Catskill Mountain News
Seventy years of the Catskill Mountain News, which for more than a century has been chronicling the life and times of the greater Margaretville area, may now be viewed on line thanks to a preservation project spearheaded by HSM.
The project to microfilm and digitize the bound volumes of the newspapers from 1902-1937 was begun in 2006, when the O’Connor Foundation of Hobart granted $5,000 to HSM. The award was matched by generous contributions from third-generation Publisher Richard Sanford, and the late Herman Gottfried and Ed Scheider. Hudson Microimaging of Port Ewen, NY microfilmed the brittle, deteriorating pages, and then scanned the microfilm.
Phase Two of the project, again funded by the O’Connor Foundation and a generous HSM member who prefers to remain anonymous, allowed us to digitize microfilmed issues of the News from 1938 through 1973. That microfilm was loaned from the NYS Library where a collection of original newspapers collected by Dr. Emerson Crosby Kelly of Albany was filmed in the late 1990s. The film was scanned and made searchable for web use by Hudson Microimaging.
The entire collection may be searched for specific names, places or titles. Viewers may also read individual issues, which are listed chronologically. The on-line News is hosted by the Historic Newspaper Project of the Northern New York Library Network.
The master microfilm reels, CDs and hard drives have been placed in archival storage.
Eight of the 22 bound volumes which had to be disbound for proper filming were rebound by Ridley’s Book Bindery in Ithaca.
The entire collection of bound volumes is on long term loan from the publisher to Fairview Library.
LINKS TO RELATED POSTS: