Microfilm Magic: Revealing Hagerstown's Past Through Historic Newspapers

The Evening Globe and The Daily Globe, published in Hagerstown in the mid-to-late 1800s into the early 1900s, were unusual local papers, because the writing was non-partisan, meaning the editor did not take a political stand, but merely reported the news. Nearly 100 reels of microfilm from these old papers are now available for viewing at the Fletcher (downtown) branch of the library. Staff members from Backstage Library Works of Bethlehem, PA, where the newspapers were scanned and filmed, will make a presentation on the challenges of working with old newsprint and will explain the process of scanning and filming. Following the presentation, a demonstration will be given on the use of the library's microfilm readers. Some examples of subjects to be shown on microfilm include suffrage; immigrants; transportation history; early tourism; segregation (particularly involving the railroad); Ku Klux Klan activities; crime reports that help localize and humanize broader issues such as racial disparity in the justice system; and memoirs of local Civil War veterans that help tell the story of the “unfinished business of the Civil War.”