Nova Scotia Archives - Newspapers (2024)

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This title is one in an unbroken chain of official and semi-official government newspapers published in Nova Scotia, from the Halifax Gazette on 23 March 1752 to the present-day Royal Gazette. The Nova Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser has been called 'the liveliest journal of opinion produced in Canada' for its time; regular features included tide tables, shipping news, weather reports and advertisem*nts. It had less than 80 subscribers when it began in 1769, and lasted only a year before taking a new title, the Nova Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle.

Issues from 1769 and 1770

Shelburne was founded in 1783 by some 15,000 political refugees displaced in the aftermath of the American Revolution. For a fleeting moment it was the fourth-largest community in North America, and with a population that large could sustain several newspapers in the early years. The Royal American Gazette was the first; begun in New York City in 1777, it migrated north with its publisher, James Robertson, in 1783. It featured local advertisem*nts, reprints of news items from foreign newspapers, and some local content. Its Shelburne life ended when Robertson moved to Charlottetown PEI about 1785-86.

Issues from 1785

This newspaper began in 1784, as a sort of literary magazine featuring essays, poetry, stories and letters reprinted from English and American periodicals, with occasional local content. The publisher was the nephew of James Robertson Sr., who published The Royal American Gazette. When Robertson Sr. moved to Charlottetown about 1785, taking his printing press with him, the Gazetteer and Advertiser ceased publication.

Issues from 1785

The last of the early newspapers in Loyalist Shelburne, this title began in 1785, was printed on new equipment imported from England, and may have continued as late as 1796. It featured shipping and local news, weather reports, and reprints from newspapers in Saint John NB, Quebec, the United States and overseas. The publisher, James Humphreys, returned to his native Philadelphia in 1797, taking his press with him.

Issues from 1786 and 1787

The Acadian Recorder was a weekly Halifax newspaper first published in January 1813 by Anthony H. Holland. He was joined in 1821 by his brother, Philip, who took full control of the publication in 1824. The paper eventually came under the auspices of Mssrs. John English and Hugh W. Blackadar in 1837. The Recorder was what we now call a 'newspaper of record' because of its lengthy publication history (nearly a century) and the quality of its news coverage. In the early days, it printed local, national and international news stories. Other features included a weekly almanac, shipping news, obituaries and wedding announcements, a poetry or story section, and a wide range of advertisem*nts.

Issues from 1813 to 1853

This newspaper was published weekly, provided there was sufficient ink and paper, out of S.J.M. Allen's offices in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Taking as its motto, "The Friend of All, the Slave of None," it began in January 1854 and continued under Allen until 1867 when publication passed to Silas M. Bryden, who changed the journal's name to the Liverpool Advertiser. The Transcript was a "weekly miscellany of literature, art, science, and popular information" and is a representative example of a small town newspaper in the mid-nineteenth century. It included local news (though much was omitted, based on the assumption that everyone already knew what was happening in town) as well as national and international items. Other key features included shipping news, poetry and story sections, wide-ranging advertisem*nts, and even, on occasion, word and logic puzzles.

Issues from 1854 to 1867

Published in Pictou from 1835 to 1838, this was one of the earliest newspapers in Nova Scotia to appear outside Halifax. It was printed on the press of — and may have been the successor to — the Colonial Patriot, Pictou's first newspaper (1827). Like its predecessor, The Bee supported progress and reform, promoted agricultural interests, and was considered so radical that it was banned from the Halifax Exchange Reading Room in 1837.

Issues from 1835, 1836, 1837 and 1838

Formed in Pictou from the joining of the Mechanic & Farmer and Presbyterian Banner in 1843 — The Eastern Chronicle was devoted to religion, agriculture, literature, politics, and general intelligence. Purchased by Robert McConnell and W.B. Alley and moved to New Glasgow in 1866 and known briefly — 1866-1867 — as The Eastern Chronicle and Pictou County Advocate. With the move to New Glasgow the paper commenced publishing twice a week but reverted to weekly in April of 1870. It was sold to Daniel Logan in 1877, then succeeded by S.M. MacKenzie and later James A. Fraser of the Chronicle Publishing Company 1881-1946. The final issue appeared on 24 September 1953 (Hector Publishing Company).

Each copy from the Nova Scotia Archives holdings, 1867-1888 has been scanned. These issues focus on the time of Confederation and the industrialization of North Eastern Nova Scotia.

Microfilm extend from 1843 to 1953.

The Citizen and Evening Chronicle of 31 January 1888 contained a brief notice of its demise and rebirth as The Daily Echo. The new title set out to be entirely separate and distinct from the Morning Chronicle carrying “light literature and the current events of the day… avoiding the many unpleasant topics that prove to be so objectionable to the family circle." While "City News, city gossip, city interests" was its motto, it also carried "the world of fact, the world of fiction, and the world of fashion." Lucy Maud Montgomery would later work there and confided to her diary that life at the Echo was not “all beer and skittles”. The paper modified its title to the Evening Echo at the start of 1920 and continued until 21 January 1927 when it was rebranded as the Daily Star.

Issues for 1888 — subsequent titles available on microfilm.

The Atlantic Advocate was Nova Scotia's first African Canadian newsmagazine. Its publishers, Wilfred A. DeCosta, Miriam A. DeCosta and Dr. Clement Courtenay Ligoure, incorporated as The Atlantic Advocate Association Ltd. on 8 June 1916. Only four issues have survived — the first, for April 1915 (held by Nova Scotia Archives) and three others, namely January, April and May 1917 (held by Vaughan Memorial Library, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS). The magazine covered a range of topics — historical, religious, economic, political, military, literary, social and local. Community notes appeared from across Nova Scotia, including Amherst, Digby, Halifax, Hammonds Plains, Liverpool, Shelburne, Westville, Weymouth and Wolfville, as well as from New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

Issues from 1915 and 1917

A monthly publication out of Sydney, Cape Breton, An Solus Iùil was a Gaelic newspaper with English sections relating church news. The focus of the paper was Presbyterian news, including but not limited to, mission efforts, ministerial appointments and church meetings; the occasional wedding was announced as well.

Issues from 1925 to 1927

Published monthly out of Sydney, Cape Breton, Fear na Céilidh was bound rather than taking the traditional form of a newspaper, and included advertisem*nts, largely in English with images, on the front and back covers. The newspaper itself was published entirely in Gaelic, in an effort to preserve and cultivate that beautiful language. The newspaper promised a "well-edited selection of interesting reading, carefully written and correctly printed." The annual subscription was $1.00 for 12 issues — a small price to pay for maintaining and promoting the language.

Issues from 1928 to 1930