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Breaking News: Introducing Headlines and Heroes

Posted by: Malea Walker

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Imagine 29 miles of shelves filled with newspapers from all over the world. That’s enough to stretch across 425 football fields. Almost enough to sink the Titanic. That’s what you’ll find in our collection plus millions of digitized pages of newspapers in Chronicling America.

“1300 Perish in Wreck of the Titanic.” San Francisco Call. April 16, 1912, page 1.

And holy comic books, Batman! We’ve got more than 145,000 issues of comic books here in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room. You can see some with your favorite superheroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or Ms. Marvel, and get to know new ones from the Golden Age to present.

“Comic Book Milestones” at the Library of Awesome pop-up exhibit, June 14-17, 2017. Photo by Megan Halsband.

So how could we keep all of this to ourselves? We couldn’t. That’s why today, we are launching our new blog, Headlines and Heroes: Newspapers, Comics & More Fine Print, a blog dedicated to showcasing the amazing stories, both real and imaginary, found in our incredible collections of newspapers and comic books. You’ll read about the famous, the notorious, the scandalous, the superheroes and the average Joes.

Watch for Headlines and Heroes every Tuesday afternoon, and a special blog post this Friday for May-the-Fourth.

What are some of the big headlines that you remember? What are some of your favorite issues of comic books? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Comments (5)

  1. Ysidoro Quispe says:

    I am interested in this event publicized on newspapers
    Big headlines: The War of The Pacific (1879-1884) between Peru and Chile.

  2. Sherrie Yunker says:

    Thank you, LOC! A library for everyone. There is no better example of what is right than a vibrant library.

  3. Patricia Andrews says:

    The should be more interesting than ourcurrent news.

  4. Marlene Case says:

    I am so appreciative of the fact that you are digitizing small town newspapers all across America. I found my grandparents’ wedding in 1908 described in a newspaper in Nebraska! Thank you.

  5. song says:

    Hello, this weekend is pleasant for me, for the reason that this occasion i am reading this impressive informative piece of
    writing here at my home.

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