For a while now I’ve been in the habit of visiting www.newseum.org to see “today’s front pages.” Every day, hundreds of newspapers from around the world submit theirs to the Washington D.C. based organization, which then displays them on their site. It’s especially interesting to see how newspapers play the images on their front page at significant moments in history – Sept. 11, the 2000 Presidential election, US invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, President Obama’s election and inauguration…
Just last year, a new 250,000 square foot museum was constructed down the street from the U.S. Capitol, and I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to visiting it earlier this month! We spent a solid five hours there perusing those front pages in person, standing at arms length from the work of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists, studying newspapers a century old, and seeing some really insightful exhibits about the way the press has helped shape history, and vice versa. I was especially impressed with the number of artifacts on display – more than 80,000 pounds worth in fact, including, believe it or not, the Berlin Wall guard tower and a chunk of the wall itself.
Tough to describe all that lies within its walls. It’s truly a place worth visiting, be you a journalist or not.
A portion of the 800-some newspapers that submit their front pages electronically are displayed outside the Newseum each morning.
View from above
The “Harry Potter” like staircases!
The top winners and finalists in the 2009 FOTOBAMA international photography contest included work by a former colleague of mine at RIT. Jacquelyn Martin is based in D.C. where she is a photographer for the Associated Press.
Sept. 12, 2001 front pages
A section of the Berlin Wall
