A completely digitized Providence Journal would be a precious resource for local history studies

   What brought history to life for me back in the " tumultuous 60s " was access to archived " old " newspapers - real printed editions of the Providence Journal, for example.

     What was it like to be living in Providence, Rhode Island in the Great Depression year of 1933 ? That experience was once possible for any resident who visited Brown University's Rockefeller Library.

    The microfilmed newspapers are still precious but much more tedious to use. I wonder if the Rhode Island Historical Society is interested in a more completely digitized Providence Journal.

     I can quickly access a Brown Daily Herald article from 1968 but the Providence Journal is only digitized for the past two decades.

        A curious Brown University student could more easily understand that Democrat Bernie Sanders is more connected to New Deal , pro-labor liberalism than the type of " democratic socialism " more familiar in those quaint Northern European countries.

        Also a more completely digitized Providence Journal would provide easy access to old " family skeletons " and still relevant juicy scandal stories- the" local gossip " beat .

The next best thing to a time machine- old newspapers