July 30, 2018 – Leonardtown, Md. – St. Mary’s County Library and Naval Air Station Patuxent River Public Affairs are pleased to announce the availability of digitized issues of the The Tester from 1943 through 1962. Also available are the NAS Patuxent River Command Histories from the 1940s and 1950s. The Navy plans to continue the digitization process and digitize the post-1962 editions of The Tester in the future. The Tester and Command Histories are currently available at all three St. Mary’s County Library locations on all public computers. They are not yet available online and must be viewed in the library.
St. Mary’s County Library is working with Creekside Digital to make the files available in the Library’s online Newspaper Archive. Once this process is complete, everything will be available to anyone with an internet connection.
Many early issues are missing, if you have access to any pre-1948 editions of The Tester, please contact Patrick Gordon, Naval Air Station Patuxent River Public Affairs at 301-757-3343 or email patrick.a.gordon@navy.mil.
“St. Mary’s County Library is excited to partner with NAS Patuxent River to make these important pieces of our community history available to the public. Now that the papers and histories are digitized and housed in three convenient Library locations, the information they contain will be much more accessible for researchers, historians, and interested individuals.” said Sara Stephenson, Virtual Services Coordinator for St. Mary’s County Library.
“NAS Patuxent River is thrilled with this partnership,” said Patrick Gordon, NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs Officer. “This truly is a win for Pax River, the St. Mary’s County Library system, and the community; it serves as a means of archiving a vital part of the base’s history while allowing even easier access of our base’s rich history to the public.”