Progress toward a national union list of newspapers

Abstract

Nearly two decades ago, discussions took place between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) concerning the establishment by the Endowment of a long-term program to support the preparation of research tools for scholars. The ACLS, in response, surveyed its constituent societies to determine projects worthy of such support. One of those societies, the Organization of American Historians (OAH), had for the two years prior to this survey listed a revision of American Newspapers, 1821-1936; a Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada, edited by Winifred Gregory, as a high priority. 1 This work was published in 1937 and though sorely out -of-date remained the most comprehensive guide to newspaper holdings in North America. In 1973 the OAH applied for and received a grant from NEH to carry out further study before taking on such a project. As might be expected, the study was expanded; the broader needs for newspaper access were studied as well, and the entire period of newspaper publishing in the United States was included. The expanded survey was designed to include the titles listed in the earlier reference work, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, 9 prepared by Clarence Brigham, as well as the Library of Congress publication, Newspapers in Microform, s and the growing number of state bibliographies that had been produced since 1937. It should be clear immediately that the original plan to produce a revision of Gregory that would