Blade Archives & Digital Photo Requests
History of the Blade and Bound Paper Blade Books
One of the most important resources for performing Fairbury history research is the Blade newspaper.
For many years, copies of the Blade were sent to institutions like the University of Illinois where they were scanned and put on reels of microfilm. These reels of microfilm were stored at the Dominy Library and patrons could view the microfilm on a viewer.
The Blade also collected each year's newspapers and had them bound into heavy books, typically one calendar year per book.
About 2017, the Dominy Memorial Library had the rolls of microfilm scanned and put on their web site. Anyone can go to the library web site and word search the old Blades for free.
Also in November of 2017, the Blade closed their Fairbury office and took the last 20 years of the bound Blade books to their Pontiac Daily Leader office. The Blade donated the old bound books from about 1880 to 1999 to the Fairbury Echoes Museum.
In March of 2023, the Blade ceased operations. Blade staff donated the last 20 years of printed newspaper books and they were moved from Pontiac to our museum archives. The Fairbury Echoes Museum also signed a legal agreement with the company that owned the Blade at that time.
The quality of the photographs on the online Blade archives through the library are very poor. A much better photo can be achieved by finding it in the old bound Blade book and taking a digital photo. The bound Blade books are not available to the general public, but if you contact the museum, we will try to make a digital photo of the old picture if possible.
Form to Fill Out to Request Digital Photos of old Blade Photos/Illustrations (not Articles)
If you want to request that digital photos be taken of old paper blade photos or illustrations, please click on the button below, fill out the form and submit it to the Museum. If you want copies of Blade text articles, please use the Work Instruction below to download these articles yourself from the Dominy Memorial Library website.
Work Instruction Detailing How to Download old Blade articles using the Dominy Memorial Library website
If you want copies of Blade text articles, please use the Work Instruction below to download these articles yourself from the Dominy Memorial Library website.