Harley West joined the Transcript in 1905 as local editor. He was one of the first to install a Linotype machine for setting type-one of the first for a Colorado paper.
Newspapers can make or break a town, and over the past 150-plus years Golden has been home to at least six (Western Mountaineer, Colorado Transcript, Golden Eagle, Golden Globe, Jefferson County Republican, and the Outlook, in addition to a few smaller, short-lived publications.) As a result, Golden thrived. Today, only the Golden Transcript (originally called Colorado Transcript) remains. Although they closed their Golden office in 2017 to consolidate offices in Highlands Ranch, the Transcript remains the second oldest continuously published paper in Colorado.
The Golden branch of the Jefferson County Public Library donated their local history collection in 2015. The gift included 180 rolls of microfilm and almost 150 years of the Transcript.
Responding to public demand, the museum quickly committed to making the resource publicly available by digitizing the collection and making them fully accessible and free online. Since obtaining the collection, the museum forged a partnership with both the Jefferson County Archives and the Colorado State Library to work with the existing Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection. Over the next four years, the Jefferson County Archives has generously pledged to help fund this digitization project and see it through to completion.
Digitization finally started last year. Issues of the Colorado Transcript from 1925 through June 1948 went live in December 2017.
Look for yourself. For the first time anyone can easily jump in and explore the Depression and World War II eras in Jefferson County and Golden. Later this year we will pick up with the 1950s.
Did you know?
The museum currently owns a near-complete set of original, bound volumes of the Colorado Transcript covering 1895 to early 1960. Last year the Jefferson County Archives acquired original, bound volumes of the Colorado Transcript from late 1960 to 2012.
Mark Dodge, Curator
This is wonderful news for all of us who treasure Golden history. And the fact that it is accessible online makes research and just plain fun reading easy! Great job, GHM!
Dec 4, 1984 The Colorado transcript had an article on Anne Thew. I was hoping i could find it on line. I have some of it typed up.
“”When I was five I got the first cow of my own to milk, which I did from a one-legged stool? was the second paragraph.
Currentrly we’ve only digitized the Transcript up to 1972. It may be several years yet before we get to 1984. In the meantime you may try reviewing microfilm held at History Colorado in Denver.