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Author
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Topic: Newspaper Clippings
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teachspace
Member Posts: 74
From: river edge, nj usa
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 09-29-2003 02:23 PM
   
Has anyone collected the newspaper clippings from the human missions? I don't see much posted, written or talked about.Joe Lennox ------------------
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DChudwin
Member Posts: 1096
From: Lincolnshire IL USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 09-29-2003 06:34 PM
I have collected newspaper clippings for all of the missions from Glenn's Mercury flight in Feb. 1962 until the last shuttle mission. It is fascinating to go back to some of the l960's newspapers and read about the attitudes concerning space exploration then--it's quite a contrast to the negative approach the media takes now. For some of the major events, e.g. Apollo 11, I have saved the entire front section. For the others just the front page and clippings. I agree that saving these old papers is not commonly discussed in this forum or elsewhere. With the advent of the Internet the more recent content is available on-line, but I am not sure how much of the Apollo era material isor is not. David |
spaceman1953
Member Posts: 953
From: South Bend, IN
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 09-29-2003 10:44 PM
Got newspaper clippings back to Shepard Mercury but not complete and only hit or miss.
WARNING: DO NOT EVER WRITE ON YOUR NEWSPRINT WITH A BALL POINT PEN. The "ink" WILL bleed through and make a genuine anda likely non-repairable mess.I saw clips from the old days where Mercury astro's wives saved clippings....they had a huge scrapebook that they (presumably) glued the stuff in. There ARE "huge" "sheet protectors available now for full sized newspaper pages. I did make a REALLY cool and complete "scrapebook" of clippings for Apollo 15...the first of the "J" missions. Have a clipping identifying one astronaut as completely another. Anyway, the scrapebook I used was smaller than a whole broadsheet newspaper size....I would fold the paper neatly and leave a bit of the size of the page I as gluing on and glued thatt portion. Then the rest of the page could be folded out for viewing. Gluesticks these days would make such a project much easier. I "washed" a newspaper once....Gemini 7/6 if I remember correctly...was lining the kitchen cold air furnace register....I took it out and hung it on the clothsline and literally sprayed it down with the hose ! Came out in REALLY good shape ! Neil Armstrong's hometown newspaper for the landing says "NAIL ARMSTRONG STEPPED ON THE MOON" (That is a praphrase). But I always got a kick out of NAIL stepping on the Moon. Now that I am older....at least by the calendar....I will write to a newspaper, like the Derry H.H. papers I scarffed when Alan Shepard died....and of course, ordering a stash of the Columbia newspapers in February of those sets Florida Today put out were a must have. Oh yeah, the older part....the s,all heavy stock "signs" off of Sho-Racks are REALLY cool if you get them before the rain and sun makes a mess. I will usually wait an appropriate day or two before snatching a supply....and I ain't the only person by any stretch of the imagination collecting them ! Have fun ! Gene Bella
South Bend |
teachspace
Member Posts: 74
From: river edge, nj usa
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 09-30-2003 09:06 AM
Thanks for your reply, David. I have a very similar collection of clippings.------------------
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teachspace
Member Posts: 74
From: river edge, nj usa
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 09-30-2003 09:13 AM
Thanks Gene. No, I'd never write on the clippings. Glue sticks are quicker but they don't hold for long periods of time. I use acid free rubber cement to glue the individual clippings into scrapbooks. My collection is complete - every American human flight is covered. I actually subscribe to "Florida Today" because if I relied on the local papers to cover a shuttle mission. I'd have about 5 clippings for each flight! Have a great day,
Joe ------------------
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Cliff Lentz
Member Posts: 655
From: Philadelphia, PA USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 09-30-2003 09:22 AM
I've been collecting newspaper clippings for quite some time. The problem with newspaper is that it's the cheapest type of paper to print on. It yellows very fast and tends to be quite fragile. Before the digital age, Newspaper organizations would print a 100% rag paper version of each paper to insure an archive of their product and of the history it contains. I'm not sure if that practice is still being used. More than likely they are scanning their papers which could be an option for all of us. I've tried a lot ways to preserve my articles: Archival sheeves, Laminating, some polycoating, and the old basic-keep out of the sunlight, but it's probably a losing battle.Cliff |
Fra Mauro
Member Posts: 1586
From: Bethpage, N.Y.
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 09-30-2003 09:45 AM
I've been doing it for years. My earliest clipping goes back to Gemini 6 |
teachspace
Member Posts: 74
From: river edge, nj usa
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 09-30-2003 09:52 AM
Thanks Cliff, Yes, newspaper paper is a problem. Since my clippings are kept in closed books, they stay in pretty good shape, buy yellowing is a problem. I'm in the process of taking digital pictures of each clipping and transferring them to a CD. If you magnify the image on the computer, it's very readable. Since I have so many clippings, I'll probably be working on this project for the next 20 years!! Thanks,
Joe |
BLACKARROW
unregistered
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posted 09-30-2003 06:09 PM
In 1961 when Yuri Gagarin went into space, I was 6 years old. My father fired my enthusiasm and helped me cut photographs of Gagarin out of the local newspapers. I glued them, rather inadequately, into a scrapbook and when Alan Shepard flew less than a month later, my father again helped me to cut out pictures from the papers and I added them to the scrapbook. For some reason I can't remember, there are no cuttings of John Glenn's flight, although it was a hot topic of conversation in school, even among 7-year-olds!In September, 1969, I gathered a large pile of Apollo 11 cuttings into a scrapbook and transferred the old 1961 cuttings to a more presentable format highlighting the Gagarin and Shepard flights. After that I filled a separate scrapbook for each Apollo mission, including press cuttings, NASA photographs, magazine articles and photographs which I took off the TV during live and recorded coverage of the Moonwalks. The best scrapbooks, I think, are Apollos 16 and I7, but Apollo 15 is particularly memorable as Jim Irwin looked through it in 1983, told me how impressed he was by it, and signed the back cover! I still have all of the scrapbooks (together with a mountain of newspapers covering the Apollo missions, Russian missions and all of the most memorable shuttle flights.) The news cuttings become yellower as the years go by, and sellotape I used to attach "page-extensions" has become brittle, but the memories and dreams held within those scrapbooks are priceless and every now and again I browse through one of them to relive a very remarkable time in our history. |
EagleKeeper
New Member Posts:
From:
Registered:
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posted 09-30-2003 07:09 PM
I've also got a ton of the old clippings. just nothing to do with them at this time.
Brian.
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ALAIN
Member Posts: 355
From: GENT, Belgium
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-01-2003 06:33 AM
You guys are truly amazing ! |
Steve Procter
Member Posts: 1031
From: Leeds, Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Oct 2000
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posted 10-01-2003 07:38 AM
For those of you whose clippings are getting a bit 'past it' I believe here in the UK WH Smith offer a service so you can buy copies of older newspapers (if you know what dates you need).I understand these are not re-prints or facsimilies but actual papers printed at the time and stockpiled. I seem to remember The Times offering a service for its own copies once. Steve |
heng44
Member Posts: 3386
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 10-01-2003 07:43 AM
I know a lot of people here in The Netherlands who started their hobby by collecting newspaper clippings, myself included. I threw most of these away when I discovered better sources of information, such as NASA publications.Several years ago I obtained a collection of complete newspaper clippings (in Dutch) from Alan Shepard's Freedom-7 through Apollo-Soyuz. Even three-sentence clippings announcing crew elections were included. I realized that these represent a wonderful piece of contemporary history, even though they are often inaccurate. I have "processed " most of these by now, cutting and pasting tem on 20x30cm (A4) blank pages and finally photocopying, making them into books sorted by subject and by flight. Great to leaf through and re-live those days. I still have all the original pages with the articles pasted on them, so I can make new copies when mine are damaged. Ed Hengeveld |
teachspace
Member Posts: 74
From: river edge, nj usa
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 10-01-2003 09:06 AM
Thank you all so much for your wonderful replies. I have the clippings from EVERY human American space flight from Shepard to Columbia. They are kept in 130 scrapbooks that contain over 12,000 pages totaling about 35,000 clippings. They do bring back tremendous memories when I look at them. I always wondered how many people did the same collecting. When I'm no longer around (hopefully not for a long time), my scrapbooks will be maintained and displayed at The Astronaut Hall of Fame at KSC as I've willed them almost all of my collection (much more than just the scrapbooks). I've made all the arrangements with the curator. I'm so pleased that kids will continue to benefit from my 40+ years of work and love. ------------------
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MarylandSpace
Member Posts: 1336
From:
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 10-01-2003 03:42 PM
I send some of our local newspaper clippings to astronauts I write to let them see the spin from the suburbs. |
mikepf
Member Posts: 441
From: San Jose, California, USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-03-2003 05:05 PM
I was almost 12 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. My wonderful Aunt Rosemary used to save clippings from several out-of-town papers for me. She gave great support to my early enthusiasm for the space program. It was at her house that I watched the first steps on the moon. I eventually began to tape the clippings into a scrapbook where they are to this day. The clippings go from Apollo 11 through the early shuttle missions. For some reason lost to time, there are none for Apollos 12 and 13. These clippings were my first space collectibles. I have thought about untaping them and reorganizing the scrapbook from time to time, but, as is, it not only commemorates those great historical events, but part of my own personal history as well.
Regards,
Mike |
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