Tuesday 8 January 2008

Pittsburgh Courier Historical Archive

The Historical Archive, 1911-2002, of the Pittsburgh Courier is now available in the Pitt digital library via ProQuest Historical Newspapers. The link hasn't been added to the A to Z Databases list yet, so until it gets listed you can find it in PITTCat (do a title search for Proquest historical newspapers Pittsburgh courier). So far, all I've done is browse the archive. Once you're in the database, click on the "Publications" tab, choose the timespan you would like to browse, and then select the months/years you would like to browse. There are pdf files of all articles and also pdf files of every page in the newspaper.
The Pittsburgh Courier is one of the oldest and most prestigious African-American newspapers in the United States. Established in 1907 by Edwin Harleston, a guard in the H. J. Heinz plant, the Pittsburgh Courier gained national prominence after attorney Robert Lee Vann became the newspaper’s editor and publisher, treasurer, and legal counsel in 1910. In his lifetime, Vann saw the Courier grow to become the largest, most influential Black newspaper in the nation with a circulation of 250,000 and over 400 employees in 14 cities.
This historic database is a wonderful and remarkable addition to Pitt's digital library.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the city or national edition? Having the city edition online would be awesome!!

Barco Reference Librarian said...

Yes, the database has the City Edition of the Pittsburgh Courier from 1911.