Woonsocket Local History and Genealogical Materials

The Woonsocket Harris Public Library has a number of special collections that pertain to various aspects of the area’s industrial, political, social, and genealogical past. These collections may be used within the library, but because of their unique nature, and the inability to replace materials that might become lost or damaged, they do not circulate outside of the library itself.

The Woonsocket Harris Public Library has these newspapers on microfilm:

English language papers

  • The Weekly Patriot: October 5, 1833-October 12, 1904. Dates that are not available: 9/18/1840-9/29/1843; 9/1851-1/1853; 1/04/1856-7/11/1856.
  • The Daily Patriot: 4/03/1876-3/15/1881.
  • The Woonsocket Daily Reporter: 10/01/1873-3/18/1876.
  • The Woonsocket Evening Reporter: 3/20/1876-11/14/1908.
  • The Woonsocket Call: 4/30/1889-Present.

French language papers

  • La Tribune: 1/02/1896-12/31/1934. Dates that are not available: 1/01/1912-6/30/1912.
  • L’Independent: 2/04/1935-4/04/1942.
  • La Sentinelle: 4/04/1924-12/27/1928.
  • Le Progress: 6/24/1898-12/31/1919.

Non-Woonsocket papers

  • The Abolitionist: or Record of the New England Anti-Slavery Society: Vol. 1 (Jan-Dec 1933).
  • The Anti-Slavery Bugle: Vol. 1-16, 6/20/1845-5/04/1861.

The reference staff at the Woonsocket Harris Public Library will be happy to locate items in the Woonsocket papers for you, but request that you supply at least the month and year of the item’s publication. Some Woonsocket newspapers have never been indexed, which means that searching the paper can be an extremely long process without that minimum information.

We also have a microfilm reader/printer available for patron use. This machine gets a lot of use, so if you plan on visiting from out of town, please call ahead and we will be happy to reserve time on the microfilm machine for your convenience.