A Gateway to Maryland History

University Digitizes Old Newspapers, Chronicling Change and Charm

By Liam Farrell Jan 24, 2017

Courtesy of UMD Archives

Local newspapers are a microcosm of history, both grand and small, and the University of Maryland is helping make them more accessible.

Since 2012, UMD’s Historic Maryland Newspapers Project has been digitizing local papers to make them broadly and freely available to the public. The project, which was recently awarded a third grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, has put more than 200,000 pages online, providing a window into 19th and early 20th century life in Maryland.

From poems to national headlines to advertisements showcasing the local economy, newspapers functioned as a clearinghouse of the information that regular people relied on, says Douglas McElrath, UMD director of special collections and university archives.

“You can almost track the social life of a town,” he says. “The great thing about newspapers is they really give you that snapshot.”

Click on the photos for examples of what you can find in the database.

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A weekly newspaper published in Hagerstown, the Maryland Free Press reflected the Civil War divide in the state and was suppressed by the federal government in March 1863 for its Confederate sympathies. This issue, from Feb. 27, 1863, shows its antipathy for the president and the war, with headlines like “The Cost of Freeing Negroes” and “The Abolition Clergy Trying to Make Lincoln an Absolute Monarch.” Courtesy of UMD Archives

Advertisements in the March 24, 1852, Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser provide a glimpse into the local economy, from clothes and carriages to legal services and medical quackery (“Dr. Hoyt’s Heave Powders” for horses). More contentious history is evident as well—there are notices about rewards for runaway slaves, a public sale with “several likely Negroes” and the sheriff of Howard County noting that if a runaway slave “is not claimed within 60 days he will be liberated according to law.” Courtesy of UMD Archives

New immigrants provided audiences for foreign language papers, such as Baltimore’s Der Deutsche Correspondent. The massive headline on the Aug. 2, 1914, issue—Germany declaring war on Russia—previewed the paper’s later struggles (and eventual merger with another outlet), as anti-German sentiment during World War I sapped the publication of advertisers. Courtesy of UMD Archives

On the other side were Unionist papers like the Civilian & Telegraph in Cumberland. The July 9, 1863, issue proclaimed the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Miss., one of the war’s turning points, as “Glorious News.” Courtesy of UMD Archives

Small towns, of course, are never completely insulated from outside events, and local newspapers tried to help their readers grasp a changing—and sometimes frightening—world. In the Oct. 4, 1918, issue of The Democratic Advocate from Westminster, the secretary of the Carroll County Board of Health tries to calm fears about the Spanish flu pandemic (“5—Keep comfortably warm bodily and very cool mentally”). Courtesy of UMD Archives

The Catoctin Clarion, a weekly in Western Maryland, showed how the expansion of the railroad and leisure time affected smaller communities and brought in tourists. This June 25, 1891, article previews the first excursion of the season to the local Pen-Mar mountain resort, complete with a “first-rate supper” and dancing that “will undoubtedly prove thoroughly enjoyable.” Courtesy of UMD Archives