This past weekend I came across the following article concerning digitized newspapers and the impact on research, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/opinion/sunday/the-biographers-new-best-friend.html.  The gist of the article is that biographers can now have access to historical newspapers with digitized content.

Why is this important?

Researchers today can search newspaper articles for people’s names, pseudonyms, key expressions used and more.  In education, we can now teach lessons on a historic time period with actual newspaper articles.  This look into our history is one more piece of the puzzle and choice for young researchers.

One example of a free database is Chronicling America through the Library of Congress.  Take a moment to check it out and be a witness to history.