Island Newspapers

The IslandNewspapers initiative will develop a comprehensive collection of PEI's historical newspapers. The content will be part of the overall IslandArchives collection, which will also be inter-connected with other IslandArchives resources – such as IslandLives; IslandImagined, etc.  As a result, when searching in one resource, pertinent information might also be retrieved from others.  For example, a search on Montague might bring up newspaper content about or from Montague, as well as various geographic maps, town planning minutes, or letters written while behind some battle line by a Montague resident.

While in the early stages, we have started digitizing The Guardian, from microfilm, to ensure the best quality results when OCR-ing and have ordered and received “new masters” of the The Guardian from 1890 - 1950,  for the same reason.  These masters comprise 143 reels and each reel takes approximately 1 hour to digitize (not including the coding, metadata, etc.) At this point, we have completed up to August 1892.

Currently, we are focusing on digitizing most of The Guardian (issues not covered by copyright) and the student newspaper at UPEI, The Cadre (1969- ) but we have a long way to go still.

The IslandArchives repository is an Island resource and we are very conscious of our responsibility to make this material accessible to the world. Indeed, the contents of these collections reflect the Island's evolution and provide important source materials for researchers and the general public. The Island Newspapers collection will illuminate Prince Edward Island's sociocultural and political history through digitized newspapers dating back to the early 1800s. Browse or search our expanding collections to learn more of the events, people, and trends that shaped the early Island.

If you would like to contribute to the IslandNewspapers project by providing a financial contribution and "adopting" a title, we would like to hear from you.