If you, like me, find yourself tiring of the constant stream of news headlines that define this age of global health crisis and national election anxiety, you might find a welcome distraction in old news.

This summer the ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Nevada Collection joined the libraries’ other ProQuest Historical Newspapers, providing access to historic content from the Reno Gazette Journal (formerly the Reno Evening Gazette) dating from 1876 to 2008. Every issue is full-text searchable with full-page, cover-to-cover scans. And it is delightful.

The October 22, 1918 issue is sure to entertain. In it, the Riverside Hotel cheerfully advertises “Dancing Every Saturday Night.” A classified ad announces “LOST—Diamond bowknot bar pin about 3 inches in length. Solid diamonds. Liberal reward.” Helpful advice columns urge “Comb Sage Tea into Gray Hair” and “Pimply? Well, Don’t Be!”

More serious news announces that “South is Visited by Democratic Candidates” and “Strict Quarantine Now in Effect in Douglas.” In his address “To the Voters of Washoe County,” state legislative hopeful L.K. Gregory declares “I am not owned or controlled by any political ring, machine or coterie of politicians for I do not believe in machine made politics.” In a column dubiously titled “Not Turk Women But Red Cross Workers” we learn that “the ’flu mask made its appearance in Reno today . . . One worker, who was introduced to the mask for the first time this morning, looked it over carefully, put it on and a moment later she had to sneeze. She pulled off the mask to do it.” Oh, well.

Welcome distraction or not, you are sure to find much of interest in the libraries’ ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Nevada Collection. Check it out!

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