A note on what is available: at different points, I have hoped that either Wright State University or the Versailles Public Library would have a hard copy of the paper in storage, if not able to be accessed. This does not seem to be the case. Wright State has only been able to provide negatives of the reels on microfilm, and they are not in the best condition. The Versailles Library is not too different; I saw a source online that said they have hard copies, but they've denied it/been unaware of it in person. The library has the originals--that is, copies that are not negatives--on microfilm and they are considerably easier to use and read. Unfortunately, they don't have the capability to make pdfs on site, I am not allowed to take them from the site, and by the time I made physical copies and transferred them to pdf, they would be no better quality than the pdfs I can make of them directly from the microfilm at Wright State. So that's what I've got here: pdf scans of microfilm negatives. Several years are missing, and I'm coming up on a crucial missing year--1901, the year of the Big Fire in Versailles. Pictures of that in the next post or so.
The Versailles Policy began in 1875, but no records exist of it before 1890 (and that year, all there is is the Christmas edition). One can see from the beginning of the written record that this is a highly agricultural community. The Policy--now as then--is a county paper, circulating throughout the residents of Darke County on a weekly basis. Perhaps the only existing evident of mass culture in Versailles for many years at the beginning of the 20th century, the Policy shows how modernism is appropriated in "local," or as I will use, rural, environments.
I've figured out how to grant you access to the pdfs. It took a bit. I'll make all of them accessible, but give some notes on the highlights. 1890 is rather sparse; there's only the one issue from Christmas. This advert (including the comical misspelling of "GOODS" as "GODS"; first page of the linked is what is intended) has a bit of commercialism alongside the explicit agricultural emphasis in the second ad below. This emphasis doesn't go away; I won't include other ads along the way, but here's one other that shows the interest in ag. The other interesting thing is this woman's fashion ad.
In 1891, there was a sporadic kid's column. Fashion made it's way back in from time to time, too. The interest in transportation/circulation shows itself early, too. Here's a column that would have had an impact on the community's visual imagination, even if the idea is a terrible one. This idea, and others in the same vein, will play a part in my larger argument about Versailles/Darke County. This set of three maps indicates the progress of planting of various crops in different parts of the country, helping create an imagined agricultural community across state lines. Another important piece of my argument.
1892 is missing. Here's 1893. Christmas 1893 contrasts nicely with Christmas 1908 (link to come); one has Santa in a sleigh, the second has him driving a Model T! Time (probably) mattered to these people; I will want to argue that it was at least a response to the arrival of the train station in Versailles (1853) and the standardization of their schedules in 1883; in order to sell their goods, they had to be able to make the trains! The rest of the year: transportation, transportation, cows, and transportation. That's about it.
1896, the gold standard came to the fore, and it was pitted as a competition between agriculture and business: look at all these cartoons!
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