WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 1, 2021 — West Liberty University’s student newspaper, The Trumpet, is marking 100 years of publication in 2021 and in honor of the milestone, students and staff archived hardcopies of the paper digitally, so everyone can access the paper easily from home or office!
It all began when a few students, led by now-retired longtime journalism professor Tammie Beagle, began to study and archive online issues of the newspaper housed in WLU’s Elbin Library, just before COVID-19 hit.
“This started out as a class project last year, conceived by Professor Beagle to archive the long history of the Trumpet. She thought we might eventually create a book to share how on-campus events, local area news, major war events, national events and sports that were covered by students over the years,” explained 2020 graduate and Wheeling resident Gabrielle Blanchard.
Blanchard is now employed by Williams Lea and is making good use of her public relations and journalism degrees.
Blanchard actually read over the hard copies of the newspaper in the Elbin Library archives to compile facts, figures and snippets for the book. She enjoyed it and learned a lot. Elbin Library staff scanned and prepared the newspapers for housing online.
Even though the pandemic slowed things down a bit, the project continued.
One of the things that amazed Blanchard was the fact that no matter how tough things were in our country over the years, the paper kept publishing.
“Even during the most challenging of times like during the Vietnam War, The Trumpet was published a few times over the course of a year. Like today’s pandemic, it seems that the students hung in there.”
“I thought it was so important to archive the newspaper. The physical copies are fragile and if they are gone it’s like losing a piece of history,” she noted. The newspaper details the history of West Liberty University’s name changes, presidential shifts, sports highlights and constant growth over the many years of providing public higher education to the state and the region.
Due to the number of newspapers, the students were able to archive the starting year of each decade only, so 1921, 31, 41 and so forth are searchable online, according to WLU communications instructor Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell. Mehlman-Brightwell took over as faculty advisor to The Trumpet after Beagle retired.
Other students that worked on this archival project include current student editor Annalise Murphy of New Cumberland, W.Va. and Freddy Fitzsimmons of Wheeling.
Also working on a creation of the commemorative coffee table style book is Sarah Davis, a graphic design professor and her graphic design students.
“For me the project brings West Liberty’s history to life. Everything from the hard news to the fun facts. It makes me proud to be an alum, seeing all that WLU’s gone through over the years. So much, both ups and downs, but The Trumpet’s hung in there and is now digital so the community can enjoy it,” Blanchard said.
“It’s fun to read about life on campus as the times change. Simple incidents like when West Lib’s first radio broadcast happened in a dorm room and was broadcasted to one floor of the dorm, which was the beginning for the radio station, WGLZ.”
The hardcover book is still in the design stage so it’ll be awhile before it’s actually published and available to alumni, donors or the public but I’ll be sure to let everyone know when it’s in print.
This commemorative book project includes the support of the WLU Foundation. Mehlman-Brightwell said that there also will be a documentary film produced to further celebrate the centennial of The Trumpet. She along with another communications professor, Chris Lee, are co-producing the film.
To further celebrate its 100-year anniversary, The Trumpet has a new website and domain name, new app – College News Source ( Apple app store or Google Play), new page layout, and new branding created by WLU students (read the branding story here).
To view the digitally archived versions of the student newspaper visit https://issuu.com/thetrumpetwlu, the secure digital publishing platform.