Last week I found an authentic native-american arrowhead on Martha’s Vineyard. The Wampanoags have left little treasures all over the island waiting to be found. Between indian artifacts and scrolling through old papers on microfilm from 1880, I feel like the island travels through time.
As I said, I love being the computer guy situated in the library at a historic print publication. The contrast is delicious. I simultaneously living in the past, present, and future.
I just completed a project that required I go through every paper on microfilm between 1871 and 1929.
What an amazing experience. My office is the library, or what The New York Times would call The Morgue. I was on the hunt for a specific flag, or header so the paper could possibly cite a specific year (that’s about as much as I’m willing to share for fear of reveling too much inside info). In my travels I’ve seen a variety of flags and a few interesting ads.
This ad from 1918 leverages game mechanics to get people to pay attention to an ad. I’ve seen ads comparing cigarettes to bacon and old maps of the island. Sadly I didn’t have time to really read any of the articles in depth, however I did enough to spark my interest in history, so hopefully I’ll have more small community from an island trivia to share with you in the future.
Reblogged
from storyboard
I work in the same place at the Gazette.The Morgue Lives!
It is a cramped basement annex, stacked high with metal filing cabinets, full of three-fourths of a million pounds of old newspaper clippings and photos, going back 160 years.
It’s simply called “the morgue.”
To get here, a reporter must leave the shiny glass tower that is the 40th Street headquarters of the New York Times, walk a half-block down the street, and descend three levels below the sidewalk. There, in a nondescript tower, she will emerge from a dirty elevator, walk past a janitor’s closet, then past a giant, rusted pump contraption with running water, and finally reach a pair of metal doors. There are glue traps with belly-up cockroaches in the corner.
Reblogged
from knowyourmeme
You Windows users just don’t know how good you have it.
KYMdb - First World Problems
