Media History

The Dutch Press Museum, which is now part of the Institute of Sound and Image in Hilversum, is dedicated to the history of Dutch Journalism. They provide exhibitions, educational programms, brochures etc. The American equivalent is the wonderful and interactive Newseum in Washington D.C. In Germany there is a press museum in Aken. The Portugese press museum has a nice website (also in English) containing informatie about press history.

In the UK a very nice website is dedicated to the important pioneer in English journalism William T. Stead (1849-1912) He is one of the founding fathers of independent research journalism; a man who liked to call himself ’the voice of the people’. Razor sharp comment, well written reportages, participating journalism.. he did it alll. He died while doing his duty: in 1912 he travelled to the USA on a ship that happened to be the Titanic heette. The rest is history.

In the USA there is an association of journalism historians: American Journalism Historians Association. In the more broad group of researchers in journalism and media there is a historical branch and discussion platform JHistory.

Scripps University hosts a website dedicated to Journalism History. A very interesting website dedicated to the popular image of journalism in fiction films and other popular fiction publications.

On the internet everyday again more historical sources become available. The complete editions of a lot of Dutch newspapers are made available by Royal Library. The complete war editions of the important resistance newspaper Het Parool are also on internet. An enormously rich source for Dutch press culture offers the complete edition of De Groene Amsterdammer between 1877 and 1940.

The Rotterdam based Museum Atlas van Stolk offers large collections  of political cartoons and drawings. Almost the entire collection of press photos of the national press agency ANP are available on internet. The National Archives in The Hague collects a fast growing set of historical photos. Internationally they are building what can become the biggest digital photo archive on the internet: the website of Photomuse.