On March 23, 1752, the Halifax Gazette told the story of a tragic romance. The author of the short narrative named neither subject, referring only to them as the Officer and the Lady. A short time after they married, the Officer scolded the Lady for being late for dinner, whereupon she downed a bottle of liquid opium and declared, “Duty and obedience! And this shall end all disputes!” The Lady thereafter died.
This lost bit of history (or legend) can be found at PaperOfRecord.com, which was just acquired by Google. As part of its initiative to digitize newspaper archives, Google completed a two-year sales process for an undisclosed sum.
The Canadian site got its start by digitizing the entire history of the Toronto Star, established in 1892, and parent company Cold North Wind Inc. put 21 million images from newspapers in 15 countries online. The aforementioned Halifax Gazette appears to be the earliest record at present, but the goal is to archive papers all the way back to the 16th Century. (The printing press was invented in 1439.) The problem with completing this task, naturally, was lack of resources.
Just so happens Google had designs on something similar.
“It is a bittersweet day for PaperofRecord.com. We are very pleased to have our legacy and vision of a 500 year, global, multiple language newspaper historical archive being placed in the stewardship of Google. As a Canadian entrepreneur, it is disappointing to not be able to muster the resources in our country to bring such a digital resource to its fruition at home. However, without the help and vision of a company such as Google, this immense, global, educational resource would not be possible on the scale that is being contemplated,” said R.J (Bob) Huggins, Founder and CEO of PaperofRecord.com, in a statement.
Punit Soni, product manager of Google News Archive, said something appropriately corporate and distantly passionless involving a “robust set of Canadian newspaper content” and “a number of interesting US newspapers.” What else is there to say? Likely there were spreadsheets and presentations to revise, and perhaps some dry toast waiting.
Meanwhile, back in Total Coolnessville, the Halifax Gazette submits this mysterious entry for your perusal (edited for funny-looking esses that look like effs):
New-York, Feb. 17. The Sloop Dolphin, Thomas Swan Master, of Boston, from the Bay, but last from South Carolina, was cast away in a Storm the latter End of December last, on Barnagat, and all the Men froze to Death, except one.
Aye, there be mystery and intrigue galore.