Historical Society raises funds to purchase equipment for
viewing old newspapers
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gilroy Historical Society recently completed a two-year quest to acquire copies of Gilroy’s newspapers on microfilm, but now it has no way of viewing what it worked so hard to get.
Since fall 2001, the society searched for the 255 rolls of microfilm containing copies of Gilroy newspapers dating back to 1848. It held fund raisers to purchase them and later dipped into its own savings when donations fell short. Next, it will again ask for help in purchasing a used digital reader/printer so people can view the microfilm.
“Having those old papers is a critical thing,” said Connie Rogers, president of the Gilroy Historical Society. “There’s nothing better than the newspaper at showing the lifestyles of people in the past, what kinds of issues people were concerned about.”
The society will hold its annual ice cream social fund raiser Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Proceeds from admission and old-model car rides will be used to purchase the $6,000 reader/printer.
The purchase of the microfilm was completed last week but was a journey from the start. A member of the historical society, researching her family history, noticed that some of the original paper copies of the Gilroy Advocate, the Gilroy Evening Dispatch and The Gilroy Dispatch were in poor condition.
The Gilroy Advocate was Gilroy’s first newspaper, published from October 1868 through December 1938 and a couple years in the 1940s. The Gilroy Evening Dispatch began publishing in September 1925 and became The Gilroy Dispatch in 1944. The Gilroy Historical Museum on Fifth Street, owned and operated by the City of Gilroy, keeps bound copies of all the newspapers for visitors to view.
To purchase copies of the microfilm, the society contacted the California Newspaper Project, a preservation group based at the University of California at Riverside. Custom Microfilm Systems, the company used by The Dispatch to make and store archived papers on microfilm, disappeared in 1999, apparently taking the microfilm with it.
“They completely disappeared,” said Susan DeBoer, director of the library microfilms division of BMI Imaging Systems, who now make The Dispatch microfilm. “Nobody knew where they went or what they did with the film.”
The company apparently sold many of its microfilms, including the rolls of the Advocate and Dispatch, to a private collector, who in turn sold them to CNP. Once the rolls were located and ownership resolved in BMI Imaging Systems’ favor, they changed hands so BMI could store the originals in its Sunnyvale vault and make copies for CNP.
BMI made a special offer to the Gilroy Historical Society and the Gilroy Public Library to purchase copies of the microfilm at the CNP price of $25 per roll instead of the normal $110 per roll.
“We were able to do this because of the newspaper project,” DeBoer said. “We charged them a lower rate and were able to give both the library and historical society a deal.”
That still meant the historical society had to come up with $6,900 to purchase the 255 rolls of microfilm. Thanks to donations and a fund in memory of Gilroyan George White, the society had $2,500. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to buy such a large amount of microfilm for a reduced price, the society came up with the remaining $4,400 from its savings.
“We were very fortunate to have savings,” Rogers said. “We would never get that kind of price again.”
Employees who run the Gilroy Museum are excited about the purchase.
“It just was astonishing. It’s really great,” Museum Assistant Susan Voss said. “We are grateful to the historical society. We didn’t ever think this would be possible, but the generosity of the community is astounding.”
The society received the microfilm in July and now hopes to have a reader/printer within a few months, Rogers said.
The society hopes that the ice cream social on Thursday at the Willey House, 140 Fifth St. will help it raise a few hundred dollars toward buying the $6,000 machine to be placed at the museum. It will also seek grants from the city and local businesses as they become available.
“We are hoping that if we can raise half the money, there might be a possibility of getting matching funds from the city,” Rogers said.
