Observer-Reporter (Washington), July 11

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Our history told through photos

If a picture tells a thousand words, then 60 photos ought to tell a very long story.

Sixty photos from the archives of the Washington Observer-Reporter will be on public display in the ballroom of Rossin Campus Center at Washington & Jefferson College beginning next Saturday, July 19, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., including Sunday, through July 25.

The exhibit kicks off this newspaper's bicentennial celebration, which will be marked on Aug. 15 by the publication of the first of four consecutive special sections commemorating the founding of The Reporter on Aug. 15, 1808.

Some of the photos in the exhibit will appear in the special sections, and all will be reproduced in a book, "200 Years: Our History Through the Eyes of the Observer-Reporter," which will go to press this fall.

The exhibit includes some images from the earlier days of photography, but most date only to the 1940s and later, and there's a reason for that. The Observer and The Reporter -- separate papers until they were combined in 1967 -- had no staff photographer until after World War II.

Although engraved illustrations were used in The Reporter in the early days of the 19th century, and some portraits and photos supplied by news agencies began appearing in the 1880s, it was not until Oct. 8, 1895, that the first local news photo appeared on these pages. That was a photo of a crowd assembled on South Main Street in Washington for the start of a bicycle race sponsored by The Reporter, and that photo appeared first in another newspaper, the Saturday Evening Supper Table, which was the only newspaper at the time with the equipment to engrave photos.

Since that time, photography has become an indispensable part of our news report. In 2007, our staff photographers produced 3,153 multiple-column pictures published in the paper. The selection in this exhibit include some of their finest work.

We urge all of our readers and all who have an interest in the history and culture of Western Pennsylvania to take this opportunity to view our past though the lens of our cameras.

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