Dayton Daily News Archive (MS-458)

The collection documents the local and regional history of Dayton and the Miami Valley in Ohio through materials generated by the Dayton Journal Herald and the Dayton Daily News, with the bulk of materials dating from 1930-1980. The Dayton Daily News retains its digital photographs from the 1990s to present. The majority of the collection is newspaper clippings and black and white photographs. However, the collection also includes some color photographs, color slides, negatives of various sizes, documents, microfiche, AP wire photographs, maps, oversize photographs, and bound volumes of newspapers. General topics include: personalities, obituaries, VIP files, subjects and events. The collection is arranged into seven series:

Series I. Personality Files

The Personality Files are photos and clippings of people. The Personality Files series is comprised of 821 record storage boxes of material. All photos are located in the Personality A-Z subseries (736 boxes). The subseries was created by merging the Dayton Daily News and the Journal Herald personality files together. The paper had begun this process before the collection was acquired by Wright State. The majority of the integration is complete, however there remains some overlap in the latter part of the subseries. The three remaining subseries (Subseries B: Personality Clippings, Subseries C: Old Personality Clippings, and Subseries D: Obituary Clippings) account for 85 boxes. They are comprised solely of clippings and they often correspond with the appropriate photo in Subseries A: Personality A-Z.

Series II. Subject

The Subject Files series documents events, places, and things-any news item that is not a person. The Subject Files fill 1038 record storage boxes (though a small percentage of clippings are in Hollinger boxes).

Subseries A: Dayton Daily News Black & White Photos (66 record storage boxes) are black and white photos from the 1940s-1970s listed in alphabetical order by subject.

Subseries B: Dayton Daily News Black & White Country and Island (37 records storage boxes) are photos (and some clippings) on international news produced largely by media sources other than the Dayton Daily News.

Subseries C: Dayton Daily News Subject Files Clippings (88 boxes) are clippings related to the photos in the Dayton Daily News Black & White Photos subseries.

Subseries D: Dayton Daily News Color Photos (19 boxes) are photos of subjects all from the late 1980s-early 1990s.

Subseries E: Dayton Daily News Color Movie and TV (50 boxes) are promotional photos and celebrity head shots sent to the paper as marketing for an upcoming movie or television show.

Subseries F: Journal Herald Alpha Numeric (623 record storage boxes) contains photos and clippings. This subseries is arranged using an alpha-numeric filing system unique to the Dayton Daily News. There is an index located in the archive to aid in using this series; the database notes the Alpha-Numeric range within each box.

Subseries G: Journal Herald Numeric (35 boxes) are older photos from the 1930s-1950s.

Subseries H: Journal Herald Numeric Clippings (41 boxes) are news clippings that correspond to the Journal Herald Numeric Files.

Subseries I: Journal Herald Pamphlet (55 record storage and banker boxes) contains clippings that correspond to the Journal Herald Alpha-Numeric subseries, and also use the alpha-numeric filing system in Subseries F.

Subseries J: Oversize (23 boxes) subseries are subject photos that are too large to fit into a standard record storage box. It contains some photos of notable people.

Series III. Dayton Daily News Corporate

The Dayton Daily News Corporate Files are 37 items related to the corporate governance of the Dayton Daily News as an institution. It contains payroll ledgers, photos of company events and personalities, signed letters from notable individuals (such as Orville Wright, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford), scrapbooks, whole newspapers from 1880-1995, framed pictures, corporate documents, and telephone directories. Some of the payroll information is under the guidelines of the Privacy Act.

Series IV. AP Proofs

The AP Proofs series contains photographs produced by media companies other than the Dayton Daily News and its related papers. The series has proofs from the Associated Press from 1955-1991. The copyright for this material remains with the institution that created it.

Series V. Negatives, Microfiche, Slides

This series is comprised of 45 boxes. The negatives and slides are of photos that are found in print form in other parts of the collection. The series also contains slides from TV and movies. The negatives are unlabeled, but in most cases the name of the photographer is identified. The microfiche is of Dayton Daily News editions from the 1970s-1990s.

Series VI. VIP Files

The VIP Files are 106 Hollinger boxes of clippings and photos on subjects and personalities the Dayton Daily News deemed to be of high use or high importance.

Series VII. Library

The Library series contains 9 boxes (8 record center boxes and a legal size document half box) of books, pamphlets, draft and final reports, and brochures that were part of the Journal Herald and Dayton Daily News working library. Some books on local topics of high interest, such as the Miami Conservancy District and the 1913 Flood, are cataloged separately and available in the reading room. These items have a note in the catalog record indicating their provenance with the Dayton Daily News Archive. The library series is divided into 29 subseries reflecting the alpha numeric filing system used by the Journal Herald and DDN in series F and series I. Topics include local government and politics, transportation, urban development, environmental issues, population, education, and aviation. The bulk of the materials date from the 1960s and 1970s. While there are many topics covered, few are represented in detail.