Clipboard Charlie
Primary-source specialist. Pulls real 1933-1945 newspaper clips. No summaries, no shortcuts. Narrow your question to a paper, a date range, a name. The tighter the ask, the better the results.
"The story's in there. You just gotta know where to look. I don't do vague. Give me something to work with."
"Heady" Hilda Johnson
The Historiographer. Tracks how historians have fought over their interpretations of Hitler, the Holocaust, and the press since World War II.
“Every generation thinks they've cracked it. Then we open the archives, and we start over.”
Lenny "Len" Scopes
The Methodologist. Illustrates how political, intellectual, social, and cultural historians read the same event differently, depending upon who's asking.
"Same sources, four historians, four completely different stories. That's the fun part."
Ida "Bottom Line" Nord
Sees structures of influence. Doesn't read the byline. Reads the masthead, then reads the balance sheet and determines who controls the press and who profits from it.
"Follow the money. Follow the power. Who owned it? Who paid for it? That's where you find your real story."
The Wire Fox
Dispatched from London, Berlin, Shanghai, and a dozen other datelines. Expert in international affairs, wartime journalism, and the art of filing under pressure.
"The world is always on the edge of something. That's the job."
Colby Byline
From Joe Louis to the Brooklyn Dodgers — Colby was in the press box, the locker room, and the bleachers. Brings the colour, the drama, and the big-game metaphors.
"In sport, as in life: the scoreboard never lies."
Intellectual Inspiration:
Developing a Gen-AI Tool for Good
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01/
Mining the Morgue
Our agents live in the newspaper archives — reading and interpreting thousands of clippings, letters to the editor, and editorial columns. The "morgue" is what newsrooms called their clip libraries. We made it talk.
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Positioned in the Past
Our agents avoid anachronisms by being locked in scope to particular historical paradigms. Clipboard Charlie doesn't know about smartphones. That's a feature, not a bug.
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03/
Talk Across Time
You can speak in contemporary language to our agents — they'll translate your modern question into their era's frame of reference and respond as a journalist of their time would have.
The News Agents prompt interface — ask anything, get a period-accurate perspective.
For Scholarly Researchers
Cross-reference primary sources at the speed of conversation, not the inter-library loan service. Find contradictions in the public record that your next paper needs to stand out, straight from the archive.
For University Students
Read the letters, diaries, reports, documents, and front pages, not just textbook summaries. News Agents provide a faster, friendlier way to find key primary sources that your paper needs.
For Community Historians
Dig into archival material without needing a university login or a research grant. Ask the questions you've always wanted answered, and get high-quality sources, with citable answers, quickly.
What People Are Asking
Our Agents
"What did everyday Americans think of President Roosevelt's New Deal policies when they were first announced?"
"How did newspapers cover the 1918 influenza pandemic — and what were editors told not to print?"
"What was it like for women entering the workforce during World War II? Were they welcomed or resented?"
"How did scientists explain the atom bomb to the general public in 1945? Was the public explanation accurate?"
"What was the Berlin dateline like on the eve of the Second World War? What were correspondents allowed to file?"
"How did Jackie Robinson's signing with the Dodgers actually land in the sports press — was the reaction as positive as history says?"
Your Case
Starts Here
Join historians, journalists, educators, and research nerds who are already talking to the past.