THE ISSUE: Expanding access to newspapers of the past

OUR OPINION: Making old newspapers available online opens doors to S.C. history

The Times and Democrat is 128 years old this year. The pages of the newspaper have chronicled history as it unfolds for generations of T&D Region readers.

A new project by the University of South Carolina will make the history recorded by The T&D and selected S.C. newspapers more accessible.

USC’s S.C. Digital Newspaper Project will include pages from 21 newspapers in a new online newspaper database. The project will focus on newspapers from 1860 to 1922.

The University Libraries landed a two-year, $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities last spring to launch the project, said Kate Boyd, digital collections librarian. It will use the money to scan 100,000 pages and make them available through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America database.

The first phase of the project will be ready in time for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 2011, Boyd said.

Project manager Santi Thompson said much of what will be online is stored in archives, which can be intimidating places for all but academic researchers. The project will help people “learn about the past from their living rooms or in their pajamas.”

A six-member advisory group selected the initial titles, Thompson said. Advisory committee members are people who either work with or use cultural heritage organizations such as museums, libraries or archives, he said.

They chose newspapers from all corners of the state that had a solid run of issues in the designated years, he said.

The committee also selected newspapers that represent diverse voices, including those from the state’s black residents, Thompson said. “African-American voices got lost from much of the state’s history,” Thompson said. “These newspapers are the only record of African-American lives through the eyes of African Americans.”

Harlan Greene, an advisory committee member and director of archival and reference services at the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center, said, “This will make the view 360 degrees, not just the majority viewpoint.”

The university plans to expand the project over time to include more newspapers and to create a Web site for South Carolina newspapers separate from the Library of Congress site, Thompson said.

In addition to The T&D and the Orangeburg Free Citizen, newspapers selected for the project are: Charleston Daily News, Charleston Advocate, Charleston Afro American Citizen, Charleston Free Press, Columbia Daily Phoenix (and all of its continuing titles), Sumter Watchman, Watchman & Southron, Sumter Daily Item, Anderson Daily Intelligencer, Keowee Courier, Edgefield Advertiser, Fairfield Herald, Tri-Weekly News, News and Herald, Georgetown Planet, Laurens Advertiser, Missionary Record/South Carolina Leader, Pickens Sentinel, Pickens Sentinel-Journal, Peoples Recorder/Southern Indicator, Rock Hill Messenger, Manning Times, Marlboro Democrat, Newberry Herald & News.

During this National Newspaper Week, the project is an exciting development that will serve again to reinforce the long-standing role newspaper journalism has played in the state’s history — and will put that history before the public in a new and convenient way.

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