"By digitizing newspapers, we are able to preserve and provide increased access to the rich history of our state," said Heike Kordish, Director of the Humanities and Social Science Libraries for The New York Public Library. "ProQuest has vast experience in addressing the unique challenges of digitizing historical newspaper content from microfilm. By making the New York Tribune cross-searchable with other historical newspapers on the ProQuest platform we are expanding the research value of this vital resource."
Founded in 1841 by Horace Greeley, the New York Tribune was one of the key outlets for news and ideas in the Progressive Era. The New York Tribune includes first-hand accounts of Theodore Roosevelt's efforts to secure the right to labor arbitration for workers and the racially-charged public reaction to his dinner with Booker T. Washington. The paper is ideal for research into major issues at the turn of the century including early U.S. internationalism and control over the Philippines and Cuba, and their impact on the construction of the Panama Canal.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers provides insightful side-by-side comparison of news stories from the New York Tribune with other leading newspapers of its day - among them, the New York Times - where the New York Tribune provides a reform-minded complement to the Times' more mainstream coverage. For instance, when accessed together, the papers offer a fuller picture of the multi-faceted career of Ida Tarbell, a lauded voice on a wide range of subjects and issues important to early twentieth century readers. Tarbell published a series of articles in The New York Times commemorating the life of Abraham Lincoln. But when she addressed social ills and reforms she wrote for the New York Tribune, where she was given leeway to attack the rise of such trusts as Standard Oil, controlled by John D. Rockefeller.
ProQuest has digitally reproduced ten years of the New York Tribune from front to back, capturing news stories, editorials, photos, graphics and ads. ProQuest's search platform is known for its user-friendly interface, allowing even novice researchers to navigate the database unassisted. Multiple search options -- keyword, dates, author's name, article type and others -- zero in on specific articles or topics. To see the text, the user simply selects the article, and its image is displayed. Users can choose to view the article alone or see it in the context of the full page. They can also browse through entire issues page by page as they would a printed paper.
The Tribune's archives cross-search with ProQuest Historical Newspapers , the world's largest digital newspaper archive, encompassing 14 million pages dating from 1764. A core research holding in major libraries around the world, it includes such major newspapers as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and The Chicago Defender, one of the most influential African-American newspapers.
"The digitization of the New York Tribune is the latest in a series of enhancements to the ProQuest news publications program," said Skip Prichard, president of ProQuest Information and Learning. "Each is aimed at building a core of products that will allow comprehensive research to be done easily from a single starting point." In addition to significantly expanding the availability of digital archives, ProQuest continues to enhance its current news collection of 300+ full-text newspapers from around the world, creating a flexible, comprehensive current news resource. ProQuest is also distributor of NewspaperDirect, a unique delivery system through which libraries get direct, immediate access to over 400 international and domestic dailies in full-page format, allowing them to provide same-day international newspaper service to their patrons.
For more information on the New York Tribune and other ProQuest Historical Newspapers, visit www.il.proquest.com.
