For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara O’Keeffe
608-261-9596
kara.okeeffe@wisconsinhistory.org

June 27, 2019

Two More Historic Wisconsin Newspapers Added to National Digital Database

Madison, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announced the addition of the Vernon County “Censor” and the “Odanah Star/Ashland Chronicle” (1912-1916) to Chronicling America, which is a digital newspaper program and database through the Library of Congress.

“We are really excited to add these two newspapers to the database especially, the “Odanah Star” because it’s an Ojibwe newspaper,” said Randi Ramsden, program manager of the National Digital Newspaper Program for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The “Odanah Star” was first published in 1912 and ran through 1916. The original owner of the publication, Antoine Denomie, Sr., was also a tribal delegate who represented the interests of the Bad River band in Washington, D.C. His successor, Henry Charles Ashmun, was editor from 1913-1916. He had learned the trade of printing from his uncle Harry who worked at the Sault St. Marie News in Sault St. Marie, Michigan and appointed his brother William to be the assistant editor.

The “Odanah Star” was a weekly newspaper that had the usual array of state news, national news, advertisements and sports, but always dedicated the front page to stories about local and national Native American affairs.

“We digitized issues of the “Vernon County Censor” from between January 5, 1898 and December 27, 1922,” said Ramsden. “The “Censor” was a weekly newspaper published between 1856 and 1955 and the title varied in the beginning with the “Western Times,” 1856-1857, and the “Northwestern Times,” 1858-1865.”

Published in Viroqua, Wisconsin the “Censor” aimed to serve as the city, as well as the main county paper and now functions as a great resource to dive into the history of the community.

The free online database is hosted by the Library of Congress and lets users browse historic newspapers from across the country. All digitized newspapers in the database are also full-text searchable. The digitization of the “Censor” is part of the NEH-funded National Digital Newspaper Program, which Wisconsin has been part of since 2015.

The National Digital Newspaper Program is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress. State projects select and digitize historically significant titles that are aggregated and permanently maintained on Chronicling America. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.

For more information visit chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.

About Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.

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