In celebration of World Book Day, the Ministry of Culture has planned a series of events to commemorate the importance of print (and now electronic) media in Costa Rica. At the Miguel Obregon Lizano National Library in San Jose, there will be a lecture on Education and Print Culture in Costa Rica in the Second Half of the 19^th Century.

The lecture will take place at 2:00 pm and will kick off a exhibit of 93 historical records printed in our country in the 19^th century. The works will be organized into Women’s Education, Public Lighting (remember that San Jose was one of the first electrified cities in the world), Trains of Costa Rica, Communications, and Publications.

The exhibit will run at the National Library until September 30^th, but you can also browse the items from Internet-connected devices that support modern browsers and the ubiquitous Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The digital collection is maintained at the website of the National Library System.

Of special interest in the collection is The News, an English-language print weekly that dates back to July of 1897, and which served as the source of inspiration for The Costa Rica Star.

The News – A Social and Commercial Weekly Newspaper was edited by one R.J. Duffy, and as you read its pages you realize that the old adage of “the more things change, the more they stay the same” has quite a bit of validity. Here’s an endearing excerpt from Volume 1, Number 1 of The News:

“It is scarcely necessary to state, in presenting THE NEWS to the English Speaking Colony of Costa Rica, that the success of the venture will be either marred or made by the amount of public favor accorded, as also the measure of support received from the advertising business and professional community of this Republic.

We desire to particularly impress on our readers at the outset, that it is our intention to conduct The News as a perfectly independent social and commercial journal, non political, non partisan, and the organ of no clique, party or sect.”

As you can see from the National Library exhibit and publications such as The News, English-language media has a long history in Costa Rica, to wit this other excerpt from the first edition:

“Montero and Co. have in contemplation the establishment of an English Book Lending Library, as well as the placing on sale of the latest newspapers and magazines both from the States and Europe.”

The Web 2.0 Internet paradigm of social media and user-generated content was pursued even at the end of the 19^th century:

“We send THE NEWS free to all and we only as in return, that our readers send us items of a business and social nature which we shall gladly insert.”

Even the real estate market in late 19^th century San Jose was chaotic, as reported by The News:

“If ever a city required a Building Society, San Jose does. The rents are absurdly high, yet where can one find a vacant house?”

The News had a fondness for reporting items of interest that would appeal to curious audiences:

“A pet cat in suburban electric light station in New Jersey attempted the other day to jump through one of the large flywheels of the plant as it was revolving at the rate of nearly a mile a minute. The cat struck a crossbar and clung to the wheel. This was at noon and the engineer did not dare stop the wheel till morning. During the eighteen hours the cat had been in the whirling wheel it had traveled 780 miles. It was dead, of course.”

A later edition of The News ran this advertisement for the former Banco Anglo Costarricense, which is the predecessor to BAC San Jose and Credomatic -owned today by a Colombian banking consortium:

Existing Capital: $1,2 Million
Reserves: $200,00
The Bank pays 4 percent on three-month certificates of deposit
The Bank pays 8 percent on one-year certificates of deposit

There are many other gems to be found, in English and Spanish, in the National Library collection.

In celebration of World Book Day, we offer you these previous articles from The Costa Rica Star:

• Blog of the Year: A young Tico writer channels David Foster Wallace with a short story
• Reading Electronic Books (eBooks) in Costa Rica
• An interview with author Warren Ulloa Arguello, winner of the 2011 National Literature Award
• What is one of the best-selling books in Costa Rica? Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard