Past times

We dive into the Times archives with professional help.

The end of the year is an opportunity to look back and reflect. So today we bring you something in that spirit: an interview with Jennifer Parrucci, Senior Taxonomist at The Times, about the interesting things she found while digging through the newspaper's 171-year-old archives.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Ian: What exactly is a taxonomist?

Jennifer: Yeah, nobody knows what I'm doing. They're like, "Are you a taxidermist?" I make sure our current items can be easily searched and categorized. This work grew out of the New York Times Index, which is a reference book of every person, organization, place and event the newspaper has written about. It began to be published regularly in 1913.

For example, if I search for the first mention of John F. Kennedy in the article that I can find, I get a three-sentence story about him returning from England, where his father was US Ambassador, in 1938. I can find it because someone working on the index that year thought, It seems quite large. I'll add his name.

I've also created a massive spreadsheet of fun gems that I've found browsing through the archives, mostly by passion project. You walk in and sometimes find things by chance, from the serious to the ridiculous, like an attempted robbery who got caught because he stopped for lemonade or a man who only ate pickles and crackers and ended up in the hospital. I also help journalists looking for old coverage on specific events, like April Fool's Day or the Oscars.

The search should get harder as as events and newspaper coverage evolve. .

Yes. World War I was not listed as World War I because archivists at the time were unaware there would be another. So you must be thinking, OK, what would that have been called? That's one thing about archives: things change. The language changes. We used words that we don't use today. We framed things in a way that we don't now.

You can also see how our journalistic standards have changed. My favorite archival project I did was to collaborate on two books: Cats of the Times and Dogs of The Times. I have to get all the dog and cat stories from the archives. I don't know if the story of a cat crossing a church would make page 2 of the newspaper today, but it did in 1897.

ImageJennifer Parrucci in the Times Photographic Archive, known as the "Morgue".Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It's almost like you're describing a different log. Did you come across anything particularly odd?

Before Adolph Ochs bought The Times in 1896, some of the newspaper's coverage was a bit risky. There was a lot of social coverage. It was more partisan. He also used to report ghost stories and other paranormal activity very seriously. A...