On Display in the State Library - The Massachusetts Mercury

Step back in time with this month’s Collection Spotlight item. On display for the month of June is a bound volume of The Massachusetts Mercury from 1796, open to show the front page from June 21 and the last page from May 24. Take a look at the pages to see the advertisements, news articles, and shipping departure schedules that Bay Staters would have reviewed themselves over 225 years ago!

The Massachusetts Mercury was a tri-weekly newspaper, founded in 1793 and published once every three weeks by Alexander Young and Thomas Minns from their office on State Street in Boston. Following The Massachusetts Mercury through time can be a little confusing, as over the years it changed names numerous times and merged with other papers. Young and Minns were the publishers for several years and the paper was known as The Massachusetts Mercury until 1800 when its name changed to The Mercury and New-England Palladium. It was then known as The New-England Palladium from 1803 until 1814, followed by The New-England Palladium & Commercial Advertiser until 1840, when it merged with other newspapers to become The Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser. At the time of the displayed 1796 publication, the nameplate included the Latin phrase “dulcique animos novitate tenebo” which one of our staff members was able to translate as “and I will possess an open mind towards unfamiliarity” which seems like a fitting motto for newspaper readers.

Since the volume is bound, it is displayed open to show both the last page of the May 24 edition and the front page of the June 21 edition. Because the paper was published only once every few weeks, the content spans a range of dates. The news section includes events that have occurred since the last printing, and the advertisements and notices of auctions are for upcoming dates weeks into the future. Looking closer at the content, the front page shows a surprising amount of information about ships, both listings of departure dates and destinations of passenger vessels, and advertisements to buy vessels, which emphasizes Boston's role as a port city. A fun detail is that each listing also includes a small etching of the ship mentioned! Beginning on the front page and continuing onto the interior pages are international and domestic news, with a heading reading "The foreign news in this day's Mercury will well reward an attentive person. The domestic news is all interesting." The last page is full advertisements, similar to the classified section of modern newspapers, along with a few marriage and death notices. The advertisements provide a glimpse into life in Boston at the end of the 18th century, letting us read first-hand about the types of goods and services that were offered. I've included an image below of an advertisement for watches and other jewelry.  

I like this listing because the address is 51 Newbury Street; in modern Boston, Newbury Street is known for its designer boutiques and elegant shopping, and would likely be your destination if you were looking for a fancy watch or jewelry.  But Newbury Street is part of Back Bay, which wasn't created until the 1860s. A little searching on the history of Boston streets revealed that in the 1700s, Newbury Street existed as part of what we now know of as Washington Street in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston. So even though it is not the same Newbury Street that exists today, it coincidentally would have still been the spot to visit if you were looking for fancy goods. 

As the Library’s Preservation Librarian, I love sharing items from our colonial newspaper collection as part of our outreach program, in part because they are often in remarkable condition given their age. Tour participants and social media followers are surprised to see items that are over two hundred years old in better condition than the 2004 Boston Globe that they saved to commemorate the Red Sox winning the World Series! We keep our newspapers in dark storage with controlled temperate and humidity, but the largest factor to their stable condition is that colonial newspapers were made of rag paper. Colonial paper was made from made from linen and cotton fibers or rags and is much more durable and stable than paper made from wood pulp and it doesn't become brittle or yellowed with age. It wasn’t a quick process, which is maybe why newspapers were only printed every three or four weeks!

Visit us throughout June to see The Massachusetts Mercury on display in our main reading room, and check out the full list of historical newspapers available in Special Collections here. 

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

New Databases Now Provided by the State Library

The State Library is pleased to announce that it is now providing Massachusetts state government employees with remote access to Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com! Once the Library reopens to the public, on-site access will be available to all patrons.

***For state employees with a State Library card, you will be prompted to enter your library card # and password to access these databases remotely. See below if you have any questions.***

Ancestry.com (Library Edition)
https://ezsm.ez.cwmars.org:4643/login?url=https://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com

Ancestry.com is a great resource for those interested in their family history or for more in-depth genealogical research. Users will have access to millions of original US and international documents (vital and military records, census schedules, probate documents, criminal records, etc.), photographs, indexes and directories, oral histories, and much more. 

Note: Ancestry is currently offering remote access until the end of September and will evaluate if an extension is possible, after which only on-site access in the library will be offered.

Newspapers.com (Northeast Collection)

https://ezsm.ez.cwmars.org:4643/login?url=https://newspaperslibrary.proquest.com/?accountid=36683

Newspapers.com’s Northeast Collection offers access to thousands of historical papers that were published in the northeast region of the United States between the 1700s and 2000s. Massachusetts newspapers include those published in Boston, Fitchburg, Fall River, Lowell, North Adams, and Pittsfield. The collection also includes newspapers for other then New England states, as well as New Jersey and Delaware.

Note: Newspapers.com will continue to provide remote and on-site access. 

Need a library card? Have questions?

For state employees that do not have a library card or have a card that’s lost or expired, fill out our card application form and we’ll get back to you asap: https://www.mass.gov/forms/state-library-card-online-application-form 

If you have an active card but do not remember your password—contact us! We can reset it for you and show you how to manage your password from your library account. We can be reached via email at reference.department@mass.gov and are also happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

Reference Department   

The “Zimmer” Newspaper Index

Although the State Library’s “Zimmer” newspaper index has been mentioned in some of our previous blogs, it’s such a great resource that I felt it deserving of its own post.  Developed and maintained by library staff, it was a card index to the “current events” of the time that were featured in late 19th and 20th century Massachusetts newspaper articles.  The bulk of the index covers the years 1878-1937, with some selected entries for earlier and later dates.  Entries include obituaries, political events, speeches, visits of foreign dignitaries, disasters (fires, floods, etc.) and other general newsworthy events.  A later index, which focuses primarily on political and governmental articles featured in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, covers the years 1960-1983.

The card index is nicknamed after Lowell native George Dana Zimmer, who was first appointed as an assistant in the library’s newspaper department by State Librarian Edward H. Redstone in 1924, and later became a senior library assistant.  Its history, however, can be traced back to the year 1891—over 30 years prior to Mr. Zimmer’s appointment.  State Librarian John W. Dickinson, in the library’s 1891 annual report, expressed a dire need for a newspaper index:

The modern newspaper covers so wide a field, in addition to the news of the world embodying carefully prepared special articles upon almost every subject of modern thought or material activity; it has become such an encyclopaedic treasure-house of information upon all subjects which are of interest to the historian or genealogist, the publicist or the student of political, economic or social questions, the merchant or the mechanic, the scientist or the man of letters, that the advisability of the employment of some competent person to make a comprehensive card index to some leading current newspaper, which shall also embody special features and the most important articles in other papers so far as may be practicable, is hereby commended to the careful consideration of the Legislature.  Such an index would save the patrons of the library a vast amount of time which is now spent in research, -- often to no purpose, -- and it would render accessible to public use a vast store-house of valuable material which is now practically unavailable after the day of its publication.

The next year, in 1892, the legislature, via Chapter 140 of the Acts, authorized the library trustees and the librarian “to cause to be prepared, at their discretion, an index to current events, and such other matters as they may deem important, contained in the newspapers of the day.”  James F. Munroe, who was in charge of the newspaper department at the time, created and maintained the “Current Events Index” (as it was previously known) until Zimmer succeeded Munroe in 1924.  Munroe’s “patient care and good judgment” to the project is noted in the library’s 1911 annual report.

The State Library has scanned the main part of the index (1878-1937) and hopes to make the collection available online in the future.  If you have any questions or would like for us to look up a person or event in the index for you, please send us an email (reference.department@mass.gov) or call our reference desk at 617-727-2590.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Brown Bag on the State House News Service

The State House News Service From the 1950’s until 2010


Join us for a BROWN BAG LUNCH on
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
State Library of Massachusetts
Room 442 State House
12 noon until 1:30 PM
Bring your lunch and hear Craig Sandler, General Manager of the State House News Service, speak about the origins of this vital news organization to its operation in today’s Massachusetts State House.

The State Library, along with a plethora of state agencies, officeholders and concerned groups and individuals, subscribes to the “service.” The library holds current materials and archives items back until the 1970’s. The online version is available in the library.

Craig will speak not only about all that the News Service does today, but also about how the “newspaper” field has changed over these decades. To register for the Brown Bag, please go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WDRH97F
You may also do so by calling Reference directly at 617-727-2590 or by e-mailing us at reference.department@state.ma.us.

Sponsored by the Friends of the State Library

Future Brown Bags will include:
November 16th - Dolores Mitchell, Group Insurance Commission
December 16th - Marnie Warner, Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries
January 13th, 2011 - Brian Harkins, the Social Law Library
February 10th, 2011 - Ken Gloss, the Brattle Bookshop
March, 2011 - Bette Siegel, State Library, Federal Digital System
April, 2011 - Lacy Crews Stoneburner, State Library, Preservation

Keys to the City

As an intern in the Special Collections department, I am always excited when I learn something new about the collection. A couple days ago, the preservation librarian, Lacy, showed me this key to the city of Boston. She found it in the vault in a collection of medals. When we looked through the collection again, we found another ceremonial key to the city of Lynn that was presented during the city’s tercentennial celebration. Both keys are gold in color with designs representing the city etched on each side. To give an example, the Lynn key has a pair of high heels on the handle to pay homage to the city’s history as a major center in the shoe industry.

Keys like these two are presented by the mayor to honor individuals for their civic services, or personal or career achievements. The tradition of awarding these keys stems from the Middle Ages when walls surrounded cities and travelers entered through gates. The keys represented free and easy entry into the city as well as trust and respect. I was a bit surprised by the size of the keys. When I think of ceremonial presentations I think about comically oversized checks and I expected the keys to be just as big. Each key is about the size of a skeleton key to an old house, but the key is slightly larger than the Lynn key.

I did a little research about keys presented by the mayor of Boston in the City Record. The City Record documents events and news in Boston and the activities of Boston’s mayor. In the 1925 volume, I found several articles concerning events where Mayor James Michael Curley presented keys. Two articles in particular caught my attention. One was a short note from the Chinese General Consul Ziangling Chang, thanking Mayor Curley for his hospitality and the key to his city. The other article described a visit by the Belgian ambassador to Boston. Mayor Curley presented him a key and accepted a Belgian flag in return. If you are interested in conducting further research, I suggest searching local newspapers and the Zimmer Index for articles about key recipients in Boston and other cities.

Marietta Carr, Special Collections Intern

Learn About the State Library's Scanning Projects

An ongoing initiative at the State Library is the digitization of historic Massachusetts state documents. Small collections tend to be digitized in-house using state-of-the-art scanners, while larger projects are sent to the Boston Public Library’s scanning center. So far, the State Library has digitized around 1000 items, and that number increases daily.

The in-house scanning projects include the Legislative Biographical File, which contains information about members of the Massachusetts General Court and its predecessors, Massachusetts constitutional officers, and members of Massachusetts constitutional conventions from the colonial period to date. Also being scanned at the State Library is a collection of photographs of World War I soldiers from New England and the Zimmer Newspaper Index, which is a card index to "current events" from 1878-1937 for use by Massachusetts legislators and the public. The Zimmer Index was created as a result of the “Act to Authorize the Preparation for the State Library of an Index of Current Events," passed by the Massachusetts legislature in 1892.

Larger scanning projects, such as the journals of the House and the Senate, are sent to the scanning center at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square. Some items from a grant-funded scanning project are also being sent to the BPL; this project involves a collection of nineteenth-century transportation materials, including photographs, maps, atlases, annual reports, and manuscripts.

Digitized items are preserved both in the Internet Archive and the State Library’s online institutional repository, known as DSpace. The Internet Archive also includes other Massachusetts-related documents, such as town and regional histories, which have been scanned by other institutions.

- State Library Staff

Plymouth: People, Politics and Primary Sources

The anxiously awaited exhibit is now open to the public. Please stop by the State Library in room 341 of the Massachusetts State House to view the exhibition of materials from the State Library's collections highlighting the Town of Plymouth and the Wampanoag, the town's first inhabitants. Some items on display include maps from the 1700s to present, town reports and newspapers from the 1800s, a tax valuation from 1784, legislative papers from former Senator Edward Kirby, and library resources on the Wampanoag. When you visit be sure to pick up a copy of the exhibit bibliography, available in the exhibit area. The exhibit runs through January 23, 2009.

Pilgrim Portrait: Baker, George B. The Pilgrim Spirit. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1921.
Portrait of Eben Quippish: Peters, Russell M. The Wampanoags of Mashpee. Jamaica Plain, MA: R.M. Peters, 1987.

- Lacy Crews, Preservation Librarian

Plymouth Exhibit Preview

Here at the State Library we're hard at work in these last few days to put together a great exhibit opening October 6, 2008.

Plymouth: People, Politics, and Primary Sources

We are excited for this exhibit because we will be displaying some original library collections in addition to reproductions. For items that are too large or fragile to be displayed for several months we are photographing or scanning the items to create a print reproduction. This morning I was photographing the May 4, 1822 edition of the Old Colony Memorial And Plymouth County Advertiser newspaper and came across two interesting advertisements, pictured below.

To see more of the May 4, 1822 edition of the Old Colony Memorial And Plymouth County Advertiser, stop by the exhibit cases outside of the main library (State House Room 341) between October 6, 2008 and January 23, 2009.

- Lacy Crews, Preservation Assistant