Man's indexing of newspaper is window to history

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Philosopher George Santayana wrote that in "The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905."

In 2001, a Palatine man named David Hammer took these words to heart and ventured out on a daunting task.

"You can't understand the present without knowing the past, so I gathered and organized headlines in the Daily Herald by subject matter. Then I created an index as a tool to help people find information," Hammer said. "The Daily Herald has over 2,000 rolls of microfilm, so it's difficult to find the article you need without an index."

The 61-year-old's process involved going through the microfilm starting with 1901 and logging headlines on his computer by subject and then formatting them into an index. Before the Herald created a Web site, Hammer's results were preserved in two books published by the Palatine Historical Society, of which he is a member.

"I struggled with a lot of challenges," Hammer said. "One was with the computer crashing. Another was not knowing how to get a book published. And the formatting didn't come out of the blue. It was trial by fire to figure it out."

Hammer, a bus driver, spent over 4,000 volunteer hours and seven years on the project. He has posted 130,000 headlines.

"I protect the data by hitting 'save' every 15 minutes, making copies every hour on a flash drive, and keeping two copies of the index off site," said Hammer.

Some of the favorite headlines Hammer has come across over the years include "The sky is a bad place to run out of gas," and "Army accepts toothless men."

Recently, Hammer was recognized for his efforts by the Illinois State Historical Society. At a luncheon and ceremony at the Executive Mansion in Springfield, Hammer received the Best Web Site Award.

"His concerted efforts to index information took a lot of hard work," said William Furry, executive director of the society. "It is a thankless job but very necessary for research."

A committee of peers including historians, teachers and museum curators chose the winners from several entries.

"We've been doing these recognitions for over 30 years for people like him who celebrate Illinois' history and interpret it. By doing so, he helps people in the future know where they come from," said Furry.

The index, which can be found at www.dailyherald.com/search/dhindex/index.asp posts articles from 1901 through 1964. However, Hammer's computer is storing 1964 to 1966 and he hopes to update the paper's Web site, soon.

"I plan to do this the rest of my life," Hammer said. "It's my life's mission because sometimes the world is dark and I am anxious to shine light on all the facts."