The National Library of Canada has purchased the country’s first newspaper, a 250-year-old edition of the Halifax (N.S.) Gazette, according to the June 21 Halifax Herald Limited. In March, the NLC had negotiated its loan from the Massachusetts Historical Society; afterwards, the historical society offered to sell the issue along with an almost complete run of the paper from 1752 to 1754 for $30,000 U.S.
“We just couldn’t believe that they would be so generous in terms of spirit,” NLC Director-General of Research Mary Jane Starr told the Herald Limited.
The paper, dated March 23, 1752, will be on display in the Halifax city archives before it is permanently placed in NLC’s rare books collection.
Believed to be the only copy in existence, the paper is printed in two columns on both sides of a single sheet of handmade foolscap rag paper, which does not become as brittle as newsprint with age. The paper had been shipped to a Boston printer sometime in the 1800s.
Posted June 24, 2002.