Bibliographic records for newspaper titles are available through a library network called the Online Computer Library Center, and most states provide information about their newspaper holdings through the Internet. How newspapers are found is often as interesting as the stories they contain. They have been found unexpectedly in attics, in barns, in abandoned missile silos. In one instance, a bridge tender in Ocean Springs, Miss., found a bound set of the New York Albany Atlas from 1848 to 1850 lying in the middle of the Fort Bayou Bridge. The volume, which may have bounced off the back of a garbage truck, was recovered and microfilmed.
Old newspapers are a treasure trove of Americana.
By preserving them, NEH is helping to sustain our nation's living cultural heritage. William R. Ferris is chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.