No, not the 3-D version of the 1997 mega-hit movie, Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, but the viewing of a stunning array of newspaper images taken from Chronicling America, a featured online resource of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a cooperative initiative to digitize historical newspapers from around the United States.  No special effects are needed to be drawn in and riveted by the press coverage of one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters.

15 April 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  The mighty White Star Liner on its maiden voyage hit an iceberg and within a few hours sunk to the bottom of the cold North Atlantic Ocean, killing over 1,800 men, women, children, and crew members.

Stories of bravery, sacrifice, cowardice, and tragic negligence fill column after column of papers beginning with the late editions of 15 April 1912 and for many days following.  Early dispatches were filled with conflicting information, rumor, and wild conjecture, but over time the sad facts revealed the tragic scope of the disaster.

The pages you see here will be added to the Virginia Newspaper Project’s long-standing web exhibit, Titanic:  100 Years Later, a web exhibit, believe it or not, that predates the release of the movie Titanic in 1997 and even the birthday of Google.  So we’re happy to update the site with a selection of images that show how newspapers communicated to readers through a canny combination of dry news, sensational story telling, and eye-grabbing imagery that the mass reading public had come to expect from the ever evolving and burgeoning newspaper industry.

And while you’re at it, please check out Fit to Print, the Virginia Newspaper Project’s brand new blog.  Right now we’re featuring posts about the infamous Floyd Allen clan and the posts serve as a perfect complement to the work you’ll find here at Out of the Box.  In the coming days, Fit to Print will provide additional coverage of the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic!

-Errol Somay, Newspaper Project Director

Libraries and archives are no longer mere physical spaces. Their presence and influence extends beyond the reading rooms into your Twitter and Facebook feeds, YouTube, and blogs. On November 7, the Library of Virginia will be opening a new exhibit, “Connect with Us,” that explores how the library uses social media to engage and encourage the community.  New acquisitions and unusual items will be displayed and visitors will be encouraged to post comments about the materials and their experiences within the library. Each month throughout the exhibit’s run into February we’ll be featuring a different social media outlet.

Leading up to the exhibit opening we encourage you to connect with us through our various social media outlets: Facebook, @LibraryofVA on Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Multiple Exposure catablog, and the Out of the Boxblog. On Twitter and Facebook, in addition to our event announcements and collections information, we’ll be highlighting unique collections and having a round of trivia contests. To get you started, here is a quick tour of the Library of Virginia’s internet presence.         

On our YouTube channel you can find an introductory video about our mission and collections; videos “From the Conservation Lab;” videos from our book talk series, featuring authors of works on Virginia subjects and Virginia authors of fiction and nonfiction discussing their research and writing; and videos for our “African American Trailblazers” and “Virginia Women in History” programs.

LVA’s photostream on Flickr contains images from the Adolph B. Rice Photograph Collection, which documents life in Richmond during the 1950s and the Hopewell, Virginia Locals of United Mine Workers of America and U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 45, World War Iphotograph collections. The Flickr project is meant to encourage Virginia residents, past and present, to comment on the photos and enhance our understanding of these views of twentieth-century Virginia and its people.

Multiple Exposureis a catablog from LVA’s Special Collections that draws from its wealth of images of family albums, postcards, mixed ephemera, bookplates, photographic prints, etc. The catablog brings greater visibility to our prints and photographs holdings, which are by necessity protected from the literal light of day and often mistakenly considered inaccessible.

Here at Out of the Box blog we share the stories and images discovered by our archivists as they process our many collections. For the “Connect with Us” exhibit, Out of the Box will publish a piece on coroners’ inquisitions, a record type newly available from Local Records Services. Coroners’ inquisitions are investigations into the deaths of individuals who died by a sudden, violent, unnatural or suspicious manner, or died without medical attendance. Causes of death found in these records include murder, infanticide, suicide, exposure to the elements, drownings, train accidents, and natural causes.

This month connect with us on our various social media outlets and don’t forget to join us for the exhibit opening on November 7th.