Spent the day in the San Francisco library researching old newspapers. There’s something satisfying about reading an old newspaper — even if it’s not from the 1800’s. Some of the material is dated, of course. You may not recognize the famous-at-the-moment names in the articles, and the products advertised might be obsolete, but you can see that folks back then lived a lot like we do today. They worried about the same sorts of things. They enjoyed the same sorts of recreation and entertainment. They traveled, voted, lost and found or bought and sold items … newspapers bring the past to life for us in a way that history books can’t.
The really old papers, such as the ones I was reading, are like a little time-machine. Even without photographs, you can see drawings of what people were wearing or buying. You know what they paid for that ferry ride or train trip. You know which play they saw at the local theater. Newspapers are better than almost any other resource when you’re after historical facts and flavor.
If you can manage it, make a trip to the library and read through the old papers (or microfilm) yourself. It’s worth a day of reading. Your characters will become more alive as they move about the town, taking in a debate or play, paying for a taxicab with the actual fees, or even just looking at the local advertisements and dreaming about something they’d buy if they had the money.
What is your favorite historical resource?