Resources

What did Abraham Lincoln really look like? (short article)

Notes

Ben Franklin, printer. Because of several recent excellent biographies and a PBS series, America is being re-educated about the most remarkable of all the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. The man was many things during his long life: inventor, scientist, civic innovator, diplomat. What he wanted to be known as, however, was "printer." His Apology for Printers, written in 1731, is an eloquent statement of the role printer should play in disseminating information and ideas. It makes excellent reading even today. (The entire apology can be found on this web site.) More (on Franklin) (Posted Aug. 30, 2005)

New images of the Scopes trial. The trial of high school teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., 80 years ago this month remains one of the 20th century's iconic events. It drew vast media attention and pitted cultural forces against one another that are still at war today. This week, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Scopes trial, the Smithsonian Institution announced that it had discovered new images of the trial that had been hidden away for many years. One such image (right) shows Clarence Darrow questioning William Jennings Bryan at the trial. The courtroom had been moved outside of the Rhea County courthouse because of the sweltering heat and the large crowds who had come to see the confrontation.
More (Posted July 24, 2005)

Clearing his Deep Throat. Word comes today that the secret to one of the great politico-journalistic mysteries has been revealed: the identity of Deep Throat. It was Mark Felt, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Nixon administration. This is an important revelation, and not just to those of us who have followed the Watergate story from its very beginning. Watergate was the last great newspaper story, one that certainly would not have happened in the same way in our current media environment.
More (Posted May 31, 2005)

Photos from the New York Public Library collection. Some 275,000 photographs are now available for viewing and downloading from the New York Public Library's web site. This gallery constitutes one of the largest collections of photographs anywhere -- comparable to that of the Library of Congress. Most of the photos were taken before 1923, putting them in the public domain but decreasing their value to news organizations. Still, they constitute a valuable and fascinating historical record and could provide hours of online viewing pleasure and education. The library has made them available without permission for non-commercial use. If you are going to use them commercially, you need to obtain permission. (Posted March 3, 2005)

Unforgivable blackness. PBS will broadcast on Jan. 17-18, 2005, a two-part series on Jack Johnson, the heavyweight boxing champion, whose achievements and life shocked the white-dominated society of early 20 th century America. The film is titled “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.” Johnson is the first black man since the era of Reconstruction 30 years before to conquer any part of white society. During that time, African-Americans had been systematically excluded from almost every part of white society in America. They were accepted as servants and occasionally artisans by white but as little else. They were denied education, opportunity and justice. That denial extended to sports, except for boxing, which was after baseball the second most popular sport in the nation.

As usual with any of its program, PBS has developed an excellent web site to accompany this program. It is well worth spending some with.

More on this. (Posted Jan. 16, 2005)

Ray Stannard Baker, Woodrow Wilson's friend. The current PBS American Experience program is a two-part biography of Woodrow Wilson, one of America's most important presidents. Mentioned in the series is journalist Ray Stannard Baker, a progressive journalist who promoted Wilson's candidacy for the presidency and who became his good friend. As with most PBS programs, there is an excellent companion web site that has information about people important in Wilson's life. Baker is mentioned there, too, with an expecially good link to more about his life. Read more about Baker in this article by Robert C. Bannister. The second part of the broadcast is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 3. (Posted Jan. 1, 2005)


America's first newspaper. The Boston News-Letter, thought to be America's first continuing newspaper, is pictured on page 364 of the book. It was first published by John Campbell in 1704. William David Sloan, a professor of journalism at the University of Alabama and one of America's distinguished journalism historians, has put together an extensive history of this newspaper for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. You can read his article at this link on the AEJMC web site.

What did Lincoln look like? The 19th century was just as image conscious as our age, and one of the masters of image was Abraham Lincoln. The sidebar on page 389 of Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How tells about a famous photo of Lincoln that was used in the election campaign of 1860. The photo is very flattering to Lincoln, and Lincoln later gave it a good bit of credit for getting him elected president. But is that what he really looked like? That's the question this short essay with photos considers.
Update: Historian Guy Hubbs points out that a study of Lincoln photos can be found in "The Long 'Shaddow' of Abraham Lincoln: A Living Symbol of Liberty & Freedom in the Camera's Eye," in Liberty and Freedom by David Hackett Fischer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005): 341-348. (Posted Feb. 19, 2005)

History of the telegraph. Communication and journalism were changed by the increase in speed in the 19th century -- particularly the invention of the telegraph. Few scientific developments have changed life for everyone so radically. A sidebar in the book on page 384 talks about the role that Samuel F. B. Morse played in the development of the telegraph. Learn more about the history of the telegraph beginning at the About.com web site. (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelegraph.htm)

Battlefield coverage. What was it like to be a reporter covering a major battle during the Civil War? A number of good books about reporters in the Civil War are available. Also recommended is the chapter on news coverage of the battle of Fredericksburg in George Rable's award winning Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (In fact, you should read the whole book.) Rable notes how difficult it was to cover such an encounter between armies and how hard it was to get information from the field to the publication for which the reporter worked. One other difficulty that reporters had: figuring out who won. It was not always apparent. A winning army might not pursue a retreating one, leaving the outcome in doubt. Picking a winner and loser was important, however, because how the public perceived the war was going had important implications for political support for the war.

Antietam. One of the most dramatic stories of a correspondent covering a battle in the Civil War is that of George Smalley of the New York Tribune and his adventure in getting his description of the battle of Antietam back to New York. Smalley's first accounts of the 1862 battle were read by President Abraham Lincoln before they got to New York -- simply because they were sent by the telegraph operator to the wrong place. But that mistake was small potatoes to what Smalley had to endure during the next few days. Read this short article about what happened to him.