I was thisclose to being a hanger-on for an NPR story!

I (sorta!) made it into an NPR radio 2 minute story over the weekend! I'm between the lines in this story that ran over the weekend:

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/31/175808536/archival-find-could-shed-new-light-on-emmett-till-murder

"Houck and his students figured out the missing issues were in a state historical archive in Missouri."

 It's about 'missing' issues of the St. Louis Argus that the Society has and that I loaned out to Dr. Houck and his grad assistant, Jessica at Florida State. I wish NPR would have given us credit instead of just vaguely calling us a 'historical archive'. But, still, we know we're there between the lines. Another win for The State Historical Society of Missouri (and inter-library loan!). Plus, I've already gotten other people around the country writing me asking to see the film, before it's even back from FSU. We might make another positive copy of the film just so we can meet the demand now.

Several of my colleagues laugh at the 'missing' issues and 'new discovery', considering this film has been here for years and that anybody could have looked at it, bought a copy of it, or asked for it via loan at any time. It's just been here, chilling out since the 1950s. But, it's sort of like Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu, right? It's not so much a discovery, as bringing to light something that wasn't well-known before this. Like all things that are 'found' in historical archives. The stuff has been there for a long time and the 'discoverer' was not the first person to see it, they are just the one who found an outlet to bring it to light.

We've been curious about how this happened and from what I can tell, I guess one of the main microfilming companies in the nation, microfilmed the paper, but someone removed all the issues related to the trial and story of Emmett Till's death. And then that company sold their film to all of these places around the country. But, that film is not helpful since it's missing this huge event. We're hoping libraries and people want to buy a copy of our film now, since it's actually complete. Woot!

A note on your announcements.

I've spent the majority of my time at my new job reviewing microfilm of newspapers from all over Missouri. There are a couple that are really addicting and I have to stop myself from reading each and every issue from front to back. Mostly the ones that really aren't ever looked at by the patrons we have because the papers don't contain obituaries, marriage notices, or birth announcements. That's mostly what I'm looking for. Birth, marriage and death. Life all rolled up onto one single page in each issue of a newspaper. It can be kind of morbid, actually. 

Over the last couple of weeks, I've probably looked at thousands of obituaries, baby names, and engagement/wedding pictures. Most have been pretty typical, but some have been astoundingly wrong. Like the obituary of the 30-year-old woman who died in a car accident. Her obituary was placed just above the obituary of a 93-year-old woman, however the photo of the 30-year-old woman was attached to the obituary for the 93-year-old. Then there was the obituary of the 35-year-old guy but there was a typo in the birth-death heading and the paper said he was born in 1077 and died in 2012, making him 1035 years old (he looked pretty good for that age!). Then there are the obituaries that the family (or deceased) had written themselves and it's basically an autobiography of the person's life...moment by moment. Those are the obituaries that take up about four columns each and are mostly in the small town papers. It costs too much to put something like that in a St. Louis or Kansas City paper, but it probably doesn't cost much at all to put such a personal (and detailed) obituary in a Marceline or West Plains paper. And that's just the death part of the paper. I've seen a lot of awkward-looking wedding and engagement pictures. What's wrong with just standing side-by-side and looking halfway happy about your wedding? I've seen photos that look like people are heading to the gallows instead of the chapel, and others that are so posed it makes you uncomfortable having to glance at it, like the one today where the couple were standing facing each other and holding their hands clasped together between them. I think they were trying to show off their rings, but it looked a lot more like they were in the middle of an arm wrestle competition. Just stand or sit and smile, people. It shouldn't be that tough. And, announce your own engagement! Everybody's got their parents, grandparents, or son (yes, really) announcing impending marriages. I tend to let out a little cheer when I see an announcement that says the two actually tying the knot are the ones announcing their engagement. Good for you! Way to be a mature, grown-up couple!

I shouldn't judge, but it happens. You can't really look at as many announcements as I have without comparing and contrasting the differing styles of everybody around Missouri. The birth announcements are easily where I remain judgement free. The baby pictures are usually cute, although sometimes awkward because brand spankin' newborn babies are not really that photogenic...everybody thinks the babies are cute (and they are) but in grainy black and white newspaper print, they don't always look as cute and cuddly as the parents and families like to think. Still, it's a happy column to read the baby announcements and see the names that people choose for their newborns.

I've seen some fun columns written by police chiefs, a paper who published the names of the elementary students who got As on their math tests, and more coverage of the Joplin tornado than I ever needed to see. But, at least the backlog that I inherited is slowly going away. I hope to be completely caught up by the end of this week! Hope hope hope!