In general, the number of newspapers grew in the United States quickly between the 1790s and 1850s, tripling between 1790

and 1810, according to Lincoln Thurber, Head Reference Librarian at the Nantucket Atheneum. He adds that by the early 19th century, small cities and large towns had their own newspapers—or even competing ones—making it no shock that Nantucket, a small yet prosperous island, would have so many. He adds, “News was important to merchant captains and ship owners, so local papers were consumed, as well as New Bedford and Boston papers [that were] shipped to the island. There was always the need for one or more papers because competition often was also about point of view politically.”

Nantucket’s first newspaper was born in 1816. Called the Nantucket Gazette, the paper was published by Abraham G. Tannatt. Perusing the front page of any random issue of the Gazette will take you back in time and give a colorful sense of what life was like on the island 250 years ago. A notice from Isaac Coffin forbidding residents from removing sand or earth from Main Street; $20 rewards for finding the culprit of fence vandalism; and incarceration for horse thievery, all take the reader back to a simpler time both in Nantucket and the world.

The Nantucket Gazette wasn’t the only paper on the island at the time. It was joined by the Nantucket Commerce Gazette (1816-1817), Nantucket Weekly Magazine (1817-1818), and shortly thereafter the Nantucket Journal (1826- 1828). After the disappearance of these publications came The Islander (1840-1843), Weekly Telegraph (1843), The Telegraph (1843), Daily Telegraph (1843-1844), Morning Telegraph (1844-1845), and The Warder (1846). The constant flow of newspapers on the island continued with The Island Review (1874-1878), Nantucket Journal (1878-1899), the Daily Nantucket (1889-1899), with other smaller tabloids popping up throughout this period.

Nantucket’s most storied and durable newspaper, today’s Inquirer and Mirror, was the result of the merger between the Nantucket Inquirer and The Mirror, which together have lasted a remarkable 200 years, 40 of which were run by Marianne Stanton—making it one of the oldest newspapers in the country. What is now referred to as The Inky Mirror, started out as a broadsheet, which refers to its 29-by-23.5-inch size, enough to cover a small table. For reasons of economy and practicality, broadsheets were replaced with a smaller tabloid size, which not only saved on printing and paper costs but reduced the cost of shipping. Indeed, the challenge of disseminating news on Nantucket because of its geographic isolation made the newspaper business particularly challenging given that news might travel quickly but boats traveled slowly. Storms, rough seas and fog would prove to have a big impact on newspapers that were printed off island. Even today’s newspapers on the island, including The Boston Globe, can often be delayed when planes are delayed by challenging weather conditions.

Betsy Tyler, who was the Great Hall librarian at the Nantucket Atheneum from 1995 to 2001, notes how publishers would utilize clippings from faraway newspapers that came by sea to the island to help tell national and international news. “During various conflicts, like the Civil War, there were regular updates about what was happening around the battlefields of the country, and what local people were involved,” she explains. “News came in by mail or by ship or by people who received letters from their loved ones and they would relay the news to the paper.”

Prior to the newspapers being organized in the digital database, locals had little to no access to the fragile pages—they were only available in hard copy or via microfilm, and while available to all, were only seriously used by avid researchers. The advancement from hard copy to microfilm was all thanks to Chris Turrentine and Lee Rand Burne, both of whom worked at the Atheneum at the time and sifted through every newspaper stack. “It was important because there was no easy access to that information before it went online in this database. I remember sitting and reading through issue after issue on a microfilm reader, and there was no index. You’re just scanning, looking for somebody’s name or some event, and you don’t really know how to find it. So it was like a needle in a haystack,” Tyler explains. The microfilm step allowed the Atheneum to digitalize the papers in 2010. Today, the online database is perfect for anyone looking to do more research on the island’s rich history.

Like the period in Nantucket history when oil was discovered in Pennsylvania, which rendered the whaling industry obsolete, the internet poses the same threat to print media. Faster, cheaper and with vastly broader distribution, digital news has reshaped the traditional newspaper world to a point where our children’s children may have to learn about Nantucket newspapers from a history book or more likely, a digital story. The two dominant news sources on Nantucket at this moment are the Nantucket Current and the digital version of the Inquirer and Mirror. The Current, which is a mere two and a half years old, has garnered a significant following on the island and demonstrates the agility of digital enterprises and their ability to supersede print news institutions in short periods of time.

Publications with the success of N Magazine and the longevity of the Inky Mirror are few and far between. Beyond the desire to pick up a piece of printed paper versus an electronic device may be part of the reason why print is still relevant on Nantucket, but the reasons may go deeper. According to Inquirer and Mirror General Manager Robert Sauer, “the resilience of print news on Nantucket is largely due to the fact that we have a highly-engaged and involved island. Having worked in the news media for large national companies, I can honestly say that the audience on Nantucket is more engaged than any I have seen.” Sauer added, “the consistent presence of quality journalism on the island keeps the town engaged and keeps the media as an especially vital part of the community.”

But the sad fact remains that the heyday of newspapers and magazines is now in the rearview mirror and not only deprives us of a time-honored reader experience but also poses a threat to journalism as we know it. Many are unaware that unlike print media, news on the internet is protected against libel and slander by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This means that false, inaccurate or defamatory news on the internet poses no recourse to the source whereby print has to meet the standards set forth by libel and slander laws.

We defer to Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” For now, we should enjoy the print world that Nantucket offers, because a day will come when print news as we know it will be history.