{"id":2920,"date":"2011-03-08T15:59:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T19:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=2920"},"modified":"2011-03-29T09:51:33","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T13:51:33","slug":"new-blog-showcases-dayton-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/03\/08\/new-blog-showcases-dayton-history\/","title":{"rendered":"New blog showcases Dayton history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Orville<\/a>

Orville Wright, 1927<\/p><\/div>\n

Wright State University staff members are busy sifting through photos of Orville Wright, Matilda Dunbar and the Beatles. They\u2019re organizing the last 100 years of our region\u2019s history as they process material from the Dayton Daily News archive, which is now housed in the university\u2019s library.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also created a blog<\/a> to chronicle the preservation and organization of the archives. Posts highlight important historical events or people, and often include galleries of images from the archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dayton Daily News archive is a gold mine of local, regional and national history,\u201d said Dawne Dewey, head of Wright State Special Collections and Archives. \u201cThis is a great opportunity to make this enormous treasure of Dayton\u2019s history widely available to the Miami Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2009, the Dayton Daily News announced that it would donate its entire archive of historical newspapers and photographs to the Wright State University Libraries\u2019 Special Collections and Archives, doubling the size of the university\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n

The university received a major grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to hire a full-time archivist, Bill McIntire, to oversee the project. After completing an inventory of the entire collection, McIntire, graduate assistant Phillip Elam and other staff from the archive began organizing the archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts size and the preservation issues that news clippings and photos present make it the largest and most challenging project we have ever undertaken,\u201d said Dewey.<\/p>\n

\"Circus<\/a>

Circus parade in the streets of Dayton, 1899<\/p><\/div>\n

Arriving in several hundred filing cabinets and storage boxes, the Dayton Daily News archive contains 3\u20134 million items, including photographs, bound newspapers, news clippings and microfilm from the Dayton Daily News and the former Journal Herald.<\/p>\n

All of this material must be catalogued and organized before the archives can be made available to researchers and the public, a process that will take about two years. In the meantime, the archives staff takes daily requests for materials from the Dayton Daily News newsroom.<\/p>\n

Of all the treasures in the collection, McIntire said he most enjoys the photos of important figures who have visited Dayton over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am literally processing the history of Dayton and that is very rewarding,\u201d said McIntire.<\/p>\n

Wright State\u2019s Special Collections and Archives was established in 1969 and maintains world-class collections in aviation history, along with extensive collections of local and regional history. The Wright State archives are dedicated to the collection and preservation of the documentation of greater Dayton\u2019s history. It also provides access and service to researchers from the campus, the local community and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\t\t