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Newspapers
The local newspaper is one of the most valuable
primary printed sources available to the local historian for
the reconstruction of community life over the last two and a
half centuries. Newspapers are available for the Halifax area,
with gaps, from the mid 18th century onwards. During the earlier
period, local news coverage tends to be a minor feature of each
issue and is most in evidence in the advertisements and notices,
often to be found on the front page. Here will be found references
to public meetings, sales of houses and land etc. During the
19th century, however, local news figures more prominently, and
from the 1830s a detailed picture of almost every aspect of local
life begins to emerge. In many instances, the newspaper report
can amplify and explain the concise formal record, providing
information on the background and conflicts surrounding particular events.
Format
Local newspapers have survived in a variety
of formats. Most of them are preserved in annual bound volumes,
but made available for consultation via microfilm copies to reduce
the wear and tear on the originals. Since the late 19th century,
collections of newscuttings have been maintained by individuals
and institutions, in the early years mounted in scrapbooks, but
more recently filed loose in envelopes and arranged alphabetically
by person, place and subject.
Use
As might be expected, newspapers are often
biased in the way events and issues are reported, and geared
to the prejudices of a readership which does not begin to represent
the population as a whole until the early 20th century. This
is particularly the case when political matters are at stake.
We are fortunate, therefore, in having two or more newspapers
available for specific periods, each with its own political slant,
and it is an interesting excercise to take certain issues and
look at the various ways these issues are treated in the local
press during a particular period.
Value
One of the main pitfalls of local studies
in many spheres is that the researcher can very easily lose sight
of the regional, national and sometimes international context
of local events and issues. One of the great advantages of newspapers
is that the local can be less easily divorced from the general
context. During the 19th century, due largely to the process
of industrial-urbanisation, society underwent important changes
in its quality of life - changes which affected public health,
transport, culture and leisure, housing and education. Much of
this is reflected in the local press in a way that enables the
local historian to relate local change to the more general developments
which were taking place in society as a whole.
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