Meaningful Old Newspapers

One of the things I picked from the leftovers after Grandma & Grandpa Vickers passed away was a small box of newspaper memorabilia that I tend to think belonged to my great-grandmother Leah. One of the papers is the full-edition of the Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 1947 Utah's 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebration. I pulled it out of the long-stored box last month and took it to our monthly Daughters of Utah Pioneers meeting, because the lesson was about the Jubilee Celebration (50th Anniversary of the Pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley) and this newspaper had many photographs documenting the early history of Utah. As we thumbed through the aging papers, I realized they need better preservation.

Google made it easy! I found a newspaper-sized, archival-quality scrapbook, hard-bound with posts! So, now the papers are safely preserved! The earliest is 1937, the latest 1970. Several are at the death of Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, and David O. McKay. The pages shown below are the above mentioned Centennial Celebration, a 1945 message on peace from the First Presidency, a 1959 Anchorage Daily News as Alaska became a State (my Dad’s family lived in Anchorage at the time), and a 1950’s The Evening Post cover when Queen Elizabeth II sailed the royal yacht into the harbor at Chicago (wow, young Elizabeth!).

I’ve looked through the box of papers a few times over the years and enjoyed their historical relevance, but as I compiled them chronologically for archival keeping, I felt especially close to my great-grandmother. These papers were meaningful to her, and now they have become meaningful to me. I will take good care of them!