As a part-time employee at the Library, having briefly studied the Paris Commune (1871) some 10 years previously, in 2005 I was intrigued to find myself digitizing an original edition of Le Ballon Poste: Journal du Siege de Paris (1870–1871) for the Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century project. At the time, the newspaper was captured on the department’s Phase One PowerPhase FX+ scan-back system, with white paper placed underneath each page view, to enhance the legibility of print on the semi-transparent, very thin India paper.

Shown here is a close-up of the address panel, which gives a better sense of the fragility and lightness of each issue, delivered via hot air balloon.

(The French National Library now also hosts digital facsimiles of the newspaper issues.)

The French balloons are featured in this print held in Brown University Library’s Anne S. K. Brown Military collection, picturing a German soldier becoming distracted by a balloon overhead. The Brown University Library’s digital collections, culled from special collections, currently include over 100 items relating to the Franco-Prussian War, the conflict immediately preceding the Commune.