The Richmond Review began life in 1932. After a few issues published by founder Bill Carruthers, it was sold to Ethel Tibbits, who ran it until 1948. For much of its existence it was known as the “Marpole-Richmond Review.” By the 1970’s it was BC’s largest circulating biweekly. The last issue came out on July 24th, 2015. Before the offices of the “Richmond Review” were completely vacated, the City of Richmond Archives acquired hard-copy issues of the newspapers from 1935-1975. At the same time, the Richmond Public Library also donated historical issues on microfilm to the Archives. Now the City of Richmond Archives has a complete run of the paper from 1932-2015.

The Richmond Review is widely accessed by researchers as it is a detailed account of our community history, unparalleled by any other local historical collection. At the same time, the original newspapers are fragile and brittle and deteriorating daily. Every time they are handled decreases their life expectancy. It is urgent that they be digitized as soon as possible not only to increase accessibility but also for long-term preservation.

This project will be Phase 1 of the Richmond Review” Newspaper Digitization Project, with an anticipated output of digitizing 1/3 of the newspapers beginning with the oldest and most fragile issues.