ABOUT THE GRAPHICS ON MY WEBSITES

BY NOW, THOSE OF MY VIEWERS WHO HAVE BEEN VISITING THIS, AND MY OTHER 3 WEBSITES WILL TESTIFY TO THE FACT THAT THE IMAGES REPRODUCED ARE EQUAL AND IN MANY CASES SUPERIOR TO THE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS.

BACK IN THE 1970'S WHEN I ACQUIRED THIS NEWSPAPER COLLECTION, I HAD NO IDEA THAT I WOULD ULTIMATELY BE ABLE TO ARCHIVE THESE ARTICLES DIGITALLY AND PRESERVE THEM FOR POSTERITY. "DIGITAL IMAGING" AS WE KNOW IT TODAY WAS UNKNOWN BACK THEN. NOT UNTIL THE MACINTOSH "APPLE", THE IBM "AT" AND "PC" (286, 386, 486, PENTIUM, ETC.) PERSONAL COMPUTERS CAME ON THE SCENE DID I REALIZE THAT THERE WAS A TREASURE TROVE OF LOCAL HISTORY WHICH COULD EASILY BE RESTORED INTO PRISTINE CLARITY.

IN THOSE PRE-COMPUTER YEARS, I HAD TO PAGE THROUGH COUNTLESS PAGES, EXTRACTING ARTICLES OF LOCAL INTEREST, AND TRANSCRIBING THEM WITH MY IBM "WORD PROCESSOR" WITH AN 8 INCH FLOPPY DISK, AND A BIT LATER AN UPGRADE TO AN "BROTHER" ELECTRONIC TYPEWRITER WITH THE UNHEARD OF MEMORY OF 8 MEGABYTES. THEN A STATE OF THE ART EPSON "CPM" (MS DOS COMPETITOR) LAPTOP WITH 16 MEGABYTES OF MEMORY AND A TAPE DRIVE, THEN TO ONE OF THE VERY EARLIEST LAPTOPS. IT HAD NO NO HARD DRIVE. JUST A 720 MEGABYTE FLOPPY DISK FOR STORAGE. FINALLY THE
286," "386," "486," AND PENTIUMS BECAME AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND I WAS ON MY WAY. TRANSFERRING ALL THE AFOREMENTIONED OUTPUT TO MY LATES COMPUTER HARD DRIVE WAS A HUGE TASK, TAKING NEARLY 2 MONTHS.

THOSE OLD PAPERS WERE STORED IN MY GARAGE FOR OVER 25 YEARS. BACK THEN, THE PERSONAL COMPUTER AND DIGITAL IMAGING WAS ONLY A DREAM. MOST LIBRARIES SCRAPPED THEIR ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER FILES AND DECIDED THAT MICROFILM REPRODUCTIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PAGES WAS THE WAY TO GO. THEIR PRIME REASON FOR THAT DECISION WAS DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF SPACE REQUIRED FOR STORING THESE HUGE VOLUMES. ACCORDINGLY, MOST OF THOSE TREASURES WENT TO THE RECYCLING PLANT. UNFORTUNATELY MANY VOLUMES OF THE HIGHLY DESIRABLE "TRENTON SUNDAY TIMES ADVERTISER" WERE UNDOUBTEDLY DESTROYED. I SUSPECT THAT THE LIBRARIES WOULD NOT HAVE DISCARDED THESE HISTORIC TREASURES HAD THEY KNOWN THAT THERE WAS A TECHNOLOGY LOOMING ON THE HORIZON WHICH WOULD ENABLE THE ARCHIVIST TO CONVERT TO PAPERLESS GRAPHIC DATABASE.

BEFORE I ACQUIRED THE COLLECTION, I HAD A LOT OF MICROFILM-GENERATED ARTICLES WHICH I PURCHASED AT TEN CENTS A COPY FROM VARIOUS LIBRARIES IN THE AREA. MOST OF THE PRINTOUTS WERE FADED, DUE TO THE POOR PRINT QUALITY ON MOST MICROFILM READERS. BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE CONSTANT WINDING AND REWINDING OF THE MICROFILM REELS USUALLY RESULTED IN VERY SCRATCHY MICROFILM PRODUCING A FINAL PRINTOUT WITH VERTICAL SCRATCHES OBSCURING MUCH OF THE PAGE.