Interior News fonds

Scope and Content: Records in the fonds reflect the functions of the Interior News, which included printing for other businesses, as well as publishing a weekly paper. Records include photographs, promotional materials, cheques, supplements, advertisements, sample circular letterheads, microfilm reels containing the …

Accession No.: 1981.53; 1982.34; 2017.130; 2017.136; 2018.2; 2020.6; 2020.34; 2020.36; 2021.1

Physical Description: 9 cm of textual records; 82 microfilm reels; 1000+ photographs; 24 boxes of negatives; 1000+ PDF files

History / Biographical: Although it was initially established in 1907 as the newspaper for the nearby community of Aldermere, the Interior News transferred to Smithers in 1915 with Joseph Coyle as the editor. He remained editor until 1918 when the newspaper was sold to Lawrence Beverly (L. B.) Warner (nee Nyland), who published the paper out of his house in Smithers with the help of his wife, Margaret “Peg” Warner. In its initial years, the paper was hand set, five pages long, and cost ten cents. After Warner’s death on February 25, 1940, his wife, Margaret, and son, Kenneth (Ken) Warner, continued to publish the paper. Ken Warner sold the paper to Bill Yorke-Hardy, Keith Marshall, and Gary White, of North Central Press. In 1981, North Central Press sold The Interior News to Black Press, which still owns the paper to this day. For more detailed information, see Finding Aid.

Custodial History: It is unknown when and how exactly the 1910-2007 Interior News microfilm reels, which make up the bulk of this fonds, were donated. They were most likely microfilmed by the BC Archives. They were never given accession numbers. The 2007-2011 Interior News pdfs were donated to the Museum by the Interior News in July 2019. They were also never given accession numbers. Items from 1981.53 were donated to the archives by an unknown donor on August 19, 1981. They were originally processed by J.J. Horne in 1992. Items from 1982.34 were donated by Mary Wood in 1982. Items from 2020.6 were donated to the museum in 2007 by the Interior News and stored in the Old Works Yard building until being removed and processed in April 2020. On May 5th 2020 an accession form for them was signed by Grant Harris of the Interior News. Items from 2020.34 had previously been in the museum’s reference files, but were accessioned and added to fonds in August 2020. Items from 2020.36 and 2021.1 were found while cleaning Room 6 in September 2020-February 2021 and may have been among the items donated by the Interior News in 2007.

Scope and Content: Records in the fonds reflect the functions of the Interior News, which included printing for other businesses, as well as publishing a weekly paper. Records include photographs, promotional materials, cheques, supplements, advertisements, sample circular letterheads, microfilm reels containing the paper’s entire run from 1910 to 2007, and pdf files of the paper’s run from 2007 to 2011.

Arrangement: Fonds is arranged into four series. S1 contains the full run of the Interior News from 1910 to 2011, stored as microfilm and PDF files. S2 contains physical copies of supplements which were published alongside the Interior News. S3 contains ephemera produced by the Interior News, such as letterhead and cheques. S4 contains photographs and negatives which were produced by or submitted to the Interior News.

Notes: All papers from 1910 to 2007 (minus most supplements) are available on Newspapers.com.

Interior News fonds