Following recent maintenance in the strongroom in Special Collections, an old newspaper, De Paarl, was identified to be digitised for preservation. The physical copy had become fragile and difficult to handle. The 1892 run of the newspaper was recently digitised in the Library and is hosted on SUNDigital Collections, the Library’s digital heritage repository.

Published by well-known Afrikaans family concern D.F. du Toit & Co. between 1883 and 1898, De Paarl is a very scarce resource and as far as can be ascertained, only available in the South African National Library in part. The publication also appeared infrequently, especially during the initial years of publication.

The resource offers a fascinating look at everyday life in a small town in the Western Cape before the 20th century and covers national and even international news of the time. Regular columns report on agricultural auctions, legal matters, the arrival of mail and even reports lost livestock.

Digitising the fragile newspaper has been a challenge and care has been taken to digitally enhance the PDF files and improve readability. The collection can be accessed at https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/21351.

Author: Mimi Seyffert-Wirth