Notes Regarding the Newspaper Collection

Issues of these newspapers still remaining in the 1960’s were microfilmed then.  We should be grateful that most of the collection survived, to be saved on film, but there are some points to remember when looking for a specific item.

The paper often contained more pages than those on microfilm.  This is seen when an article from page one is said to be continued on page four, but it is found on the next page.  There may be a notation on the front page of 10 pages, but only 4 exist on microfilm.  It is impossible to tell how many pages might be missing, since there was no page numbering in the years of papers indexed.

Within the range of the Newspaper index, a list of those issues totally missing is below.

As with the index, the publication date is in the format as yyyy-mm-dd

Missing Issues (In the Range of the Index)

 

Richland Republican
and Observer
1881-01-13

1881-03-10

1881-03-24

1882-03-09

1882-03-23

1883-10-04

1884-07-03ª

1884-10-16ª

1888-03-01

1888-06-07

1888-06-14

1888-06-21

1889-11-21

1892-05-19

1892-09-29

1898-06-30

ªIssues not on microfilm,
but available only as scans at the Richland County History Room.

Richland Democrat
1880-10-22

1880-12-31

1881-02-11

 

Richland Democrat
and Farmer

None missing, but only
4 issues were published,
1881-05-13 to 1881-06-03

 

Richland
Union Democrat
Published between
Jan 3, 1884 and 1885.

Only one issue,
1884-March 13,
was microfilmed.

Richland Rustic
1883-01-06

1883-01-13

1883-07-07

1883-10-13

1885-06-06

1885-08-29

1887-04-02

1887-09-24

1888-03-10

1888-11-17

1888-12-01

1891-08-29

1893-09-30

34 issues between
1895-04-06 and
1895-11-23 inclusive

Special note regarding "Newly found" newspapers.

Microfilms of Richland County newspapers were made by the WI Historical Society from original newspapers still existing at that time.  They maintain "Master" reels and all copies are made by them.  However, after these were filmed, a donation was made of old newspapers to the Richland County History Room.

When the Newspaper Index was sorted by publication date a list was generated of "missing issues."  This list reflects information only available on microfilm.  The Richland County History Room compared their inventory of original papers against the missing issues list.  Thus, “newly found” papers were discovered.

During a visit to Richland County, I was able to read original newspapers and index them as those on microfilm and the librarian was able to scan the paper very carefully to produce an image of the entire issue.
At this time, the only copies of these editions are at the Richland County History Room.

Only a small fraction of issues on microfilm still exist in their original form and are extremely fragile.

Margaret Jordan
March 31, 2007