Note: the scan function was being disagreeable today. I will hopefully find time to come back and get good, legible scans second article mentioned below.
As my first experience using microfilm, I was not sure what to expect as far as the process (or the potential for success, for that matter). With no bar to surpass, disappointment in microfilm seemed an impossibility.
My work comes entirely from Carlisle Newspapers On Microfilm reel 38 (Carlisle Herald, 10/05/1866 – 09/19/1872).
I heard microfilm work was tedious and boring, and while the former proved true, I immensely enjoyed scanning through articles and advertisements; journalism of the 1860s and 70s occasionally strayed into the sarcastic and highly critical realms that today’s papers sadly avoid. The views on political issues such as suffrage and separation of church and state were all very interesting to see from this time period. Issues of race, however, seemed to be conspicuously avoided almost everywhere I looked. Additionally, I first found the name Bentz not as a hotel, but as a fabric retailer in an advertisement.
Of all places, however, my first really interesting piece of information came before Douglass even got to Carlisle. On February 1, 1872, the Herald reported the following story:
Douglass in St. Louis
“Frederick Douglass recently went to St. Louis and registered himself at the Planter’s Hotel. Some very superior specimen of humanity, who was charged with the responsible duties of hotel clerk, erased his name from the register and refused to allow him to take his dinner at the house. This is, perhaps, as small a piece of business as any man could have been guilty of.” (1)
This sounds extremely similar to the Bentz House snubbing. Perhaps the only difference is that ante-bellum Missouri was a slave state.
The article run the week of his visit made no mention of the Bentz House incident, but an article in the next week’s paper dealt with the issue more directly. (2) Carlisle Herald discusses Bentz House Snub (EDIT: a transcript of this article is available through House Divided at this website: http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/library/Smith2005.pdf)
Generally speaking, this has been the most successful source thus far. I’m excited to get into the archives and see what I can find, especially for images.
1) The Carlisle Herald, February 1, 1872, page 2 column A. Carlisle Newspapers on Microfilm, reel 38.
2) The Carlisle Herald, March 14, 1872, page 2 column A-B. Carlisle Newspapers on Microfilm, reel 38.
Good work. You should make this post public and and if possible, enhance it with an image of one of the articles included as a picture. Or, if not, perhaps just an image of Douglass from the period.