South Carolina Online Historical Newspapers Summary

South Carolina is one of the states that has a central online state repository for searching historical newspapers. Several states use the Library of Congress Chronicling America site as their main central online site for searching old newspapers, and many of South Carolina’s free newspapers are available on the Library of Congress site. There are more free online newspapers available on other sites and there are collections available on subscription sites. Below is a list of where the titles are stored and the link so that you can access them. 

There are over 1,300 newspapers that have been published in the Palmetto State – certainly not all of them are searchable online. So go for it – find your South Carolina ancestors and all the interesting articles that capture the stories of their lives. 

Please note that I have not always entered the dates that are included in the collections, as I suspect they will change as more items are digitized. Also, I suspect that some of these links may change over time – so if there is a dead link – please use your favorite search engine to find their new location. 

(Updated February 2024; recently added links are in BOLD)

South Carolina Historical Newspapers

Free Sites:

Statewide Collections:

Chronicling America – South Carolina Newspapers

Google News Archive

Historic Newspapers of South Carolina

South Carolina Memory Historic Newspapers

  • Carolina News and Guide
  • Charleston Daily Courier
  • Cohen’s Weekly
  • Cotton Plant
  • Daily Herald
  • Daily Piedmont
  • Evening Observer
  • Evening Piedmont
  • Greenville Daily Herald
  • Greenville Daily News
  • Greenville Democrat
  • Greenville Republican
  • Greenville Weekly News
  • Semi-Weekly Mountaineer
  • Semi-Weekly Times
  • Southern Crusader
  • Southern Herald and Working Man
  • Southern Patriot Weekly
  • Sunday Times
  • Tri-State Odd Fellow
  • Tri-Weekly Southern Patriot
  • Weekly Democrat
  • Weekly Flag

County and Library Collections:

Chester Area Historical Newspapers

  • The Chester Bulletin
  • The Chester Lantern
  • The Chester News
  • The Chester Reporter
  • The Chester Standard
  • The Johnsonian
  • The Palmetto Standard
  • The Roddey McMillian Record

Colleton County Newspapers

  • THE CENTENARY
  • THE COLLETON AND BEAUFORT SUN
  • THE COLLETON DEMOCRAT
  • THE COLLETON NEWS
  • THE COLLETONIAN
  • THE COLLETON PRESS
  • THE COLLETON STANDARD
  • THE COMMUNITY TIMES-DISPATCH
  • THE DISPATCH
  • THE GREENVILLE EVENING SUN
  • THE NEWS AND COURIER
  • THE PRESS AND STANDARD
  • THE SOUTHERN STAR
  • THE STATE
  • THE SUNDAY NEWS
  • THE WALTERBORO NEWS

Georgetown County Historical Newspapers Collection (19th century)

  • Comet and News
  • Georgetown American
  • The Georgetown Enquirer
  • Georgetown Times
  • The Georgetown Semi-Weekly Times
  • Georgetown Union
  • The Pee Dee Times
  • South Carolinan
  • True Republican
  • The Times and Comet
  • The Winyah Intelligencer
  • Winyah Observer

Georgetown County Historical Newspapers Collection (20th Century)

  • The Georgetown Daily Item
  • The Sunday Outlook
  • The Carolina Field 
  • The Georgetown Times
  • The Andrews News
  • The Daily Item  

York County Collections

Student Collections:

Allen University – Columbia

Anderson University – Anderson

Benedict College – Columbia

Bob Jones University – Greenville

Charleston Southern University – Charleston

Claflin University – Orangeburg

Clemson University – Clemson

Coastal Carolina University – Conway

Coker University – Hartsville

College of Charleston – Charleston

Columbia College – Columbia

Columbia International University – Columbia

Converse College – Spartanburg

Erskine College – Due West

Francis Marion University – Florence

Furman University – Greenville

Lander University – Greenwood

Limestone College – Gaffney

Newberry College – Newberry

North Greenville University – Tigerville

Presbyterian College – Clinton

Southern Wesleyan University – Central

University of South Carolina – Aiken

​University of South Carolina – Columbia

University of South Carolina Upstate -Spartanburg

Voorhees College – Denmark

Winthrop University – Rock Hill

Wofford College – Spartanburg

Miscellaneous Collections:

Newberry County Newspaper Index (transcriptions)

Independent Voices – Alternative Newspapers

  • Chessman II
  • Chessman, The
  • Death ship Times (Fat Albert’s)
  • GI’s United Against the war in Vietnam
  • Short Times, The
  • Support  

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Newspapers 1933-1942

Charleston Museum Illustrated Newspapers Collection

Southern School News Archive

Small Town Papers

​Old Fulton Postcards

Newspaper Abstracts – South Carolina

For Obituary Indexes, transcriptions, and other death/obituary information from historical newspapers, please check out the Obituaries page. ​​​​

Other Free Sites:

Charleston

Charles-town

Columbia

Great Falls

Greenville

Greer

Port Royal

Slater

Spartanburg

Waterboro

Subscription or Pay Sites:

Ancestry.com:

There are currently 25 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Ancestry – South Carolina Newspapers

Genealogy Bank:

There are currently 264 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Genealogy Bank – South Carolina

Newspaper Archive:

There are currently 116 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspaper Archives – South Carolina

Newspapers.com:

There are currently 120 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspapers.com – South Carolina 

And Finally:

You also need to check out the South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program site, which can tell you what is happening with regard to digitization projects within the state. 

Please note – even more may be available via a local library where a library card is required. And of course, there is always microfilm for those that have not been made available online as yet.

For more links for different states, provinces, and countries – please see the Newspaper Links page on this website.


For all Free South Carolina Collection Links in 24 Genealogy Categories, go to the By Location Page, click on South Carolina, and then click on the category of interest.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *