Those responsible for furnishing the Guardian and Observer's new London headquarters certainly have an eye for history. Dotted around the ultra-modern building in King's Cross are treasures freed from decades of storage in the papers' Newsroom visitor centre and archive - itself liberated, renamed and doubled in size following its move from the Guardian's long-time base at Farringdon in December last year.
A small permanent display, comprising antique cartoons and news pages, contrasts with a wall-mounted war memorial to fallen Manchester Guardian journalists in the foyer. Presiding over this ensemble from behind the security desk is the patriarchal visage of CP Scott, the paper's legendary former editor and owner, cast in bronze by the sculptor Jacob Epstein to mark his 80th birthday in 1926.
The Guardian's legacy is followed elsewhere through a strategically arranged trail of objects - many seeing the light of day for the first time since the paper relocated from its Manchester birthplace in 1964.
Larger items salvaged from off-site storage include whole sections of the Manchester Guardian's fabled "corridor", the one-time editorial hub of the paper, off which leader writers sat in huddles, scribbling their verdicts on the day's issues. Its wooden panels line the route to editor Alan Rusbridger's new office.
All are a mere foretaste of the newly rebranded Guardian News and Media (GNM) Archive, which spans 900 linear metres of temperature-controlled shelving. Here, visitors can peruse the personal diaries of late-lamented columnist Hugo Young, iconic photos of world-changing events, and board minutes of the Scott Trust, the charity that owns the Guardian and the Observer.
What delights first-time visitors is that, far from being the preserve of staff, professors, or Phd students, it's open to everyone - though, for reasons of commercial (or personal) sensitivity, some items are "closed" for up to 20 years.
The aforementioned minutes may only be viewed earlier in exceptional circumstances, while a restraining order on Young's candid accounts of his chats with ministers (many still with us) is finally being loosened following the recent publication of his collected papers. Such exceptions aside, it's open season.
"Anyone can make an appointment to visit, as long as they have a legitimate reason," explains archivist Mariam Yamin. "We have our own reading room, there's no charge, and you don't have to be an academic."
Access to archives
Surprisingly, given the ephemeral working cultures of deadline-driven news outlets, GNM is not the only news organisation to retain its own museum-style repository. Reuters and the Press Association both systematically archive their news output in physical storehouses. And, at its Wapping fortress, News International sits on the UK's biggest newspaper archive.
Established by the Times in the 1930s, and still primarily devoted to it, the facility has been incrementally extended since - most recently embracing the News of the World in celebration of the Sunday tabloid's 150th birthday in 1993.
The News International archive has a less open-door policy than the Guardian's. Those requesting access must supply two references (by post), and admittance is at the discretion of archivist Nick Mays. Documents are also protected by a blanket, National Archive-style "30-year rule".
Mays runs his operation from a book-lined "search room", which strikes a rarefied contrast to the frenzied, Murdoch-owned newsrooms next door. He pedantically distinguishes between his archive, which focuses on correspondence and physical artefacts, and storehouses of old newsprint ("that's the library's job").
And, asked about his favourite items from among the 2,500 books and pamphlets, 1,400 reels of microfilm, and thousands of other documents, he's reticent: "My favourites are constantly changing according to new material we discover either here, or through items acquired."
Browse along the shelves, which stretch over a kilometre, and you can see why. Highlights are numerous - ranging from a letter from prime minister Winston Churchill to Times owner John Jacob Astor congratulating the newspaper for continuing to print through the Blitz, to a "contents bill" showcasing the first images from the excavated tomb of Tutankhamun, and publicising the newspaper's status as Lord Carnarvon's sole agent for the sale of articles and pictures about the discovery worldwide.
But, however impressive this ephemera, physical newspaper archives are only half the story. In the past year or two, a growing consensus has emerged that, in these fast-moving multimedia times, papers themselves merit archiving - both as tangible examples of past editorial processes, and first-hand historical records.
Ironically, in an age when newspapers place stories on their websites hours or days before print editions hit the stands - and they are under siege from digital competition - this new technology is being used to preserve them.
A digital revolution
The British Library is at the vanguard of this technological revolution. Buoyed by funding from the US National Science Foundation, in 2007 it launched 2.9 million digitised pages under the banner British Newspapers: 1800-1900.
This archive mainly focuses on defunct London-based nationals, such as Charles Dickens's Daily News, "significant" regionals, and journals produced by Victorian radicals.
Project manager Jane Shaw says the emphasis on extinct titles, rather than early editions of ongoing ones, was down to two factors: copyright issues with newspaper publishers (which retain rights to reuse historical material in commemorative editions), and a desire to provide a "broad geographical reach" by stepping outside London.
In March 2008 a second tranche of 1.1 million pages uploaded onto the digital archive - stretching back to 1700 - for use by universities and visitors to the St Pancras reading room. And in 2012 the British Library plans to relocate its entire news collection from Colindale to a purpose-built facility at Boston Spa.
The value of newspaper archives
The digitisation bug has also spread to a growing number of publishers. The Times and GNM launched comprehensive subscription-based archives in 2008. And archives of all Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers titles, and the Financial Times, will be available within the year through third-party commercial providers. The Mail, Telegraph, and Independent titles are planning to follow.
One digital pioneer is ex-journalist Frank Walker, whose company, Digitorial, launched archives of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and Daily Star last year via its UK Press Online service.
It was Walker's stint as chairman and later chief executive of the Newspaper Licensing Agency - the industry-funded body which owns the reproduction rights to newspaper pages - that awakened him to the commercial potential of digitisation (and the associated copyright headaches).
"Most of the historical value of a newspaper page is down to how it looks, but while papers may be able to say of an article, 'this is our copyright', they can't always be sure they have literary and reprographic rights. If you buy a photo or story from a freelance you only initially own the right to use it once."
Copyright was just one of Walker's problems. When he began sourcing copies of the Express, he found its owners had junked their physical holdings - forcing him to cobble them together from private collectors, Oxford's Bodleian Library and the British Library.
From 1955, the latter's collection is only available on microfilm, the first 10 years of which are "unreadable" - even using cutting-edge technology to "read" faded characters by "joining the dots".
So what might the wider museum sector, still battling to establish a coherent strategy for digitising collections, learn from the speed with which newspapers have embraced digitisation?
Nick Poole, chief executive of the Collections Trust and architect of renewed efforts to find a consensus, says: "There are some things we could learn - for example, newspapers have proved there's a public demand to consume information electronically."
But he cautions: "We're dealing with a different order of magnitude: some museums house millions of objects. Also, there's a world of difference between digitising a flat piece of paper and a warship."
Practicalities aside, what is the research value of newspaper archives? There is certainly a lot of public interest in the subject, and one of the most expensive museums in the world is dedicated to the history of news. The $450m Newseum reopened in Washington in April last year and covers the broadcast media as well as newspapers in its 14 galleries.
For Walker, the appeal of newspaper archives is simple: selective and subjective though they might be, journalists are invariably among the first to witness world-shaping events, so - read critically - their accounts should be among the most accurate available.
"The line on our site is 'History as it Happened', and I really believe this," says Walker. "It can be as enlightening to read how contemporary commentators were wrong as well as right - and see why, in the context of the day."
James Morrison is a freelance journalist
A small permanent display, comprising antique cartoons and news pages, contrasts with a wall-mounted war memorial to fallen Manchester Guardian journalists in the foyer. Presiding over this ensemble from behind the security desk is the patriarchal visage of CP Scott, the paper's legendary former editor and owner, cast in bronze by the sculptor Jacob Epstein to mark his 80th birthday in 1926.
The Guardian's legacy is followed elsewhere through a strategically arranged trail of objects - many seeing the light of day for the first time since the paper relocated from its Manchester birthplace in 1964.
Larger items salvaged from off-site storage include whole sections of the Manchester Guardian's fabled "corridor", the one-time editorial hub of the paper, off which leader writers sat in huddles, scribbling their verdicts on the day's issues. Its wooden panels line the route to editor Alan Rusbridger's new office.
All are a mere foretaste of the newly rebranded Guardian News and Media (GNM) Archive, which spans 900 linear metres of temperature-controlled shelving. Here, visitors can peruse the personal diaries of late-lamented columnist Hugo Young, iconic photos of world-changing events, and board minutes of the Scott Trust, the charity that owns the Guardian and the Observer.
What delights first-time visitors is that, far from being the preserve of staff, professors, or Phd students, it's open to everyone - though, for reasons of commercial (or personal) sensitivity, some items are "closed" for up to 20 years.
The aforementioned minutes may only be viewed earlier in exceptional circumstances, while a restraining order on Young's candid accounts of his chats with ministers (many still with us) is finally being loosened following the recent publication of his collected papers. Such exceptions aside, it's open season.
"Anyone can make an appointment to visit, as long as they have a legitimate reason," explains archivist Mariam Yamin. "We have our own reading room, there's no charge, and you don't have to be an academic."
Access to archives
Surprisingly, given the ephemeral working cultures of deadline-driven news outlets, GNM is not the only news organisation to retain its own museum-style repository. Reuters and the Press Association both systematically archive their news output in physical storehouses. And, at its Wapping fortress, News International sits on the UK's biggest newspaper archive.
Established by the Times in the 1930s, and still primarily devoted to it, the facility has been incrementally extended since - most recently embracing the News of the World in celebration of the Sunday tabloid's 150th birthday in 1993.
The News International archive has a less open-door policy than the Guardian's. Those requesting access must supply two references (by post), and admittance is at the discretion of archivist Nick Mays. Documents are also protected by a blanket, National Archive-style "30-year rule".
Mays runs his operation from a book-lined "search room", which strikes a rarefied contrast to the frenzied, Murdoch-owned newsrooms next door. He pedantically distinguishes between his archive, which focuses on correspondence and physical artefacts, and storehouses of old newsprint ("that's the library's job").
And, asked about his favourite items from among the 2,500 books and pamphlets, 1,400 reels of microfilm, and thousands of other documents, he's reticent: "My favourites are constantly changing according to new material we discover either here, or through items acquired."
Browse along the shelves, which stretch over a kilometre, and you can see why. Highlights are numerous - ranging from a letter from prime minister Winston Churchill to Times owner John Jacob Astor congratulating the newspaper for continuing to print through the Blitz, to a "contents bill" showcasing the first images from the excavated tomb of Tutankhamun, and publicising the newspaper's status as Lord Carnarvon's sole agent for the sale of articles and pictures about the discovery worldwide.
But, however impressive this ephemera, physical newspaper archives are only half the story. In the past year or two, a growing consensus has emerged that, in these fast-moving multimedia times, papers themselves merit archiving - both as tangible examples of past editorial processes, and first-hand historical records.
Ironically, in an age when newspapers place stories on their websites hours or days before print editions hit the stands - and they are under siege from digital competition - this new technology is being used to preserve them.
A digital revolution
The British Library is at the vanguard of this technological revolution. Buoyed by funding from the US National Science Foundation, in 2007 it launched 2.9 million digitised pages under the banner British Newspapers: 1800-1900.
This archive mainly focuses on defunct London-based nationals, such as Charles Dickens's Daily News, "significant" regionals, and journals produced by Victorian radicals.
Project manager Jane Shaw says the emphasis on extinct titles, rather than early editions of ongoing ones, was down to two factors: copyright issues with newspaper publishers (which retain rights to reuse historical material in commemorative editions), and a desire to provide a "broad geographical reach" by stepping outside London.
In March 2008 a second tranche of 1.1 million pages uploaded onto the digital archive - stretching back to 1700 - for use by universities and visitors to the St Pancras reading room. And in 2012 the British Library plans to relocate its entire news collection from Colindale to a purpose-built facility at Boston Spa.
The value of newspaper archives
The digitisation bug has also spread to a growing number of publishers. The Times and GNM launched comprehensive subscription-based archives in 2008. And archives of all Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers titles, and the Financial Times, will be available within the year through third-party commercial providers. The Mail, Telegraph, and Independent titles are planning to follow.
One digital pioneer is ex-journalist Frank Walker, whose company, Digitorial, launched archives of the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, and Daily Star last year via its UK Press Online service.
It was Walker's stint as chairman and later chief executive of the Newspaper Licensing Agency - the industry-funded body which owns the reproduction rights to newspaper pages - that awakened him to the commercial potential of digitisation (and the associated copyright headaches).
"Most of the historical value of a newspaper page is down to how it looks, but while papers may be able to say of an article, 'this is our copyright', they can't always be sure they have literary and reprographic rights. If you buy a photo or story from a freelance you only initially own the right to use it once."
Copyright was just one of Walker's problems. When he began sourcing copies of the Express, he found its owners had junked their physical holdings - forcing him to cobble them together from private collectors, Oxford's Bodleian Library and the British Library.
From 1955, the latter's collection is only available on microfilm, the first 10 years of which are "unreadable" - even using cutting-edge technology to "read" faded characters by "joining the dots".
So what might the wider museum sector, still battling to establish a coherent strategy for digitising collections, learn from the speed with which newspapers have embraced digitisation?
Nick Poole, chief executive of the Collections Trust and architect of renewed efforts to find a consensus, says: "There are some things we could learn - for example, newspapers have proved there's a public demand to consume information electronically."
But he cautions: "We're dealing with a different order of magnitude: some museums house millions of objects. Also, there's a world of difference between digitising a flat piece of paper and a warship."
Practicalities aside, what is the research value of newspaper archives? There is certainly a lot of public interest in the subject, and one of the most expensive museums in the world is dedicated to the history of news. The $450m Newseum reopened in Washington in April last year and covers the broadcast media as well as newspapers in its 14 galleries.
For Walker, the appeal of newspaper archives is simple: selective and subjective though they might be, journalists are invariably among the first to witness world-shaping events, so - read critically - their accounts should be among the most accurate available.
"The line on our site is 'History as it Happened', and I really believe this," says Walker. "It can be as enlightening to read how contemporary commentators were wrong as well as right - and see why, in the context of the day."
James Morrison is a freelance journalist
Guardian News and Media Archive
The GNM Archive contains combined photographic and paper stores covering 163.5 sq metres . The photos are kept at a temperature of 15 degrees and 40 per cent relative humidity, and papers at 16 degrees (50 per cent). There are 4,500 boxes of material, including 100,000 photos.
Highlights include glass-plate negatives of the first Manchester Guardian staff photographer Walter Doughty's Irish Civil War pictures, and ex-Observer editor Donald Trelford's correspondence archive.
The GNM Archive often lends material to museums for temporary exhibitions. It loaned some Graham Finlayson photos for inclusion in Tate's 2007 show How We Are: Photographing Britain.
The inaugural exhibition at the GNM's new headquarters is The Lost Art of The Picture Library (until 27 March), a selection of photographs from the Guardian and Observer image archives.
The GNM Archive contains combined photographic and paper stores covering 163.5 sq metres . The photos are kept at a temperature of 15 degrees and 40 per cent relative humidity, and papers at 16 degrees (50 per cent). There are 4,500 boxes of material, including 100,000 photos.
Highlights include glass-plate negatives of the first Manchester Guardian staff photographer Walter Doughty's Irish Civil War pictures, and ex-Observer editor Donald Trelford's correspondence archive.
The GNM Archive often lends material to museums for temporary exhibitions. It loaned some Graham Finlayson photos for inclusion in Tate's 2007 show How We Are: Photographing Britain.
The inaugural exhibition at the GNM's new headquarters is The Lost Art of The Picture Library (until 27 March), a selection of photographs from the Guardian and Observer image archives.
