Concord’s Historical Newspapers Go Digital!
The Concord Free Public Library holds close-to-complete runs of all Concord, Massachusetts newspapers published from 1816 to the present time. We are excited to announce that, as of January 2026, over a dozen newspaper titles published through 2005 are now available digitally and keyword searchable! This includes 617 pages of the Middlesex Gazette(1816-1821), 2,654 pages of the Yeoman's Gazette (1826-1840), and 121,279 pages of The Concord Journal (1928-2005)!
This initiative was made possible through a generous gift from the Wheeler Family and the support of the Concord Free Public Library Corporation, and we are particularly pleased to honor the late Joe Wheeler and his mother, Ruth Robinson Wheeler.
Joseph Coolidge Wheeler (1926-2024) was born in Concord on Thoreau Farm to Caleb Henry Wheeler and Ruth Winifred (Robinson) Wheeler. He had a distinguished career in international development, living near Washington, D.C., between posts in Jordan, Pakistan, Kenya, Paris, and Geneva. After retirement, he returned to Concord, where he was instrumental in promoting and passing the Community Preservation Act and in preserving the Thoreau birth house.
Ruth Robinson Wheeler (1890-1973) was a Concord historian and author. In 1916, she married Concord farmer Caleb Henry Wheeler, and together they had five sons. Ruth Wheeler was an active member of Concord boards and committees from the late 1920s, including the Concord Historic Districts Commission, the Board of Public Welfare, the Peter Bulkeley Memorial Committee, and the Parks and Historic Monuments Committee.
Beginning in the 1930s, Ruth Wheeler began writing a series of essays for The Concord Enterprise and The Concord Journal on the history of the town and its historic structures. These essays contain valuable information for those interested in Concord and in New England history more generally. She was also the co-author, with her father, of Great Little Watertown (1930), and authored Our American Mile (1957), Concord, Climate for Freedom (1967), and numerous articles on Concord history, houses, and people.
Interested in newspapers? Check out our collection of Concord Reformatory/MCI Concord Prison Newspapers, 1885-1991, published as part of Reveal Digital's American Prison Newspapers Collection. Five titles held in our collection are available to view online: Our Paper (1885-1918, 1930-1932, 1934-1936, 1938-1942, 1945-1946); No Holds Barred (1975-1976); The Peaceful Movement (1971); Prisoners' Peaceful Movement (1972-1975); Concord Community: Inside/Outside (1979-1991).
Don’t stop here - the William Munroe Special Collections, including books, archival and manuscript materials, pamphlets, ephemera, broadsides, maps, photographs, and works of art, are available to academic researchers and the general public alike, both online and in-person at the Concord Free Public Library.