Saturday, August 29, 2009

New Site for Historic Newspapers is Helpful Resource

I've often benefited from the content in old newspapers, but have been less than enthusiastic about combing through poor-quality microfilm or difficult to navigate web sites. In truth, it is almost always a painful experience, but one that I endure because the payoff — an obituary or other article of interest — breathes life and adds context to my research subjects.

Recently I learned about NewsinHistory.com, a digitized collection of more then 1,100 newspapers spanning two centuries. I arranged for a trial subscription and determined to test it with one of my more difficult subjects, Edwin S. Likens, a Civil War veteran who has proved hard to track.

Civil War military service records list two men named Edward S. Likens who wore Union blue: One who served in two New York regiments, and another who served in two Pennsylvania regiments. But a search of other sources suggest only one man, a Philadelphia native, with this name. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to solve this history mystery, I reluctantly moved his file to the bottom of the priority list.

After my NewsinHistory.com user name and password arrived, I entered the name Likens in the search box. The results included an article in the March 12, 1863, edition of the Philadelphia Public Ledger announcing the marriage of Lieut. Edwin S. Likens to Josephine Ophelia Dodd. This article is the missing link to my research, for it connects Likens the Pennsylvania officer to the New York Likens whose widow, Josephine O. Likens, filed for a government pension after her husband's death.

Mysery solved! Thank you NewsinHistory.

The site's strength, aside from the number of newspapers and search capability, is the functionality that makes it easy to pan and zoom, scroll, flip and scan pages. The yellow keyword search highlights are also a plus. Reminds me of Google Books and Amazon. (I am a fan of both sites.)

Two minor changes would improve the site experience:
  1. Add the name of the publication and date to the pdf download, a detail offered by the New York Times on its archived articles.
  2. Move the search bar to the top of the home page and all the results pages. The strength of this site is the search, and yet it seems to be hidden in the design.
Overall, NewsinHistory gets a big thumbs up. I plan to add it to my research tool kit, and recommend it to any individual or institution involved in genealogical and other historical studies.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Frederick Douglass' Photograph Album

Today I had the opportunity to see Frederick Douglass' personal photograph album, part of the collection of Howard University's prints and photographs holdings at the Moorland Spingarn Research Center. The album holds four images per page (front and back) and contains a number of cartes de visite, including a portrait of Douglass' son Sgt. Maj. Lewis H. Douglass, who served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. His image and story will be included in my book. The album binding is loose, and a number of pages are empty. Nevertheless, it belonged to Frederick Douglass, and I felt privileged to see it up close, thanks to Joellen El Bashir, Curator of Manuscripts. She was extremely helpful and made my visit a success.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Interview on ACW Essays & Research

Greg Rowe, the author of American Civil War Essays & Research, posted an interview with me based on a series of email questions I recently answered at his request. The result, The stories of Civil War soldiers as told by a visual journalist, is an excellent account of my author experience. I am especially pleased that he included a number of details, including my days as a baseball card collector.

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Friday, July 03, 2009

On Seeking Photographs and Soldier Research

Locating and securing the photographs needed for the USCT book is in full swing. I have dozens of queries out to public institutions, genealogical and historical societies, private collectors, families, scholars and museum professionals, and other interested persons. Maintaining the correspondence requires organizational skill, attention to detail, and constant updating and follow-up. Once an image is secured (I define secure as having a high-resolution digital scan in my possession), I need to follow through with getting necessary permissions and other legal work as required by the holder and my publisher.

To date, I've initiated more than fifty contacts, and have compiled a list in excess of a hundred other individuals and institutions to investigate. The list grows daily.

While this critical effort is underway, and as images are secured, I am beginning to research the lives and military service of each soldier by using various databases, visiting the National Archives, and requesting source materials from various institutions. This type of research requires the same high level of focus and intensity that I've applied to the hunt for photos.

Following these two paths, seeking photographs and soldier research, is a massive undertaking. To pursue them concurrently absorbs almost every waking moment. I find myself working through details large and small at all hours of the day and night. Many connections and new ideas pop into my head at random times, but most often while I ride my bicycle to work or am out for a run. Sustaining this level of effort requires much energy. I am sleeping soundly at night!

Successes to date boost my enthusiasm and fuel my drive to find these rare images and tell the stories of the men who laid their lives on the line for freedom and country.

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

ACRL Reviews Confederate Faces

George Eberhart of the Association of College & Research Libraries recently reviewed Confederate Faces. He writes:

"Faces of the Confederacy: An Album of Southern Soldiers and Their Stories, by Ronald S. Coddington (320 pages, December 2008), brings to life the fragmented backgrounds of 82 Confederate soldiers pictured on cartes de visite of the 1860s. Coddington has hit upon a unique and fascinating niche in the seemingly endless march of Civil War books. This one is a sequel to his Faces of the Civil War (2004), which matched the images of ordinary Union privates, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains with brief memoirs of their war experiences. With Southern veterans the documentary trail is much harder to pick up, making the author's biographical vignettes all the more extraordinary. The earnestness, defiance, and desperation on the faces of these men resonates with a modern audience, once their stories are known."

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Research Method: Top Level Organization

Currently working by email and telephone with a descendant of a soldier who is in possession of family documents, including letters and other personal information. To explain my needs, I included this organizational detail:

My research typically breaks down into three sections:
1. Timeline of subject's life, using census data, military service records, pension files, and other source material.
2. Related material that puts his war experience and other life events into context.
3. References to subject's character and other anecdotes from letters, journals, and other personal documents.

Numbers one and two are often easy to locate. The third section can be difficult, for these documents may be in the hands of the families or private collectors, and these collections are not well documented.

While this overview may appear simplistic to some, it accurately diagrams the three broad categories that serve as the main points of organization as material is collected.

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