Extending the Newspaper Journalism Primary Source Set with Additional Resources

Read More

This post marks the last installment in a four-part series related to the Newspaper Journalism Primary Source Set.

In the spirit of extending the learning, this post highlights two of the additional resources featured in the Newspaper Journalism Primary Source Set, both for further exploring the Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers collection: the Headlines and Heroes blog and Topics in Chronicling America Research Guides. When building the set, we used these resources to support our own research in the Library’s digital collections.

Headlines and Heroes

We found several articles to be particularly helpful, and recommend them to teachers and students:

• Patriots, Loyalists, and Turncoats: Newspaper Printers During the Revolutionary War | Headlines & Heroes
• Revolutionary Women: The Women Who Published Newspapers During Our Nation’s Founding | Headlines & Heroes
• News During the Siege: Vicksburg Daily Citizen | Headlines & Heroes
• The Journalist: ‘Devoted to Newspapers, Authors, Artists and Publishers’ | Headlines & Heroes
• The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press | Headlines & Heroes
• “Behind Asylum Bars:” Nellie Bly Reporting from Blackwell’s Island. | Headlines & Heroes
• Ida B. Wells and the Activism of Investigative Journalism | Headlines & Heroes

Why do we recommend? These posts give students background information on a topic, event, or person while still emphasizing primary sources. For example, the American Revolution Loyalists, Patriots, and Turncoats post shares important context as well as information about each perspective (Loyalist, Patriot, Turncoat) and includes a featured newspaper publication representing each point of view. The post concludes with tips for searching in Chronicling America, with visuals of important considerations to keep in mind when conducting a search with historical newspapers.

Chronicling America Research Guides

Of the many tips for how to use and search Chronicling America, we recommend “Search Tips” and “Topics in Chronicling America Research Guides” 

Why do we recommend? 

• Search Tips: The ideas and explainers are helpful for getting students started, including general recommendations and ways to troubleshoot.
• Topics in Chronicling America: Teachers and students can find guides organized by subject, date, topic, and more.  For example, I could find a guide about Yellow Journalism by searching via date, by war/conflict, or alphabetically.

If you bring aspects of newspaper journalism into your teaching, what resources do you find helpful? If you have used any of the items from the set or have ideas for extending, please share your thoughts in the comments.