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This blog is for publishing content from the Nashville Globe, a black newspaper of Nashville, TN published from 1906-1960. Use the search above to search across the posts, use the labels on the sidebar to browse by major topics. If you would like to help transcribe content, pleae contact me. My transcribing will not be perfect, but I'll make a conscious effort to be very careful. This is not meant to be exhaustive, I am trying to stay focused on items of local interest.

At Grave Mappers, we are genealogists, researchers, historians, hobbyists, and cemetery lovers who have something in common—we want to preserve the priceless records found in cemeteries. Each of us has done this in our own unique way—walking through small deserted cemeteries and transcribing the headstone information; photographing headstones and sharing them on the internet; indexing and publishing burial listings from the cemeteries we visit.

Baylor University has announced that a small archive of Civil War letters has been digitized and is now available at the Baylor University Library Digital Collections site. The collection consists of thirty-two letters, mostly between a soldier and his sweetheart. The letters have been both digitized and transcribed; from the front page of the collection you can browse the letters in chronological order. The next-to-last item is the burial receipt for John Coleman, who wrote most of the letters (he died in 1880) and the last item — a really nice touch — is a chronological transcription of all the letters, presented in a PDF file. Click on a letter and you’ll get a good-sized picture; a lot of them are tough to read however (especially the ones written on blue paper.) On the left nav you’ll have the option to view the document description (the letter itself), the page description, or the page and text. Choose the page and text option; you’ll get a good copy of the letter to browse but also a transcription in a popup window. The transcriptions aren’t perfect, but they’re very good. John Coleman is an interesting man. Melancholy, frustrated, worried about his girlfriend and family, occasionally bored, he mixes home and war news equally. His girlfriend writes back patiently, their letters often missing each other. The good transcriptions and the focus on two people make this a fascinating read. Well done Baylor.

Library CDs capture GH history It is now possible for Loutit District Library patrons to hear stories of what life was like in the Grand Haven area in the early 20th century in the words of local citizens. Loutit District Library received $16,314 from the Library of Michigan's Digitization for Preservation and Access grant program to preserve in digital form interviews with Grand Haven area citizens recorded by local historian Dr. David Seibold and others. The CDs can be checked out at the library. The project was developed in cooperation with the Tri-Cities Historical Museum. Museum volunteers conducted interviews from the late 1970s through the early 1900s to preserve first-hand recollections of life in the area. Very few of the people whose voices were captured on tape are still living. Among those available is an interview with Ray O'Malley, a survivor of the sinking of the Escanaba, who died recently. There are more than 100 CD-ROMs with more than 6,600 minutes of interviews. In addition, more than 50 interviews were transcribed and can be searched by keyword or printed. Each of the CD-ROMs includes historical photographs from the library's collection. Patrons can listen to the interviews and view the photographs at the library or check out a CD-ROM, which can be accessed on their personal computers. Beginning in June, these materials will be available on the library's Web site, www.loutitlilbrary.org, along with many other local history and genealogy resources.