finding aid - Rochester Institute of Technology

RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
The Wallace Center at RIT
90 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623
(585) 475-2408 | http://cary.rit.edu
A very few titles in this list are technically probably not amateur
newspapers, but as they came with the collection, they were entered
into the database.
Duplicate issues were retained. That is why there are sometimes identical
entries in the database.
A few amateur booklets, and a small amount of paper ephemera,
came with the collections This material has been foldered at the end
of the collection (in box 5) and is listed here.
Because of the challenges of the computer program, an issue that has
a number such as volume 2, numbers 3 and 4, is listed as volume 2,
number 3.4. And an issue that spans two months, such as July and
August is listed as 7.8. (In other words, the program could not deal
with the word “and” or the “&” symbol.)
For titles beginning with “The”, the “The” was entered after the title,
thus “The Observer” has been entered as “Observer, The”. However,
the computer has understood it such that it has filed it after a title
such as, “Observer and Critic.”
In the geographical listing, the two Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia
and Ontario, were inter-alphabetized with those for the states.
Related Topics
The Cary Collection contains several reference titles useful for studying
amateur newspapers. They are Truman J. Spencer, “A Cyclopedia
of the Literature of Amateur Journalism,” 1891; Truman J. Spencer,
“The History of Amateur Journalism,” 1957; and Ralph Babcock,
“Your Thoughts; The Story of Amateur Journalism,” 1983.
The National Amateur Press Association, founded in 1876 as the first
group in the world for those interested in amateur newspapers and
the various aspects of their publication and production, continues
to this day. It has an annual convention, a quarterly journal, and an
exchange program. Its website contains historical information relating
to the history of amateur journalism.