The Antigonish Heritage Museum in Nova Scotia will officially launch a free newspaper database at 2:00 p.m. Atlantic time on Heritage Day, February 19.
In a release, museum curator and St. Francis Xavier University instructor Dr. Barry Mackenzie says historical issues of the community newspaper, The Casket — founded in 1852 — are mostly available on microfilm.
Photo: Antigonish Heritage Museum Facebook page.
According to radio station 101.5 The Hawk, it has taken about three years to upload and index more than 50 years’ worth of the newspaper, so it will be months before the entire collection is digitized. However, the museum wants to make it available to researchers around the world right away.
Eventually, this digital resource will make available more than a century of local news.
The Casket was first published in 1852, and it is still published weekly as part of the SaltWire Network.
This newspaper digitization project was made possible by funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Tourism Digital Assistance Program from the Province of Nova Scotia.
