Decades of Princeton’s history has been unlocked and made available online.
The historical archives of the Princeton Herald and the Princeton Recollector are fully searchable and available via the Princeton University Library website.
The Princeton Herald, a community weekly newspaper that was published from 1923 to 1966, stated in its first editor’s column that it wanted “to be able to bring into the homes of Princeton and neighboring people those points of interest, news and events…”
The Princeton Recollector, a monthly local history newsletter published from 1975 to 1986, documents Princeton’s past through oral histories, illustrations and photographs gathered by the Princeton History Project.
“The Princeton Herald and the Princeton Recollector both are invaluable resources for anyone conducting local history research,” Stephanie Schwartz, HSP curator of collections and research, said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that, with the help of the Princeton Public Library and the Princeton University Library, we can make them readily accessible through the University’s Papers of Princeton online platform.”
The Herald and the Recollector join the Daily Princetonian, the Princeton Town Topics, and several other local and university publications that have already been digitally photographed and transcribed in full.
“Newspapers are fundamental carriers of historical information, often providing us with the earliest and closest accounts of critical events and contemporary public opinion” Jon Stroop, director of library information technology and digital services at PUL, said in a statement.
The project began when the new leadership of the public library and the historical society met with the Princeton university archivist to discuss projects they could do together that they may not be able to accomplish individually. They agreed that digitizing local newspapers would benefit all three institutions and reviewed their holdings for what publications could be added.
For more information about this collection, contact Daniel Linke, Princeton University Liobrary archivist, at dlinke@princeton.edu.
