Discovering the Newly-Digitized Historical Examiner
The front page of the Independence Examiner of June 28, 1919 featured coverage of the wedding of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace. (newspapers.com)
The Missouri Digital Newspaper Project of the State Historical Society of Missouri has added the Independence newspaper of record to its list of digitized publications.
By Brian Burnes
It was one of the prominent Jackson County weddings of 1919 and, accordingly, it received front page coverage.
The bride wore a gown of white lightweight Georgette fabric, part of which consisted of braille, a decorative cloth known for its raised, dotted texture.
The groom’s apparel went unrecorded.
Still, the wedding of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace was one of “unusual beauty and interest” according to The Examiner of Independence, the newspaper that has covered Independence and eastern Jackson County since 1898.
The very specific details regarding the June wedding and what the bride wore have been available to researchers, historians and genealogists - as long as they’ve had the patience and determination to find a library holding microfilm of the archival Examiner - and then go there, thread the microfilm into a microfilm reader, and then roll the film to the June 28, 1919 edition.
But, since this summer, researchers have received a more convenient and efficient way to access the archival Examiner.
As of July, 2025, researchers have been retrieving digital issues of The Examiner from 1905 through 1963, as well as the newspaper’s original incarnation as the Jackson Examiner, which debuted in 1898. This has been made possible through newspapers.com, the for-profit platform which is serving as host with the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project of the State Historical Society of Missouri to make the digitized Examiner accessible.
So now, what used to necessitate a trip to the library with Examiner microfilm - such as the Midwest Genealogy Center at 3440 S. Lee’s Summit Road in Independence - now is available to anyone who has a newspapers.com subscription, or who can visit one of several state historical society research centers, such as the local reading room at 800 E. 51st St., in the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The Missouri Digital Newspaper Project (MDNP), which is administered by the historical society, long has worked to provide a key-word searchable digital database of historical Missouri newspapers from across the state.
William Southern, Jr. established The Examiner with two partners in 1898, and then operated it for decades before retiring in 1951. (Jackson County Historical Society)
The Examiner project began in 2024 when Katelyn Ziegler, historical society librarian, made a presentation detailing the MDNP to Midwest Genealogical Center staff members.
“Having the Examiner digitized and searchable could certainly change how people would be able to do local history and genealogical research involving Independence,” Ziegler said recently.
The Examiner’s digitization is part of the larger mission of the historical society, Ziegler added.
The Missouri Press Association founded the society in 1898 to preserve materials pertinent to Missouri history.
The state’s many newspapers contained - as the saying goes - the first draft of that history and long have been used by scholars, researchers and genealogists in search of it.
In 2024 Ziegler made a presentation about the MDNP to Midwest Genealogy Center staff members.
Twila Rider, a genealogy reference associate at the center, suggested that Ziegler consider The Examiner as a digitization candidate.
“It just seemed that there are so many places now that are having their newspapers digitized and made available online,” Rider said.
“There are so many small Iowa communities across the state that have their newspapers available, for example.
“I just asked ‘What about our Independence Examiner?’
“She said she would look into it, and she did.”
The days before digital
For close to a century scholars have labored under the bright lights of microfilm readers.
Just as reliable microfilm technology became available in the 1930s, the State Historical Society of Missouri newspaper collection in 1934 filled a storage room inside Ellis Library on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. (State Historical Society of Missouri).
Microfilm editions of newspapers began to become available in the later 1930s and early 1940s, as growing concern over ever-more fragile newsprint coincided with the development of reliable microfilming technology.
The state historical society began microfilming Missouri newspapers in the 1930s, Ziegler said.
For decades since, microfilm has represented the standard of preservation for archival newspaper editions as well as census records.
During the 1990s researchers travelled to the North Independence branch of the Mid-Continent Library system at 317 W. U.S. 24, the former home of its genealogy resources.
Some of them drove long distances, sometimes parking their recreational vehicles in a lot on the north side of U.S. 24.
Once inside the branch they retrieved individual rolls of microfilm and sat down at individual microfilm readers.
Those were devices that used a bright light and an adjustable lens to project magnified images from the microfilm roll - at least, once it successfully had been threaded onto two spindles, but not before it had been inserted correctly beneath a small glass plate between the spindles.
As depicted in this 1972 photograph, researchers could load rolls of microfilm into a microfilm reader, allowing them easier access to archival documents. (National Archives)
Then the microfilm could be cranked slowly, bringing page after page of archival documents - such as individual pages of newspaper editions - into view.
That’s what happened when all went well.
There also could the occasions when the researcher - if “driving” a reader which featured a small motor, which could advance microfilm rolls at varying speeds - could have a “leadfoot” moment on the motor, causing the microfilm roll to quickly speed forward, accidentally skipping pages.
And then there were instances when the microfilm-using scholar could accidentally step on the figurative gas pedal, causing the film to careen forward or backward at high speeds, out of control, yanking the threaded film out of one of the two spindles - all to the amusement or irritation of those nearby.
Researchers who can access digital newspaper editions can leave all this joy behind - although digital platforms like newspapers.com have their own idiosyncrasies.
The recent digitization of Missouri newspapers such as The Examiner, meanwhile, can be seen in context of the continuing cumulative steps of advancing online accessibility to local newspapers.
In 2018 the Mid-Continent Library system provided access to text-only articles from the Kansas City Star’s digital archive, which dated back to 1991.
In 2019 the Kansas City Public Library introduced digital access to the Star through the NewsBank platform, which allowed for viewing full-image editions of the paper. In 2022 the library acquired a digital archive of the Star, which included a searchable database from 1880 onward.
The digitized Examiner includes editions published from 1905 through 1963, which are in the public domain, Ziegler said.
The 1919 wedding of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace was front-page news in the Independence Examiner. (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum)
Issues of the Jackson Examiner - the same newspaper under a slightly different name - also are available from its 1898 founding by publisher William Southern, Jr., and two partners.
The newly-digitized Examiner went live on newspapers.com, which is one of several subscription-based providers.
One caveat: it’s not free.
Currently a six-month newspapers.com subscription is priced at $74.90. Subscribers to ancestry.com, the Utah-based genealogy research platform which established newspapers.com as a standalone service in 2012, can obtain six-month access for $59.90.
Another caveat: as of now the “library edition” of newspapers.com, which is available to visitors at the Midwest Genealogy Center, cannot access the digital Examiner from 1905 through 1963 until a three-year embargo has expired.
The clock on that started in July, meaning that free access won’t be possible until July, 2028.
But those who want access now and don’t have the money for the subscription can go to one of SHSMO’s several research centers across the state. (For more information regarding those centers, go to shsmo.org/visit/research-centers.)
“I don’t want to give impression we are driving people to a paid subscription,” said Ziegler. But, she added, “we are trying to make these titles such as The Examiner available.”
After the embargo expires, the digital Examiner from 1905 through 1963 will be accessible for free through the SHSMO website. shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp.
Meanwhile, that doesn’t mean researchers should stop patronizing libraries like the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence.
“That is 100 percent correct,” said Katie Smith, genealogy center director.
“I am a firm believer that not everything is online, which can be just the tip of the iceberg.”
The center, for example, subscribes to many genealogy periodicals from across the country, Smith said.
“We also have close to 300,000 books and more rolls of microfilm that we can count.”
Further, Smith added, “One of our biggest assets here is our staff members, who can offer you the expertise to put all the historical records in context.”
Along the digital trail
Warning: keyword searchable digital newspaper platforms like newspapers.com is where the daily to-do list goes to die.
The Independence Examiner in the early 1900s often described the parties or Bible study classes organized by local young people such as Bess Wallace, shown here in 1907. (The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum)
It is compelling to wander down the digital paths of archival Missouri newspapers through the years.
And the keyword feature allows online surfers to track specific individuals - such as the young Harry Truman and Bess Wallace - through the available years of The Examiner.
Admirers of Truman may first encounter him in 1905, playing piano during a Kansas City wedding ceremony conducted by the Rev. W. T. Campbell, longtime pastor of the First Baptist Church of Independence.
Readers also can find Truman in later years, such as in 1914, when he was elected president of the Washington Township branch of the Jackson County Agricultural Bureau; in 1915, when he was appointed a Jackson County road overseer, taking over the post of his father John, who had served in that role until his death the year before; or in 1918, when Truman, then in field artillery training at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma, returned to Jackson County for a brief furlough.
Admirers of Bess Wallace, meanwhile, can find her in 1908, when she had been among several young people who one day took a four-hour walk from Independence to Lee’s Summit.
As was the custom in those years, newspaper editors considered the social activities of area women newsworthy.
Accordingly, in 1909, Examiner readers learned that Bess Wallace had been among invited to a leap year social at the Independence Eagles Hall. Other Bess Wallace sightings can be found in 1912, when she hosted her bridge club at her family’s North Delaware Avenue home, and in 1915, when her pickled vegetable relish received a blue ribbon at the Independence Fair.
However, those who use “Bessie Wallace” as a keyword will find the future first lady listed as one of the four children of David Wallace, who on June 17, 1903, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while standing in a bathroom at the family home.
The perceived shame of this prompted Madge Gates Wallace, David’s widow, to take 18-year-old Bessie and her three younger siblings to Colorado Springs, where they isolated themselves for about a year.
An 1846 edition of the Western Expositor of Independence included several stanzas of verse celebrating the adventures that perhaps awaited Oregon Trail emigrants then getting outfitted for their journey. (newspapers.com)
The next time “Bessie Wallace” appeared in The Examiner was in 1905, when the newspaper reported how she had "charmingly entertained a few of her friends” at her family’s home in June.
In September The Examiner announced that Bess had thrown a bigger party for about 40 friends.
The Examiner isn’t the only Independence newspaper available on newspapers.com.
Those using the newspapers.com “Browse” feature can discover 17 of them, two of them reaching all the way to the community’s days as an overland trails outfitting center.
The four-page January 31, 1846 edition of the Western Expositor contained several stanzas of verse under the title “Ho! For Oregon!”, meant to inspire those headed west in the coming spring.
The April 27, 1861 edition of the Daily Evening Gazette, meanwhile, offered an advertisement placed by Hiram Young, the free African-American builder of wagons and ox yokes. “Emigrants and others” in need of such gear were advised to visit Young’s shop on North Liberty Street where they could be “supplied at the shortest notice…”
Newly digitized editions of the Eldon Advertiser contain many stories detailing the community’s Burris Hotel. Jackson County native Paul Henning, who created “The Beverly Hillbillies” in the 1960s, based a separate television show, “Petticoat Junction,” on accounts of the Burris Hotel told him by his future wife Ruth Barth, a granddaughter of the hotel’s operators. (State Historical Society of Missouri).
Beyond Independence, online surfers can track down other notable Missourians in other recently-digitized newspapers, two of them covering central Missouri communities.
In the newly-available pages of the Eldon Advertiser, admirers of Jackson County native Paul Henning, creator of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” can find many news stories involving the community’s Burris Hotel.
Willis and Martha Burris, who operated the hotel, were the grandparents of Ruth Barth, Henning’s future wife. Barth’s recollections of the hotel, located near the Rock Island Railroad line in Eldon, inspired the Shady Rest Hotel featured in another Paul Henning television production, “Petticoat Junction.”
Also, in the pages of the newly-digitized Tipton Times, researchers of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Gene Clark can find a somber revelation.
Admirers of Clark, the singer and songwriter who grew up in Raytown and went on to co-found the folk-rock group The Byrds in the 1960s, likely already knew that Clark had been named for an uncle who had died after paratrooping into France as part of the 1944 Normandy Invasion.
Gene Clark, (second from left), who grew up in Raytown and went on to co-found the 1960s folk-rock group The Byrds, bore the name of an uncle who died in a German prisoner of war camp not long after paratrooping into France as part of the June, 1944 Normandy Invasion. An edition of the newly digitized Tipton Times confirmed Harold Eugene Clark’s death on November 17, 1944 - the same day the younger Clark, later known as “Gene,” was born. (Public domain).
What the newly-digitized pages of the Tipton Times reveal is that the elder Clark’s death - in a German prisoner-of-war camp - was confirmed on the front page of the November 17, 1944 issue of the Tipton Times, published the very day the younger Clark was born.
More to come
As for other local newspapers, researchers can access the Kansas City Sun and the Rising Son, two separate Kansas City African-American newspapers, covering editions published from 1902 through 1907 (the Rising Son) and 1914 through 1924 (the Sun).
Other Jackson County publications soon could be microfilmed.
The publisher of The Pitch donated issues of the Kansas City alternative newspaper beginning with its initial 1980 edition. Originally entitled the Penny Pitch, it was affiliated with the former Penny Lane Records store in Kansas City’s Westport district.
State Historical Society of Missouri staff members, as seen here in this 2024 photograph, continue to sort and organize newspaper microfilm in preparation for digitization as part of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project. (State Historical Society of Missouri)
Also, the Kansas City Public Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections department recently donated 31 volumes of the Wednesday Magazine spanning from 1937 through 2005. The publication, which first circulated in and around Kansas City’s Brookside area, originally featured book reviews and short fiction by area authors before featuring local news coverage.
Meanwhile, the efforts to digitally preserve Missouri newspapers will continue, Ziegler said.
“We will continue to work with the publishers, librarians and patrons who have helped guide the selection process for what is done next,” she said.
Brian Burnes is a former president of the Jackson County Historical Society.