Article from an unknown source by Jennifer Sullivan about the Maine State Library\u27s efforts to preserve Le Messager on microfilm with a federal grant from the National Endowment from the Humanities.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/le-messager/1052/thumbnail.jp

Sullivan, Jennifer

English

University of Southern Maine: Digital Commons@USM

University of Southern Maine USM Digital Commons Le Messager Documents, Items, and Photographs Le Messager 6-16-1994 Le Messager: Lewiston's French language newspaper will be recorded by state for posterity [Article] Jennifer Sullivan Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/le-messager Recommended Citation Sullivan, Jennifer, "Le Messager: Lewiston's French language newspaper will be recorded by state for posterity [Article]" (1994). Le Messager Documents, Items, and Photographs. 51. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/le-messager/51 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Le Messager at USM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Le Messager Documents, Items, and Photographs by an authorized administrator of USM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact jessica.c.hovey@maine.edu. Le M8SSager: . , • I Lewiston's French language newspaper will be recorded by state for posterity ... By JENNIFER SULLIVAN Sun-Journal Staff Writer LEWISTON - Le Messager, the French language newspaper that thrived here for nearly 70 years, will be recorded on microfilm at the Maine State Library - and re-searchers are turning to Chicago archives to do it. The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a $190,000 federal grant to the library for recording of every issue of Le Mes-sager as well as cataloging of more than 1,700 titles from historic Maine newspapers. In its heyday, Le Messager re-ported on the lives of Franco-Amer-icans in Maine and was believed to be unique in the region. It began publishing in the late 19th century and folded around 1968. "Le Messager chronicles a time period and an ethnic group that's o~en underrepresented in our his-tory," Janet Roberts, the project's coordinator, said Wednesday. "Overall, in the preservation of newspapers, ideally you'd save everything," she said. "But at the very least, you'd want to have a good representation from different , •, · 11ay preserving these historic news-:paper~, .·"!,.,~F1P·i'.,:'t;_tI\ preserve our· ablhty .. , as a natiorlto learn ' .. abouf our'past t. s~.~ldonJiac~~!~ .. -:i:l{c::::: time periods, different geographic areas and different ethnic groups in history. Le Messager fits that." Copies of Le Messager are avail-able on microfilm at libraries in Maine, and the Lewiston Public Li-brary has an extensive collection stretching into the 1940s. "There is some microftlm, but it's very poor quality. As I understand it, it was done for bankruptcy pro-ceedings, not for use by re-searchers," Roberts said. "So we'll be borrowing the papers from a li-brary in Canada to microftlm it." Roberts · was not sure where the newspapers are in Chicago or how they came to be there, though she'll find out as research progresses. · At least one original 19th century copy can still be found in Lewiston, but researchers would have a tough time getting it: It was included in a time capsule sealed into the City Building's cornerstone on Oct. 1, 1890. The federal grant was awarded through the national endowment's · U.S. Newspaper Program, a nation-al effort begun in 1982 to encourage · state-level preservation, cataloging : and bibliographic listings of Amert- · can newspapers. , · All 50 states and two territories · are participating. : "Newspapers are a historian's ' time machine," .said NEH Chairman · Sheldon Hackney in' announcing ' the Maine award. "They provide eyewitness ac-counts of events both large and small that have helped shape our · country," he said. "By preserving these historic newspapers, we help preserve our ability as a nation to learn about our past and to gain a degree of in-sight about our path into the fu-ture." ' 

Le Messager: Lewiston\u27s French language newspaper will be recorded by state for posterity [Article]

https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&amp;context=le-messager

Le Messager: Lewiston\u27s French language newspaper will be recorded by state for posterity [Article]

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