, 1915. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

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From the Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) February 6, 1916. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Fundraising campaigns to collect money to operate the park• Mile of dimes initiative

• Lobbied the legislature for maintenance funds• Focused more on aesthetics than “wilderness

preservation”• “Most (women) favored the state policy of

draining the Everglades” (Poole Diss 98)

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Maintenance

From the Pensacola journal (Pensacola, FL) April 13, 1921. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

From the Pensacola journal (Pensacola Journal) October 1, 1916. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

From The Lakeland evening telegram (Lakeland, FL) July 24, 1917. Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

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From The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, FL) December 26, 1915. Article retrieved from Chronicling America. 29

From The Ocala evening star (Ocala, FL) January 17, 1919.Article retrieved from Chronicling America.

Early Public Use

• Dedicated in 1947

• “The conservation movement of the first half of the twentieth century brought great changes in thinking to Florida, propelled in large part by the activities of its women” (Poole Diss 112).

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From The Key West citizen (Key West, FL), November 29, 1947.Retrieved from Chronicling America.

Everglades National Park

Less Useful:• May Mann Jennings• Conservation +Jennings• Climate Change • Environmentalism

Useful:• Everglades• Drainage• Conservation/Preservation• Mrs. (W.S.) Jennings• Royal Palm (State) Park

• fund/funding• land• Hammock (only before 1919)

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Suggested Search Terms

From The Key West citizen (Key West, FL), December 6, 1947.Retrieved from Chronicling America.

• Cite like you would any other newspaper following the guidelines of a particular style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)

o Including the date you accessed it

• Provide the persistent/permalink

o Bottom of display viewer

o Via the scissors icon in the page view

• Permalink is for the entire page

• From this page you can also download image and print

Citing Historical Newspapers

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Additional Topics on our Blog

• Bird Hunting for Plumage and the Lacey Act of 1900

• May Mann Jennings & the Creation of Royal Palm State Park

Found on UFNDNP project blog:https://ufndnp.wordpress.com/

From The Pensacola journal (Pensacola, FL) March 20, 1921. Retrieved from Chronicling America.

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Resources

Everglades

• University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC)• Everglades Digital Library http://ufdc.ufl.edu/edl• America’s Swamp http://ufdc.ufl.edu/swamp• FL History & Heritage Collection

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/fhpc

• Reclaiming the Everglades (FIU/ PALMM)http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/collections/index.htm

• Biographies/papers• Photographs

• Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. (1947). The Everglades: River of Grass. Coconut Grove, FL: Hurricane House.

Bulletin issued by the State of Florida Department of Agriculture, 1929. Image retrieved from http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00048896/00001

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Resources

• Florida Memory https://www.floridamemory.com

• National Parks Service• Everglades page:

https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm

• Library of Congress nature & environmenthttp://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/nature/students.html

• Evolution of the Conservation Movement• Mapping of National Parks

Blueprints, Everglades Drainage District, 1914.

Image retrieved from Florida Memory

May Mann Jennings & Early Florida Environmentalism

• Chapman, Ann E. “American Conservation in the Twentieth Century.” National Parks Service.Accessed May 20, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/massachusetts_conservation/American_Conservation_in_the_Twentieth_Century.html.

• Dovell, Janius E. “The Everglades, a Florida Frontier.” Agricultural History, Vol. 22, No. 3 (July, 1948): 187-197.

• Poole, Leslie Kemp. “Let Florida Be Green: Women, Activism, and the Environmental Century, 1900-2000.” PhD diss,. University of Florida, 2012. (UFDC UFE0044352).

• Vance, Linda Darlene Moore. “May Mann Jennings, Florida’s Genteel Activist.” PhD diss., University of Florida, 1980. (Internet Archive 99209).

• Vance, Linda D. “May Mann Jennings and Royal Palm State Park.” The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (July, 1976): 1-17.

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Additional Resources

Links:

facebook.com/ufndnp

twitter.com/ufndnp

ufndnp.wordpress.com

pinterest.com/ufndnp

ufdc.ufl.edu/ufndnpguides.uflib.ufl.edu/ufndnp

Melissa Jeromemmespino@ufl.edu

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Contact Info