The Argosy (newspaper)

The Argosy was a newspaper published in Georgetown, Demerara, in British Guiana (later Guyana) from 2 October 1880 to 30 March 1907. It became the Weekly Argosy with effect from the issue of 6 April 1907 and ceased publication with the issue of 24 October 1908. It was founded by James Thompson.[1]

Publishing

edit

The Argosy was contracted by the government to print ‘The Official Gazette’ as well as agricultural reports and mining data.[1] In 1909, The Argosy published a Handbook of British Guiana. At the time, they listed 3 papers in circulation; The Daily Argosy, The Argosy (weekly), and The Sportsman's Argosy (weekly, Mondays).[2]

The Argosy has been described as representing the planter interest in British Guiana.[3]

Legacy

edit

The paper's reporting of births, marriages, and deaths make it an important primary source for genealogists interested in British Guiana. A compilation of its family notices is held on microfilm at the British Library.[4]

In 1979, its columns were also a primary source for Walter Rodney's Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Contemporary Description from the "Argosy" (Release Publishers, Georgetown).[5]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Newspaper – National Archives of Guyana". Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  2. ^ Bayley, George D.; Permanent Exhibitions Committee of British Guiana (1909). Handbook of British Guiana, 1909. Comprising general and statistical information concerning the colony. The Library of Congress. [Georgetown] Printed by "the Argosy" company, limited; Boston, J.H. Stark; [etc., etc.]
  3. ^ Rodney, Walter. (Ed. & Introduction) (1979) Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Contemporary Description from the "Argosy". Georgetown: Release Publishers. p. x.
  4. ^ The Argosy. British Library. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  5. ^ Boyd, Kelly. (Ed.) (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing Vol. 2 M-Z. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 1001–1002. ISBN 978-1-884964-33-6.