Back home in Dayton on June 8, 1918, the Dayton Daily News ran a story reminding readers a solar eclipse would begin at “3:55 o’clock” in Aberdeen, Wash. and end at 6:41 in Florida.
The brief story, published on the front page of the newspaper, was surrounded by news of World War I and noted, “because of the war, scientists from European countries have found it impossible to come for a study of the eclipse.”
A story in the next day’s newspaper described the scene in Dayton this way:
“All Dayton was gazing skyward between the hours of 5:30 and 7:30 o’clock Saturday evening. ‘Did you see the eclipse?’ during those two hours was the one salutation heard on every hand.
“Street corners were literally blocked with awry-necked people gazing at the sun to behold the phenomenan.
“It was a total eclipse, not visible in its entirety to this vicinity but observed from every quarter of the earth’s wide stretches by scientific men. To them it was one of the most auspicious events in many years.”
William Preston Mayfield, a photographer for the Dayton Daily News, and local astronomer R.E. Fosdick set up a telescope and camera on the race track at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds to record the eclipse.
“A great crowd of interested spectators” gathered alongside the men “during the two hours of the passage of the moon before the great ball.”
Two photographs were published along with a reporters’ description of the transformation that drifted over Dayton.
“Semi-darkness settled over the skies. The deepening shadows came faster than usual with this time of the year and gave an unusual appearance to the skies, that of a threatening rain, while the part of the sun which was left without the eclipse shone with its usual brilliance.”
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