Trail Museum & Archives and Trail Historical Society Announce Online Newspaper Collection

The Trail Museum & Archives (TMA) and Trail Historical Society (THS) are pleased to announce online access to the historic Trail Times newspaper collection. Available through the University of British Columbia Okanagan’s BC Regional Digitized History (BCRDH) platform, the TMA adds these valuable assets to its growing archival photograph collection already available.

First forging a partnership with BCRDH in 2020, the TMA identified the Trail Times as a collection possessing extensive research value. “This collection represents a thorough account of our region’s historical record and documents our social and cultural shifts,” states Sarah Benson-Lord, Museum, Archives & Visitor Centre Manager. “As staff, we access these collections daily, for both internal research and in response to enquiries we receive. With online access for researchers, journalists, students, authors, historians, genealogists, among many others, the community can connect closer and more intimately with our history.”

TMA worked with MicroCom (recently acquired by Consentia) to digitize 15,676 newspaper issues spanning from 1896 to 2022. All issues up until 2022 are now openly accessible through the BCRDH.

With access permission generously granted by Black Press Media, TMA is grateful for the financial support of the Trail Historical Society, Teck Trail Operations, FortisBC, LeRoi Community Foundation, Kootenay Savings Community Foundation, and the City of Trail.

Newspaper, magazine, and photograph catalogues can be searched at https://bcrdh.ca/bcrdh/trail.