The Frontenanc Heritage Foundation in Kingston, Ontario plans this year to digitize 24 years of the Daily British Whig, from 1902 to 1926.
Heather Home, public services/private records archivist, at Queen’s University Archives said, “This is a project that researchers, genealogists and students alike will all find helpful. The project will really help to move our historical records into the digital age.”
Each year the foundation takes on a project that highlights the heritage and history of the Kingston region.
Two sources of funding are assisting with this year’s project. The Davies Foundation donated to the project, and this is fitting since the Michael Davies family took over the publication of the Kingston Whig-Standard, as it became known in 1926. The foundation also received a City of Kingston Heritage Fund Project Grant, with the assistance of the Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites.
“Organizations like the Frontenac Heritage Foundation are essential to sustaining and supporting their community memory and shared stories,” said OurDigitalWorld’s projects coordinator, Jess Posgate. “OurDigitalWorld is very pleased to be working with the foundation to make this valuable set of newspapers, so rich with community history, available for widespread online discovery and exploration.”
Once completed, the digitized issues of the Daily British Whig will be made available to the public on DigitalKingston where issues from 1851 to 1901 are already available. It is possible to search by keyword within each issue on DigitalKingston. Because of the poor quality of many issues, the search tool is often unable to spot all the keywords. Instead, some researchers may find it more effective to browse issue by issue and page by page.
