How to Find Old Kirksville Newspaper Coverage Online

Searching an old newspaper is not the same as searching the modern web.

The issue you need may not be digitized, the newspaper may have changed names, and the OCR can completely miss a word that is plainly visible on the page.

Kirksville researchers have several useful starting points.

Start with Chronicling America

The Library of Congress identifies the Weekly Graphic as a Kirksville newspaper published from 1880 to 1949.

Chronicling America currently provides a digitized run from May 1880 through December 1896.

That is a large collection, but it is not the entire publication history.

A newspaper title lasting until 1949 does not mean every issue through 1949 is searchable online.

Use Missouri Digital Newspapers

The State Historical Society of Missouri operates Missouri Digital Newspapers.

It provides freely searchable Missouri newspaper material and also links some material hosted through outside platforms.

Access can depend on how you enter the collection.

Do not assume everything on an outside newspaper platform is free merely because some SHSMO-referred material is.

Check the Adair County newspaper directory

The State Historical Society of Missouri publishes an Adair County newspaper directory showing:

• newspaper title;
• publication dates;
• microfilm reels;
• online availability;
• interlibrary-loan information.

This is the place to go when you know the approximate date but cannot find the expected newspaper online.

It also helps with title changes.

Historic papers could rename, merge, suspend publication or restart under another title.

OCR is useful and unreliable

Historical newspaper search usually depends on OCR: software trying to read text from scanned pages.

OCR commonly fails on:

• faded paper;
• damaged microfilm;
• narrow columns;
• decorative type;
• hyphenated words;
• unusual names.

A failed keyword search does not prove the subject never appeared.

If the first search fails:

1. shorten the search term;
2. try initials;
3. try alternate spellings;
4. search a spouse or business partner;
5. search the street name;
6. narrow to the likely date;
7. browse the issue manually.

A human eye can often find what OCR missed.

Search the newspaper around the event, not just on one date

For a known event, look at:

• the issue on or after the date;
• the following issue;
• later follow-up stories;
• anniversary coverage;
• obituaries or retrospectives.

A fire, court case or business closing may be covered more clearly several days later than in the first rushed report.

Businesses may appear as ads instead of news

A business can show up in:

• display advertisements;
• classified ads;
• legal notices;
• social columns;
• news articles.

Search both the business name and the proprietor's name.

When online searching stops, use local archives

The Adair County Historical Society holds Kirksville Daily Express newspaper material and has local research resources including a microfilm scanner.

That does not mean the entire Daily Express archive is searchable online.

Sometimes the research process genuinely ends with: "the issue exists, but someone has to look at the microfilm."

Save enough citation information to find the page again

Record:

• newspaper title;
• date;
• page;
• headline;
• repository;
• stable item link when available.

If downloading is permitted, save the page image or PDF in addition to OCR text.

The scanned page is the historical source.

The OCR is merely a somewhat drunk typist trying to help.