Finding Fabulous Pictures in Historic Newspapers

Let’s focus on the longest run of newspapers available – The Rocky Mountain News Daily editions. The Rocky is currently being digitized in high resolution color from very well-preserved originals. That means a vast archive of great quality, unique images that can be shared, admired for historic/aesthetic value, or used for so many different purposes. Many of these scans are already live in CHNC, so let’s see together how we can start panning for archival gold in this video demonstration:

Sunday/Weekly Magazines

Like most titles in CHNC, The Rocky has illustrations throughout the entire run, but some sections were much more image laden than others. One sure place to find interesting images is in the Sunday magazine, also known as the Magazine Section (somewhat confusingly, this is included in the Daily run, not the Weekly). The first of The Rocky’s Sunday magazines in CHNC can be found in the June 13, 1897 edition. Knowing this appears regularly every Sunday, you could certainly explore further by browsing the title and going through the calendar. Or you can speed things up by using the search function.

For example, search for “Sunday Magazine” (or click the link) and you will see relevant issues and be able to click through them pretty quickly. Sort by “Date, oldest first” to see the chronological progression from simple line drawings, some embellished with spare patches of a single color, then more detailed and colorful illustrations, before entering the era of sepia mass photography in the 1910s and 20s. When you open a search result and view the paper, you should see the option near the top to click through to the next search result. This makes browsing a breeze, as shown in the video demonstration.

You might notice there were often subtle changes in language as time wore on, such observations might help you with your searches. It was sometimes called the “Magazine Section” around the turn of the 20^th century. By the late 1920s, it was known as the “Weekly Magazine.” See how the masthead on this issue contains the text Weekly Magazine, making it easy to read by the software, and thus easily browsable for you.

Other Image-Rich Sections

Here are a few more special sections worth exploring in The Rocky Daily:

Special Color Section (1917-18): This short-lived special section was limited to a large color image, often a reproduction of a painting that illustrates the section’s cover story.

BEGINNING next Sunday, The News will contain an added feature which has attained much popularity wherever used. This is a Gravure Pictorial Section consisting of four pages printed in sepia tint on a fine grade of paper, showing war scenes and other views that will be of great interest to all readers. These sections should be preserved. They will make a remarkable war picture gallery for readers of the present as well as future generations.

Picture Press / Gravure/Rotogravure Section (1918-20 – gravure refers to the type of mass printing that came from etching plates.): Starting in September 1918 as WW1 was coming to a close, the Rocky introduced the Gravure Pictorial Section, noting its purpose:

Note that searches rely on the software having interpreted text correctly (which isn’t always a guarantee, though more likely to be accurate in these new scans from originals). You can also try other general searches such as “Pictorial Section.” What’s clear is that as of the turn of the 20^th century, it was commonplace to include some sort of image-driven special section(s), often on a weekly basis in the Rocky Daily, so you won’t have to look far to find the good stuff.

How might you use images from the archive?

The general rule of thumb is this: if it’s in the public domain you are free to use it however you like. There are no copyright restrictions on publications that have entered the public domain in the US – commercial or otherwise. Usually this happens 95 years after publication. What that means is, as of the time of writing, you are free to use any image (or any part of the newspapers) published before January 1, 1931, without permission (in 2027, works published in 1931 will also enter the public domain, and so on). You can reproduce public domain content in full or incorporate it into your own artwork or publications as you wish.

After that date, things vary from title to title, so always check the title page (such as this) and view the specific rights statements. As the you can see there, The Rocky isn’t copyrighted until June 1981 – that is a lot of very useful, fabulous images! Even so, it is best practice to look at the individual illustration to see if any copyright has been designated in writing, just to be safe. This is not legal advice as I am not a copyright lawyer, and you should always do your own research before using images, especially for commercial interests. Find out more in CHNC’s terms of use and this article from Cornell.

Finally, if you find something of historic value that is not available anywhere else, you might consider sharing to a platform such as Wikimedia, so everyone will get the benefit of your research!