PaNP

PaNP Phase I (1983-1990):

End of Phase I

Although the initial thought was to preserve those titles never filmed, and to film runs of newspapers from each county from the earliest surviving paper through 1980, it quickly became apparent that the funding would not cover this level of filming. Many more titles were found in hard copy than previously thought and funding fell far short of the need. At the time NEH required matching funds on a one-for-one basis for the microfilming phase of the project. An amount of $50,000 was committed by the Pew Memorial Trust for partial support of the work of the Historical Society site and for microfilming titles published in the five-county area surrounding Philadelphia. Solicitation of additional private funds to meet the matching requirement to earn full NEH funding during 1988 proved a challenge. Small donations ($100- $300) were received from several small publishing firms or historical societies. A pledge of $10,000 payable in early 1988 and $10,000 payable in early 1989 was received from the McLean Contributionship helped to close the funding gap. Requests for assistance were sent out to additional foundations in Pennsylvania that had a record of support to historical and library programs; none proved successful. A request for state funding to provide the additional $86,350 needed to earn the maximum NEH funds for 1988 was included in the State Library's 1988-89 state budget request but was not funded.

In the end, as the available filming dollars dried up and as attempts to find new funding sources became futile, the Technical Committee revised its selection decisions to include only a partial run of at least one paper from each county. Needless to say, many newspaper titles high on the priority list were filmed only partially or not filmed at all.

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