Photo: Tammy Fancy Photo: Tammy Fancy

Read all about it!

By | May 27, 2010

A key record of Nova Scotia’s history is now easily available to the public, thanks to a new project from the Nova Scotia Archives. The Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers project features over 19,000 pages from 16 different newspapers around the province. Archivists electronically scanned original copies of 16 different titles, dating from 1769 to 1991.

“Digitizing these pages makes them available to many people who would otherwise not experience them,” says Lois Yorke, director of public services with Nova Scotia Archives & Records Management. She points to unique examples like The Nova Scotia Gleaner (a newspaper serving the black community), Micmac News and the Gaelic-language Bialla Na Queg.

The site also features many examples of the “Volkswagen press”—newspapers outside the mainstream, which championed social justice and workers’ rights. One such paper is The 4th Estate, which published in Halifax from 1969 to 1977, fiercely criticizing mainstream media, politicians and business elites.

Prominent Nova Scotian writers Stephen Kimber and Silver Donald Cameron began their careers as reporters with the groundbreaking paper. “Fairness meant looking at those issues with a shared social commitment,” Cameron recalls. “It was a noble venture. I look at this archive with nostalgia. What we did was important and I’m glad it won’t be forgotten.” Browse the newspapers at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm

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