The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 53, December 30, 2007, Article 8

CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPER REFERENCES TO PHILADELPHIA MINT SOUGHT

Regarding Pete's Smith's plans to check Philadelphia
newspapers from 1793 for references to the Mint and early
coinage, Bob Neale writes: "This  reminds me that two years
ago I attempted to find Philadelphia newspaper information
on the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 as it related to
operations of the mint. It took some doing just to find
a source of relevant microfilms. However, once borrowed
via our library, I found nothing whatsoever on the subject!

"I couldn't believe it. There was also nothing mentioned
in J.H. Powell's book 'Bring Out Your Dead', probably the
one best sources of the story of the 1793 yellow fever and
Benjamin Rush's role therein. Either the newspapers of the
day weren't interested in the Mint, or what I had to look
at was just the wrong thing. So I look forward to Pete
finding Mint information in Philadelphia's newspapers to
find out what I overlooked and where it was hiding."

[There was also a typo in last week's issue which I need
to clarify.  I wrote "...Not many old papers are available
online making the task of finding such articles much easier.
Is anyone working on or considering such a project?"   What
I meant to write was "... NOW many old papers are available
online..."  Lou Jordan's note (below) outlines a couple
good places to access online newspapers.  -Editor]

Lou Jordan writes: "Readex, which is a division of NewsBank
offers, on a subscription bases, a fully searchable database
of thousands of runs of American newspapers dating from
1690-1922. I suspect the year 1922 is used as the cutoff
date for reasons related to copyright. The full text of
the newspapers can be searched, including advertisements;
also, one can download a PDF file of any individual issue
in the collection.

"See the webpage www.newsbank.com/readex/ then
click on the Digital Collections link located in the left
margin. This is a subscription service.  Many University
libraries subscribe.

"I notice that the New England Historic Genealogical Society,
subscribes to several of the newspaper databases.  There is
a link to the databases for use by NEHGS members the under
the heading Premium Databases at the bottom of their research
page, which is
www.newenglandancestors.org "

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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