Local News Index
Abstracts of Local News, 1792-1894, an expansive news index compiled by Paul A. Cyr, curator of Special Collections at the New Bedford Free Public Library, provides extraordinary access to historical content in New Bedford’s early newspapers. Cyr actively pursued this project from its origination in the 1990s until his retirement in 2014.
This database provides keyword access to nearly 120,000 indexed news articles and contains abstracts of local news in early New Bedford newspapers, including:
The Medley or New Bedford Marine Journal (weekly), 1792-1801
Columbian Courier (weekly), 1798-1805
New-Bedford Mercury (weekly), 1807-1851*
Republican Standard (weekly),1850-1894
*daily edition: Feb 28, 1831 – Dec 31, 1832
Search results provide newspaper title, date, page and column numbers, and a brief abstract of the article. News articles are available on microfilm at the Main Library (see, SAILS catalog for more information).
