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the atlanta constitution historic archives 1868 - 1942

Frequently Asked Questions

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The Customer Service staff of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Historic online archive wants to help make your searching as trouble-free as possible. To ensure your continued satisfaction with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Historic online archive, we offer the following answers to some of the most commonly asked questions:

• What is available in the historic archives?
  
  
• What is not in the historic archives?
  
  
• Where is the photo/illustration/chart?
  
  
• How do I get page reprints for the time period covered by the historic archives?
  
  
• What is your refund policy?
  
  
• How can my library, corporation or institution receive access to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's online historic archives?
  
  
• Where can I find out more about the history of The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Journal or Atlanta, Georgia?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of historic photos that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution?
  
  
• How do I get better search results?
  
  
• What part of the article is actually searched for my search term?
  
  
• How do I browse articles that appeared on one specific day?
  
  
• How do I find an obituary?
  
  
• What if I can't find my article?
  
  
• What formats are available for viewing an article?
  
  
• I'm a Mac OS X user. How can I view the article image?
  
  
• Why do I sometimes see gaps or white space between portions of an article?
  
  
• How do I purchase articles online?
  
  
• How do I print a historic article image PDF so I can view it?
  
  
• What forms of payment are accepted for purchasing articles?
  
  
• What is ProQuest Archiver (PQA)?
  
  
• How do I print an article from the historic archives?
  
  
• What if I need additional research in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's archives?
  
  
• How do I obtain permission to reprint articles, pages or photos from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution?
  
  
• What if I have a question that cannot be answered by the Frequently Asked Questions?
  
  

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution historic archives include images of more than 3.5 million locally written articles, photos, graphics and advertisements as they originally appeared in The Atlanta Constitution from , through , .

This archive is hosted by ProQuest Archiver. Going forward with newspapers beginning January 1, 1926, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ProQuest Archiver will continue to digitize several years of The Constitution from microfilm on an annual basis.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution historic archives were digitized from microfilm, and thus a few issues are not available. Due to the quality of scanned microfilm, we cannot guarantee that every word or name is searchable or that every article or ad is included.

The Atlanta Journal, a separate newspaper that began publishing in 1883, has not yet been digitized. It is available on microfilm at many public and academic libraries.

For Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles from 1985 to the present, please use our (text-only) News Archive at http://stacks.ajc.com

The historic archive does not include full-page reprints. For details on obtaining reprints, see the question and answer below.

The historical archives (1868 - 1942) do contain many graphics, however, some photographs are blocked due to copyright concerns.

You may order microfilm page reprints from ProQuest or from the Stacks Information Service.
For details visit:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/services/info/services.html

Full-page images are available in The Atlanta Constitution database offered as part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers^TM product. This product is sold to libraries and academic institutions.

Customers may submit an online refund request within two hours of purchase. ProQuest will refund the full purchase price provided the customer provides an explanation of why he/she is dissatisfied with the quality of the content delivered. If more than two hours has passed, customers may contact ProQuest Customer Service by email to request a refund at mypqabilling@pqarchiver.com.

Refunds for passes will be pro-rated based upon duration since purchase and usage.

No refunds can be given more than 60 days following the original purchase date.

The Atlanta Constitution is offered as part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers collection.

This database is available to public libraries, academic and government institutions and libraries as well as corporate libraries. It offers cover-to-cover full page images as well as images of articles, illustrations and ads dating back to the 19th century from The Atlanta Constitution and other newspapers. Printing and downloading is provided in PDF format.

For more details on this product as well as information on how to contact a sales representative, visit http://www.proquest.com/products/pt-product-HistNews.shtml.

Find The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's company history and a timeline of significant events at: http://www.ajc.com/info/content/services/info/ajchistory.html

Visit our online store at ajcstore.com for books, posters, note cards and more on the history of Atlanta.

A number of the most popular photos from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's photo archive have been digitized and can be purchased for personal use. Visit our online store at http://www.ajc.com/services/content/services/open/ajcstore/index.html

The Stacks Information Service may able to search further in our print photo archive. To inquire about research prices, email us at:
stacks@ajc.com or fill out our request form

Be specific with your search terms. If your search is unsuccessful, refine your search terms. To narrow your search, select a date range and fill in Author and Headline (if known) boxes in addition to filling in your search words in the Search Terms box. The more information you provide, the more precise your search results will be. To get more results, select different search words or a longer date range.

Using AND narrows the search, using OR broadens the search, and using NOT excludes unwanted items. The NOT operator is useful in refining an initial query that returns a broad list of results. WITHIN and PRE control how close your search terms must be to one another. PRE also checks that words found are in the same order as in your search expression. For more details on getting good search results, visit Search Tips.

The basic search includes the full text of the entire article, as well as text from the headline, author field, date range, subject terms, etc. For more details, visit Search Tips.

On the search screen, use the date range option to select the specific date, insert an asterisk ( * ) into the "Search for" field, and click the search button.

Many obituaries were and are paid classified advertising. If you're not having any luck finding an obituary, make sure you have clicked the radio button called "Search Articles, Advertisements and Listings" next to Search Options.

The use of initials for first and middle names was more common in the past. Try searching just on the last name, possibly combining it with other words. The word obituary has been added to most paid death notices. Other words that frequently appear in news and paid obituaries include: died, funeral, services, survived, interment, cemetery, church.

When combining a last name with these words, remember to use w/doc instead of and. Example: smith w/doc obituary

Please review the Search Tips for helpful information, as well as How do I get better search results?. Unfortunately, ProQuest Archiver is unable to provide research assistance for the archives. However, more information is available here.

You can choose the format you would like to view by clicking the icon next to the article title. The following formats may be available:

Preview - The free Preview (sample) provides bibliographic information about the article, such as author and publication date, and a brief summary. This format contains no photos!.

Article Image - Article Image (sample) refers to a black and white scanned page of the article as it was originally printed, delivered in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Adobe currently does not offer a plug-in for all browsers that allows Mac OS X users to view PDF documents inside browsers. When you purchase an article image, the PDF will automatically download to your computer. If the downloaded PDF does not immediately open, open the PDF manually with Preview or Adobe Reader. The downloaded PDF filename will be out.pdf for the first file. Subsequent downloaded files will be named out1.pdf, out2.pdf, etc.

Articles are actually carved out exactly as they were laid out on a page. For example, if you see the beginning of your article at the bottom of the Article Image page and another portion of it up and to the right, that article began at the bottom of one column and continued at the top of another.

Advice for new users: After you do a search, a screen will come up with the results of that search. You may view a summary of the document for free. Once you determine which document you would like to view, click on the icon with the '$'. If you are a new user, you will be taken to a pricing page, where you can choose the plan to purchase. After deciding which plan best fits your needs, you will be taken through the purchase experience. After confirming your purchase, the full text of the document will be displayed.

You may choose to print the document or save it for your personal review later on. Since you have access to this document for 90 days, you may complete the same search and retrieve the document again during this time period.

Please note that article packs or pricing plans for the Stacks Current Archives or Obit Archives are not valid for use with the Historic Archives and vice versa.

Please click here for instructions on printing article PDF's using Adobe.

Accepted forms of payment for purchasing articles:

(Billed by ProQuest Archiver)

ProQuest Archiver is an e-commerce platform for publishers to distribute their content on the Web. Visit myPQA to learn more.

View the article as usual within Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in (within the browser window). Be sure to check the image size in the lower left hand corner of the Acrobat screen. Select the print icon on the Acrobat tool bar, instead of selecting Print from the "File" drop-down at the top of your screen.

If necessary, use the "Graphics Select Tool" to select a part of the larger image.

To enlarge a small article select "Expand small pages to paper size" on the print dialog screen.

If the article can fit on tabloid size paper (11" X 17") and the paper is available, click the "properties" button. Note to PC users: from the print dialog screen, choose the Paper/Quality tab. Click on Advanced and choose either 11" X 17" or tabloid from the Paper Size drop-down.

You also can use this "properties" dialog to select "landscape" instead of "portrait" prints by clicking on the Layout tab.

Note to Mac users: Go to your browser's Page Setup to change your paper and printer settings.

To print a smaller section of a larger page use the "Graphics Select Tool" to select a portion of the article or advertisement for printing. To enlarge the page, select "Expand small pages to paper size" on the print dialog screen. To re-center the page on the paper, select "Auto-rotate and center pages".

To shrink an article for printing select "Shrink oversized pages to paper size" on the print dialog screen. The zoom percentage will be displayed below the print preview, on the bottom right of the window

To print an article too large for one page split the article into multiple pages) use the "Graphics Select Tool" on the tool bar to select a smaller section of the article. Select the print icon and use the expand options, or re-centering options if necessary. Repeat these steps as many times as necessary, selecting a different section of the larger image for printing each time. Often, if you use the "Zoom Out Tool" this will make selecting sections to print easier.
Note: If you enlarge or shrink the selection be sure to keep the zoom percentage the same throughout so the separate pages will line up properly.

The Stacks Information Service may able to search further in our internal archives. To inquire about research prices, email us at: stacks@ajc.com or fill out our request form.

All staff articles, graphics and photos that appear in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and its precursors, The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Journal are copyrighted. They may not be reproduced, republished, retransmitted or redistributed without prior written permission

For details on obtaining reprint permission visit: ajc.com/permissions

If you still have questions after checking the frequently asked questions, please contact Customer Service. Please keep in mind that assistance is available only for technical and account-related issues. Research assistance is not provided.