BY Joan Hori and Martha Chantiny –A National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) website, Chronicling America provides free public access to digitized American newspapers published from 1836 to 1922 from various states, including Hawaii. The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa, the project to digitize various microfilmed Hawaii’s newspapers:
Austin’s Hawaiian Weekly (Honolulu, 1899-1900)
The Daily Bulletin (Honolulu, 1882-1895)
Daily Honolulu Press (Honolulu, 1885-1886)
The Democrat (Honolulu, 1910)
The Evening Bulletin (Honolulu, 1895-1912)
The Garden Island (Lihue, 1911-1922)
Hawaii Holomua (Honolulu, 1893-1895)
The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu, 1868-1913)
The Hawaiian Star (Honolulu, 1893-1912)
Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, 1912-1916)
The Honolulu Times (Honolulu, 1902-1911)
Hilo Tribune (Hilo, 1902-1906)
The Honolulu Republican (Honolulu, 1900-1902)
The Independent (Honolulu, 1895-1905)
Maui News (1900-1922)
The Polynesian (1840-1864)
The Saturday Press (Honolulu, 1880-1885)
The Library of Congress will aggregate and permanently maintain the digitized newspapers. Eventually, Chronicling America will have digitized newspapers from every U.S. state.
Chronicling America also features historical essays about the digitized newspapers, topic guides (those relating to Hawaii include Hawaii’s statehood and leprosy in Hawaii), and a directory of most of the newspapers that have ever been published in the United States.
As the “rough draft” of history, newspapers in Hawaii documented and shaped historical moments, including the leprosy epidemic in Hawaii, the labor strikes in the plantations, and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. Students and scholars research historical newspaper to learn about everyday life in different times (e.g. the opinions and cost of living back then), historical events, and the fashion and products featured in the advertisements. Students and scholars study the news articles, editorials, and advertisements to research about political and social movements and language use in different time periods. Community members conduct genealogical research, searching for content with their relatives’ names.
For more information on the Chronicling America project, visit the following websites:
Chronicling America
https://chroniclingamerica.com
Hawai‘i Digital Newspaper Project
https://sites.google.com/a/hawaii.edu/ndnp-hawaii/
University of Hawai‘i Library LibGuide
https://guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/chroniclingamerica
National Digital Newspaper Program
https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/
https://neh.gov/projects/ndnp
Snippets from Hawaii’s newspapers can be seen on the library’s Flickr account:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhmlibrary/collections/72157623751147050/
Here are links to a few articles that covered significant historical events in Hawaii’s history:
“Kilauea Crater Continues in Eruption”
“She has established over among the hot cracks a Devil’s Kitchen in which the guide tells you she prepares her fiery luaus and roasts the legion of departed souls of those who were not good.”
Hilo tribune., February 28, 1905, Image 1
https://chroniclingamerica.com/lccn/sn82016339/1905-02-28/ed-1/seq-1/
Beginning of the Outdoor Circle’s Fight Against Billboards in Hawaii
The Hawaiian gazette., April 05, 1912, Image 1
https://chroniclingamerica.com/lccn/sn83025121/1912-04-05/ed-1/seq-1/
“Liliuokalani’s Mission: Wants a New Election for President of Hawaii”
Evening bulletin. (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii) 1895-1912, April 27, 1897, Image 1
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016413/1897-04-27/ed-1/seq-1/
“Governor Dole Takes the Oath”
The Honolulu Republican, June 15, 1900
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047165/1900-06-15/ed-1/seq-1/