This is the home of the Idaho Newspaper History podcast. The site also contains 1,055 newspaper poems, from American newspapers published between September 1912 and July 1915.
This podcast is part of an ongoing exploration of the newspaper archives at the Library of Congress website Chronicling America.
Idaho Newspaper History is an appreciation of the thought and writing of Idahoans over a century ago. Each day, articles are presented that appeared in an Idaho newspaper 108 years ago.
As an audiobook narrator and radio broadcaster, it made sense to present these as narrations, for listening rather than reading, to evoke something of the family at the kitchen table while interesting bits of the paper are shared among the family.
Why 108 years?
Going back a century felt somewhat arbitrary. Searching for more fertile time spans, I looked at various cycles, including weather, astronomical events, mathematics, business, and superstitions. Multiples of the Metonic cycle (19 years) were interesting, as were planetary returns. The number 108 is significant in some cultures, and it has interesting factors: two squared times three cubed.
Comparing the results of various time spans, 108 years was consistently fruitful. Newspaper material from 108 years ago is safely in the public domain, and so after some practical research, it became the timespan used for Idaho Newspaper History.
I hope you find something you like among this podcast’s myriad gems.