From today, members of the public can consult over 900 historical newspaper titles from across Flanders via hetarchief.be . The archive includes over 180,000 editions dating back as far as 1814. The newspapers include “Gazetje van Thielt”, “De onafhankelijke der provincie Limburg” and “Gazette van Gend”. ‘And every now and then, you'll be amazed,’ says Marlies Criel of meemoo.
Thanks to hetarchief.be, meemoo, the Flemish Institute for Archives, has been making the metadata of its partner organisations' audio and video collections accessible for some time now. Today the immense newspaper archive of 20 partner organisations is being added.
‘We are now making 180,000 newspapers accessible,’ explains Marlies Criel of meemoo. ‘These are pages from 900 newspaper titles, totalling 1 million pages. It is an enormous amount of material, so much so that counting the articles in these newspapers is an impossible task.’
Only newspapers up to 1919 can be read online
Unlike the audiovisual material on hetarchief.be, you can view the newspapers online immediately. ‘This means you can search through the articles yourself and read them on your screen as they appeared at the time,’ says Criel.
However, you will only be able to view newspapers up to 31 December 1918 online, because newspapers only enter the public domain 150 years after publication. ‘You can of course also read newspapers from after 1918, but you will have to make a request to one of our 20 partner organisations,’ explains Criel.
Newspaper titles dating back up to 200 years
‘The oldest newspaper we have made available is the “Gazette van Gend” from 1814, which comes from Ghent University Library,’ says Criel. 'You will also find newspapers from the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Stuifzand and Leuven University Librarys'.
'In addition to these major contributors, there are also many wonderful gems provided by organisations including city archives and museums with which we collaborate'.
The city of Tielt has also joined the project. Almost all newspapers from 1852 and 1853 from the “Gazetje van Thielt” have now been digitised. ‘These newspaper titles can be useful for people who are compiling a family tree,’ says city archivist Hannes Vanhauwaert. ‘Someone who comes across a strange story, such as an accident, can now look it up and find details in various newspapers.’
'The city resembles a baking oven'
According to Criel, there is 'a huge amount of fascinating material' in the newspaper archive, just waiting to be rediscovered. 'Every now and then, you are really amazed. You not only find historical articles, but also recipes, advertisements and all kinds of details that paint a wonderful picture of how things used to be.'
‘For example, just like this year, there was also a heatwave in 1905. De Onafhankelijke der provincie Limburg, provided by Hasselt Limburg Library, reported on it in these words: “The city resembles a baking oven”. This is just one of many striking examples. There is so much more to discover.’