The American Newspaper Repository is a charity whose purpose is to collect and preserve original copies of American newspapers. It was founded in 1999 by the author

Nicholson Baker Nicholson Baker (born January 7, 1957) is an American novelist and essayist. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization. His early novels such as ''The Mezzanine'' and ''Room Temperature'' we ...

when he learnt that the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

was disposing of its collection of historic American newspapers. He cashed in his retirement fund to successfully bid for the collection at

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

. With support from the Knight Foundation and

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

, the

repository Repository may refer to: Archives and online databases * Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content * Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...

was established in an old mill building in

Rollinsford, New Hampshire Rollinsford is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,597 at the 2020 census. The main village in town was once known as "Salmon Falls Village". History The area was once within the domain of the Newichawa ...

. While serving as a director, Baker researched and wrote '' Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper'' about the way in which other library institutions were destroying rather than preserving such originals. The collection was transferred to the care of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, part of the

Duke University Libraries Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes. The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documen ...

in 2004.

The contents include runs of over a hundred different periodicals from between 1852 and 2004 including: * ''

Barron's Magazine ''Barron's'' is an American weekly magazine/newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. Founded in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–1928) as a sister publication to ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Barron's'' covers U ...

'' 1926–1946 * ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' 1888–1958 * '' New Republic'' 1913–1984 * '' New York Tribune'' and '' New York Herald Tribune'' 1866–1966 * ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 1915–1958 * ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

'' 1898-1930 * '' Saturday Review'' 1924–1972 In total, there are about six thousand bound volumes and eleven thousand individual and bundled items. These include first printings of work by numerous famous authors such as

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

, Mark Twain,

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

, Robert Frost and

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

. The collection is an excellent archive of high quality

rotogravure Rotogravure (or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it ...

photographs which appeared in these periodicals. Other unusual formats include the first

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the ans ...

needlepoint Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, m ...

patterns, sheet music and full color reproductions of paintings of the period.

References

External links

Original official homepage
{{authority control 1999 establishments in the United States Archives in the United States Duke University Libraries Libraries in Strafford County, New Hampshire Rollinsford, New Hampshire Special collections libraries in the United States * History of newspapers

Contents

References

External links