19th Century News Coming Online

mfh writes "The BBC is reporting that approximately a million news stories from the 19th century are going online. The project will cost roughly $3.6 mil USD (converted from UK pounds) and include 100 years of news and images from publications that are no longer copyright protected, and currently only available at the Newspaper Library in Colindale, North London. 52000 newspapers and magazines will be included and the project should take 18 months to complete. This is good news for Slashdotters, as this online archival project will provide a plethora of background material for articles and comments, and possibly pave the way for better online library projects with more current material."

Comments

The Past Didn't Go Anywhere

[freejung]

"Somebody once said to me, 'why are you always talking about the past, you can't live in the past you know.' I said, 'well, I can go outside and pick up a rock that hasn't moved for hundreds of years, and bring it back in here and drop it on your foot. The past didn't go anywhere, it's right here, right now.'" -- Utah Phillips

They say that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but I think those who learn from history are doomed to repeat it anyway.

"I think we can all agree, the past is over." --Dubya

Seriously, though, the past is interesting because it continues to have effects on the present and the future. Also, because we can learn from patterns that have occurred in the past and from past misakes, so stydy of the past helps us to understand what's going on right now. I think a lot of people who want us to forget the past have very specific things in mind from the past that they'd like us to forget.

Re:Ye Olde Slashdott

[abandonment]

considering how rapidly CURRENT stories seem to 'disappear' from modern 'news' outlets like yahoo & msn etc this is hilarious - we'll be able to look up stories that are a century old easier than ones from a few months ago...

ironic, i think so...