Chillicothe Gazette Monday Evening Publication on Dard Hunter's Death

Chillicothe Gazette’s February 21st, 1966 Monday evening publication is September’s artifact of the month. Loud bold print reads “World Authority on Hand Paper Dies.” The article pays tribute to Dard Hunter, a renowned paper historian. Dard’s passion for print and paper led him to establish a museum at MIT in 1939; following relocations, the museum was renamed the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, eventually merging with the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003.  

The article reveals tidbits about Dard’s life as a renowned figure in the field of paper. For instance, Dard faked a diploma to enroll in the Austrian Royal School of Printing and once received a request from Mahatma Gandhi “to teach European methods of papermaking to Indian students.” The newspaper’s dated stories and yellowing newsprint reveal the artifact’s age, now nearly 60 years old.  

Newsprint is an inexpensive, low-quality paper made from wood pulp. Quality paper is ideally made entirely of cellulose (C6H10O5)n, the structural component of plant cell walls. Cotton is often used for papermaking as it is 90% cellulose, as opposed to wood that contains 50%. Wood contains more lignin (C31H34O11)n, which helps trees grow tall and stiff. Industrial mills remove lignin from wood pulp with sulfur. However, lignin is often left in newsprint, resulting in sheets yellowing as the lignin oxidizes. Since newspapers are rarely intended to be saved, the less expensive wood pulp paper is a cost effective material.