Friday, December 15, 2017

Lenora Graves' Collection of Newspaper Clippings

Virginia McKee loaned me her mother's collection of newspaper clippings.  Among the Lenora Graves saved Woodlake Echo, Visalia Times-Delta, Valley Voice and Sun Gazette articles organized into old file folders. The news articles are valuable today because old copies of the Woodlake Echo were destroyed. A few years in the 1950s have been preserved on microfilm. You can look through these at the Visalia Branch of the Tulare County Library.


The articles Virginia gave me are not in chronological or alphabetical order. I kept the items in their original order and took inventory of each file folder as well as listing the loose full editions papers that were also in the assortment that Virginia loaned me.

The pictures in this post are linked in the inventory. It takes a long time to digitize each of these articles, which will preserve them as long as the cloud is a viable storage. As I scan the materials, I will attach them to the inventory. You will not be able to edit the document. So bookmark this post or the inventory document link as it will be updated automatically for you.  ---Ah the magic of Google Docs.

One caution about using Google Docs that you may not know. If you have a Google Account, you can save the document to your own account, but it is no longer a shared document, so you will not get the updated links when I add additional resources.

Here is a sample of one entry. As you can see, the links at the end of the description take you to the digitized newspaper article. Page 1 is highlighted and is shown below the listing.

  1. We always lived well here on the ranch Emma D. Welch 1906-1997 Page 1 Page 2

As you browse through the inventory sheet, if you see something that looks interesting to you, simply message me on Facebook or through this blog. As the requests come in and I have time, I will digitize the clipping and add it to the inventory list so that you can access it.


This inventory is a research tool for writers, researchers or individuals interested in Woodlake history. If you have articles you want to share with me, please feel free to contact me. I will inventory them at no charge in a separate Google Doc by the contributor. If you want the articles digitized, I will charge a fee for that as it is very time-consuming.

This year a group of teachers along with Lauri Polly, our illustrator, and graphic artist have been working on a Junior Docent Guide for the Museum. Our deadline to finish is January 31. This Guide includes many old photographs, including some that were not found in the book, Images of America Woodlake. 

Next year a group of teachers and want to start on another project of writing series of children's biographies about various influencers in Woodlake. If you have unpublished information about someone in Woodlake's past who made a positive contribution to the community and you want to share pictures or documents, please contact me. Also, let me know if you are interested in doing some of the writing for our next project.