You can now access old issues of the Hardwick Gazette at Newspapers.com. Getting to them, however, takes some doing, so here we will include instructions to get you started.
If you live in Vermont, you can participate in an arrangement made between the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA) andNewspapers.com, allowing any Vermont resident to access Vermont newspapers free, if he or she uses the state’s portal called Vermont.gov. So, first you must set up a myVermont.gov account. Go to https://secure.vermont.gov/myvermont/myvermont.php and fill out your profile. Your profile will identify you as a resident of Vermont, and that will get you free access to the newspapers. You then must set up a free account with Newspapers.com.
If you do NOT live in Vermont, go to Newspapers.com and sign up for a free trial.
Vermont Residents: When you have your accounts set up, you can access the newspapers from the myVermont.gov page. Look in the box marked ‘Featured Item,’ and click on the link to “Newspapers.com (Vermont Newspapers Only).”
You will reach a Search page. To simplify these instructions, we have cropped the image of the Search page. Ignore portions of the page that do not appear in this image.
Start at the right side of the search box where it says “Add more info.” Click on the drop-down menu symbol and you will see this.
Fill in ‘Hardwick Vermont’ where it asks for a State, City, or Country and (optional) a year.
Now, go up to the search box and put in the term you want the system to find – for example, “infantile paralysis.” To guarantee that the search engine looks for your phrase – ignoring a mention of someone’s infantile behavior or of the traffic paralysis in the Square – put quotation marks around the two words. You can test that strategy using the phrase “Idle Hour” with and without quotation marks.
When you click on Search, the system will return images of all the pages of Hardwick Gazette that contained that term in 1913; if it appeared on two different pages in one issue, you will get two images.
Follow these instructions until you feel proficient, then experiment with the features of the page which we have cropped off. Remember, if you live in Vermont and use myVermont.gov, you do not need a subscription to search Vermont newspapers; your tax support of VSARA has already paid for it.