A tale of locating Pennsylvania Newspapers

The library profession is dealing with constant change, funding battles, and limited bandwidth in the workplace. Since the summer of 2024, these issues have been hitting home since I accepted an interim role at my institution. While I have enjoyed the new challenges, there have been occasional days or afternoons where I can truly focus on my primary role as a Digital Collections Management Librarian. Since those moments are limited, they have become somewhat precious because I am reminded of why I got into librarianship.

I love getting lost in research and going down a rabbit hole of information. Bring in a technical services role, most of the reference questions are related to Pennsylvania newspapers. As part of the role as Digital Collections Management Librarian, I serve as primary contact for newspaper digitization projects and assist in managing the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive.

Earlier this year, I was presented with a unique situation that started with a thank you note and turned into weeks of research sessions to uncover the location and the current status of a Pennsylvania newspaper. A library user contacted my office to inquire about the status of the Public Spirit newspaper from Clearfield county and how the digitization process was coming along. Up to that point, I had not specifically heard about any requests regarding this title, and I started an investigation by checking the library’s holdings for the title. I found approximately 4 scattered issues that were in stable condition. While I would need to coordinate with colleagues from Special Collections and Cataloging and Metadata teams, this did not seem like an overly complicated request. After another conversation with the library user, I realized that we were not taking about the same set of newspapers. Their request is specifically referring to portfolio books containing 20 years of issues for the Public Spirit newspaper.

This requester has conducted an extensive amount of research on this newspaper title and others, so I continued the conversation to gain as much background information as possible. The ongoing communication provided me with a starting point. Here are the facts:

1. An listing for the Public Spirit (Clearfield, PA) is not available on the Library of Congress Chronicling America database. I only found listings and digitized content for the following newspapers:
   • Clearfield Republican (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937
   • Raftsman’s Journal (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948
2. My institution did not have a record of this newspaper in its collections beyond the 4 sporadic issues.
3. The requestor informed me that there were previous discussions about donating the 20 years of newspaper portfolios to our Special Collections Library.
4. The last known location of the newspaper portfolios was with a descendant of the original publisher, Matt Savage.

Beyond these basic facts, I understood the urgency regarding the completion of this digitization project because these portfolios are the most complete set of materials associated with this newspaper title. The original printing house for the newspaper suffered extensive damage from a fire, and many community members and local historians thought this newspaper was lost to time. However, the portfolios were discovered in the attic of a descendant of Matt Savage. The newspaper collection would be used to write a county history book, which was authored by members of the Clearfield County Historical Society.

Over the next few months, I would dig a little deeper during a research session to uncover the mystery. This would include reviewing more departmental records, reading county histories, genealogical searches for the Savage family, consulting with colleagues in the Special Collections Library, and reaching out to cultural heritage organizations in Clearfield county and the State Library of Pennsylvania. Additionally, I studied reports from a multi-phase initiative called the Pennsylvania Newspaper Project to see if the Public Spirit newspaper was included in the NEH grant. All of this work finally gave me the answers. Sadly, the descendant of Matt Savage that owned this newspaper collection had passed away several years ago. An employee at my librarian misinformed the requestor about the collection status, and the newspaper was never donated to Penn State. Fortunately, the owner did donate the newspaper collection to the Clearfield County Historical Society. While the material is certainly fragile, this organization is utilizing best practices for preserving and stabilizing the collection. It is such a reward to know that the newspaper has been located, and I am hopefully that conversations about a future digitization project can begin later this year.

If you are ever having trouble locating a Pennsylvania newspaper, please feel free to reach out to your colleagues. Several members of the Pennsylvania Library Association have extensive knowledge in local history and newspapers. Additionally, the Library of Congress Chronicling America website, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive hosted by Penn State University Libraries, and the State Library of Pennsylvania are always excellent resources.