Search your newspaper in Chronicling America for the crime that is the subject of that week in either 1880 & 1900 or 1900 & 1920.
- Click on Collection Items to access the Advanced Search
2. In the row of buttons lick the “Pages (Full Text)” button
In the search terms, add a term from the list in the syllabus for the crime you are researching
- If the term is a phrase, click on ‘any of these words’ and change it to ‘this exact phrase’
3. Select the State of your newspaper from the pulldown list
4. Select the title of your newspaper from the pulldown list
5. For each year (1880 & 1900 OR 1900 & 1920), begin by searching for the period 6/1 – 6/30
- For EG, if you chose the period 1880-1900
- first, in start date, put 06/01/1880; in end date put 06/30/1880
- find at least 20 stories about the crime from 1880
- next, in start date, put 06/01/1900; in end date put 06/30/1900
- find at least 20 stories about the crime from 1900
- first, in start date, put 06/01/1880; in end date put 06/30/1880
- if a search for the whole month produces too many results, search for 6/1 – 6/15; continue to reduce the time frame until you have a manageable set of results
- if a search for the whole month produces too few results, extend the period of the search to include additional months or years
Check each result to ensure the story reports a crime (eg is not just a list, a fictional story, or a use of the search term as a metaphor, or refers to a war etc). Your list must include only stories about the crime.
- For items that are crimes, scroll to the top of the page and click the share button and then the chain icon to copy the url or copy the url in the address bar of your web browser
- Paste the url into a Google sheet titled with the name of the paper, the term you searched and the dates you searched; add a brief note on the details of the crime
- To share the completed sheet listing 40 stories with Prof. Robertson, click on the Share button on the top right and enter his gmail address: srob4757@gmail.com
