#dayoffacts

Follow us on Twitter today as we participate in #DayOfFacts, an international effort to remind everyone that facts matter.

It’s Day of Facts! Here’s the Field Museum showing some Awesome Facts

Today we're participating in #DayOfFacts on social media, a campaign on Feb 17 for museums, libraries, archives, cultural & scientific orgs to reaffirm that #factsmatter & all are welcome. One of the most important sources of facts in our society is a free and independent press. Earlier this semester, we hosted a journalism class on historical methods. We got out these seventeenth- and eighteenth-century publications to illustrate just how long the battle for and against press freedom has been fought.

Benjamin Harris, the subject of the top pamphlet in this photoset, is often regarded as the first American journalist. He was accused of printing a seditious pamphlet and imprisoned in 1679, but after regaining his freedom, he returned to journalism. Harris moved to Boston in 1686 and brought out the first real newspaper in North America in 1690. Once again, Harris ran afoul of censors (this time because he hadn't paid for a printing license), and the newspaper shut down after a single issue. Harris returned to London in 1696, and Boston didn't have a continually published newspaper until 1704.

-Kelli

Working in a public library, you would think that the most entertaining thing on offer would be the countless works of fiction. Well, being an archivist in a public library means that it’s always the facts that I find the most fascinating. I’m fortunate enough to be able to handle, scan, and share images, documents, sounds, and film of things that happened generations ago so that I can make history seem more relevant to our daily lives. It’s like working inside a time machine. 

The thing that always captivates me are the faces, and knowing the stories behind them. In most cases the faces I see are anonymous because we don’t have identifying information, but we know their stories via context. Just from the top of this string of images: 

We know that there were vibrant cultures in the Pacific Northwest long before European settlers first explored these breathtaking shores, and that those cultures still endure to this day. This photo was taken on the Tulalip Reservation in 1914  by J.A. Juleen.

We know that men toiled in horrific conditions in local mills, and up in the forests in logging camps. They often died young of disease or catastrophic injuries sustained on the job. Many were left maimed and unable to work. We know that through organizing and unionizing, they eventually succeeded in making changes to ensure they would have workplace safety reforms and the payment of a living wage on which they could support their families, buy homes, and send their kids to school in order to find work outside of the factory. This photo was taken in the Seaside Shingle Mill in 1907  by J.A. Juleen.

We know that women were also in the labor force very early on, and that they marched alongside their male counterparts for change long before they could legally vote. This image of the Women’s Label League was taken at the Everett Labor Day parade in 1912  by J.A. Juleen. 

We know that through backbreaking labor under risk of avalanches, immigrants from different parts of Asia lay track for the Cascade Tunnel, which helped move the Great Northern Railway off the hazardous slopes of the Cascade Range and out of avalanche danger. This photo of track workers was taken in 1928 somewhere near Scenic, WA by Lee Pickett.

We know that many men risked tunnel collapses, avalanches, and other hazards to blast the Cascade Tunnel 7.8 miles through solid rock so that the Railroad could more safely connect the West Coast to the East Coast.  This photo of tunnel excavators was taken in 1928 somewhere near Scenic, WA by Lee Pickett.

We also know that those men and women enjoyed winter recreation in the mountains on their time off, just as much as we do now. We have countless images of people hiking, skiing, camping, mountaineering, boating, and otherwise glorying in all the Pacific Northwest has to offer, going back to our earliest photos. This photo of female skiiers was taken in 1928 somewhere near Scenic, WA by Lee Pickett.

We know that there was a big community of African American Freemasons in Washington State, and that they had their annual meeting in Everett. This is only a small fragment of a panoramic photo that is over 2 feet long. This panoramic photo of the M.W.U. Grand Lodge of Washington was taken in 1926 by J.A. Juleen .

We know that Snohomish County residents loved Indian Motorcycles so much that they formed a big club to go on rides together (this is also a small portion of a panoramic image that is about 3 feet long). This photo of the Indian Motorcycle Club is undated but most likely was taken in the mid-1920s by J.A. Juleen.

We know that basketball was school sport for girls on the Tulalip Reservation as early as 1910, and that they played in divided skirts. Other diaries and images from Everett High School show girls playing basketball, baseball, field hockey, and other sports in the early part of the 20th century. This photo was taken in 1910 by J.A. Juleen.

We know that as a promotion, the Everett Herald hosted a birdhouse making contest and received scores of adorable entries (again, this is a portion of a panoramic photo that is about 2 feet long). This photo was taken in 1916 by J.A. Juleen.

Lastly, since I keep mentioning them, we know that there are massive panoramic prints, and accompanying massive negatives, that were taken in single shots. These weren’t stitched, and the clarity of them is lovely. If you’re ever in the Northwest Room, I would love to show you them, and that’s a fact! 

Last Friday, the Newberry participated in the #DayOfFacts social media campaign. Throughout the day, libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural and scientific institutions shared content related to their missions with the hashtag #DayOfFacts. The purpose of this campaign was to assure people around the world that cultural and scientific institutions remain trusted sources of information and are committed to facilitating the exploration of society, culture, and history from a variety of perspectives. To learn more about why we participated in #DayOfFacts, read our blog post.

We posted this tweet on our @NewberryLibrary Twitter feed on Friday, featuring one of our French Revolutionary pamphlets by Thomas Paine. In this text, Paine, the American revolutionary and author of Common Sense, advocated for exile in America for Louis XVI so that the king would learn about democracy. This tweet was featured in a Quartz article on #DayOfFacts, which compiled a selection of tweets from the campaign.