I have been an historic newspaper research addict for a long time. In the past several years I have decided to ratchet up my interest and share what I have learned through newspaper research-related blog articles, huge link lists, as well as video tutorials.

​The link lists for each state in the U.S. can be found at Newspaper Research Links.

What I would like to relate now, however, is my list of what I consider to be the best free sites to find historical articles about your ancestors in U.S. newspapers. These are the first ones that I would use if I were starting out. They have been chosen not because of their interface - because some are better than others and some are not ideal. One of the important criteria, however is that they must be adding to their collection on a regular basis, and they must be sizable. These are presented in no particular order. And remember that these are free sites only and you do not have to go to a library to access them.
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• ​Elephind - over 175 million items (newspaper pages/articles) from 3,500 titles.  You can search multiple U.S. collections all at once.
• Chronicling America - over 12.2 million pages from 45 states.  Easy interface and growing constantly, although the growth is quite slow.
• Old Fulton NY Post Cards -  over 39.3 million pages of New York State and many other states historical newspapers.  Rapidly growing and adding lots of non-NY content.  Search interface is powerful but needs you to learn it to be successful.
• Advantage Preservation Collections -  about 500 collections from 37 states.  The latest list can be found at Search 45 Million Historic U.S. Newspaper Pages from Advantage Preservation for Free! New software interface being rolled out which makes it quite easy to use.
• NYS Historic Newspapers - over 7.3 million pages - all from New York. Rapidly growing. Similar user interface to that used by Chronicling America.

 

• Google News Archive - over 2,500 newspapers - gets an asterisk. You can still get to all of these newspapers, but the search function is pretty much restricted to newspapers since 1970.  And although these are the rules, some pre-1970 pages might sneak in. This is really too bad, since this is quite a large collection of otherwise non-digitized smaller newspapers.

For all my articles about newspaper research, just navigate to the Newspapers! page of this web site and browse. And as mentioned previously, ​the link lists for each state in the U.S. can be found at Newspaper Research Links. There are also 10 special free online collections based on ethnicity and religion that are listed.

Happy Hunting and Good Luck!

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I started focusing on newspaper research several years ago, after I discovered that for genealogy purposes, old newspapers could give me interesting information about my ancestors' life stories that I had no other way to discover.

What I also found was that historic newspaper research was not a mainstay research tool for the majority of genealogy and family history researchers.  Hence the beginning of this website, The Ancestor Hunt, an attempt to provide tools and techniques, and lists of links to historic newspaper collections available online.

Jump ahead to these past 2 years.  I have focused on providing (and updating frequently) gigantic list of links to historic newspaper collections that are free to browse and search online.

Over these past two years I have discovered a company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  In updating my link lists, it was apparent that the Advantage Preservation company was publishing a rapidly increasing number of collections, working with libraries, historical societies and similar institutions who were interested in preserving their community newspapers and providing them to their patrons online.  In fact, it appears that their collections are growing in size as fast or faster than any other collection or set of collections in the U.S. This piqued my interest.

I recently contacted Jeff Kiley, the Chief Operating Officer of the Advantage Preservation company and asked him several questions.  The results of the interview follow.
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1. Hello, Jeff.  Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Could you provide a short history of the Advantage Preservation company and its mission?

For many years, I had been working in the online historical newspaper business and was looking for a new opportunity, as was much of my staff and my executive team.

There was a company here Cedar Rapids that I had a great deal off respect for. The Advantage Companies had been around since 2003, and had a wonderful reputation not only for records management and storage, but also a very strong team of information management professionals and imaging specialists. A member of the Advantage management team, with whom I had an existing relationship with, saw an opportunity. He arranged for a meeting between the owner Paul Eganhouse, a key partner and myself. It didn’t take long at all for us to recognize the similarities between our goals, and that we actually shared a very similar mission: "To protect documents, and make them easily accessible". By changing one word, the mission became “To preserve documents, and make them easily accessible”. My team moved into their 80,000 sq ft secure records management facility….and Advantage Preservation was born.


2. I know that preserving and providing online newspaper collections record "the first rough draft of history." This, of course is very important for community libraries and historical societies.  You seem to be adding online collections at quite a rapid rate.  To what do you attribute this increase in activity?

The communities, publishers, and libraries deserve 100% of the credit for this. We merely provide the means in which they can make sure their own history is preserved and accessible.  We believe that the preservation of a community’s history is a shared responsibility. By bringing together strategic community partners, we are able to accomplish our mutual goals much more effectively. We collaborate with the community publisher, libraries, historical societies, and other interested institutions to develop a plan, and then engage local community businesses to assist with funding. This is primarily done via existing partnerships with the local library foundations and support with programs like the Friends Of The Library, or other community donor networks. This approach has been met with enthusiastic participation and it has been really rewarding for all of us. 

And as an aside, I would like to thank you Ken, for becoming an evangelist for all of the free newspaper archives available online. Whether Advantage is involved or not, I am a cheerleader for of all of these projects. Each and everyone of these institutions need to be applauded, and you do a great job of giving their efforts some much needed recognition and exposure.


3. Recently I read about a very interesting project that you are doing with the State of Iowa, where ultimately 12 million additional historical newspaper pages will be added to the more than 100 collections that you already have made available in the state. Please tell us briefly about the project.

We work with nearly 1300 libraries in 37 states and over 500 cities, and every one of those relationships are incredibly important to us. The current initiative in Iowa is no more or less important than the those outside of the state, but I have to admit, it does feel a little more personal. We are an Iowa company owned and operated by Iowans. Many of us (myself included) were born and raised here, and we are raising our children here. We are extremely honored to be actively involved in preserving our OWN history. It is the same pride I hope others feel when their community comes together to preserver their history.

Over the past 7 years, we have provided our services at no cost to the State Historical Society Of Iowa, and this new chapter in our relationship provides us with access to the physical materials in their collection. This will allow us to ensure that the each community’s archive is as complete as possible, and that the best available source material has been preserved to microfilm. It is an extensive undertaking to say the least.  The State has two large collections of bound newspaper volumes, and a collection of microfilm stored in our facility.  This will need to be cross-referenced, and evaluated against preservation or digital projects we have done for Iowa libraries and publishers directly. Not to mention any private collections, projects performed by other vendors, at risk materials, materials of inferior quality, materials not filmed to standards, damage or defects within current collections, and missing materials that are known to have existed but do not exist in any of the collections available. We have our work cut out for us.

The 12M pages referenced in some of the articles written about this project only represents the estimated number of pages yet to be preserved to microfilm. Once filmed, the reels will be added to the states collection. This collection is currently comprised of more than 24 million pages from more than 650 statewide titles on more than 44,000 rolls of microfilm. With help and permission from the rights holders, we hope to be able to aggregate the majority of this content into a consolidated collection of Iowa newspapers that can be shared by the libraries across the state, and make it available in every classroom as a resource for Iowa’s students. 


4. I am interested in the history and educational "bent" of this project. It sounds to me that just like genealogists in the past were not making use of historic newspapers, that maybe historians, educators and students should add historic newspaper research to their research repertoire. Do you agree?

You and your followers have known for a long time how incredibly valuable old newspapers can be in your research. The birth announcements, obituaries and almost every significant events of ones life in between, are recorded in those pages. My team has always believed that old newspapers can “connect the dots” in a way no other medium can.  

The motivation that drives genealogists is pretty cut and dry: We want  to know more about where we came from. What better way to understand the generations before us, then to understand the era in which they lived? Not only can we learn about our ancestors, we can learn from them. We can see through their eyes the way certain events impacted and shaped their community, and how that community reacted to those events. When you read stories in the days and weeks before and after a “moment” it can place them in context. The articles, ads, and editorials from that day, can provide new perspective . This is “history as it happened” and by reading people’s accounts using their own words, terminology, phrasing, and verbiage of the time, we can better understand our past, and connect with it in a very meaningful way.

The Executive Director of the Iowa Museum Association, Cynthia Sweet spoke to this in a very eloquent way when she was asked about our IA History Project:  “The Advantage Company’s Iowa History project to microfilm, digitize, and make available Iowa’s newspapers to schools, libraries, and museums at no charge to the state, offers an opportunity to engage Iowans of all ages in the joy of research and discovery. Through research and the process of understanding past events, valuable 21st century skills are developed such as critical thinking, independent thinking, judgment of the accuracy and reliability of sources, analysis of conflicting evidence, awareness of multiple perspectives, interpretation, and communication. The Iowa Museum Association celebrates projects such as this, that provide historical resources to Iowans of all ages through their schools, museums, and libraries.”


5. In reviewing your collections online, it looks like you are changing the software's user interface.  It was always easy to use and the changes seem to be maintaining that element. I know that you are in a competitive business environment and may not want the world to know just yet, but is there anything upcoming that you can tell us about? 

This isn’t an easy question to answer, because our list of future releases is literally 4 pages long as it stands today…and it continues to grow. Some will be imperceptible to the end user. Some will be performance based. Some will add more functionality. All of them will roll out as completed, one at a time... over the course of the next few weeks, months, and years. We purposefully don’t make large scale changes or announce “product releases”, we just make small feature upgrades that are rolled out to our 500+ client sites as they are developed. Some of the stuff going on “behind the scenes” is much more impactful than some of the client facing features being released, but there is always “something” being worked on. Yes, we would like to be able to spend the money on graphic artists, UX engineers, content managers, and teams of product engineers working on “what is next”, but we spread out our resources in a more holistic approach that also includes preservation, and archival storage. 

We have created our Community History Archive platforms to serve as a practical means to explore and discover content, nothing more and nothing less. When we started building these online archives, we were focused on making it as simple as possible so anyone can use it. It is intended as a way to unlock content that was previously only accessible on microfilm, within the library, and not searchable in any practical way. We have tried not to concern ourselves with the “bells and whistles” or “cutting edge" features meant to attract subscribers or retain memberships. The content is the product, not the delivery method…but we do want an archive that the community is proud of, so we will continue to to improve the aesthetic as time and resources allow…as long as they don’t interfere or distract us form our core values.

By focusing on small incremental changes, our platform continues to evolve at a pace which keeps our expenses at a reasonable level. This has been key to everything we do….simple, sustainable, and affordable. We know full well the painful condition and trends of budgets in our city, county, and state libraries… and we are extremely conscious of the fact that one of the hardest hit areas has been in newspaper and historical preservation services.  Every decision we make in design and development is is geared to ensuring we have a cost effective solution to stretch what money is available.


6. Is there anything that I haven't asked that you would like to share with us?

It is all about the microfilm….

Microfilm is at the heart of everything we do. Digitization alone offers amazing access, but we believe microfilming is a necessity for the preservation process, and digitization is just a piece of a bigger puzzle. 

As technology advances, we can always go back to the film and re-digitize the images to whatever the “new cutting edge” image format is. Just take a minute to think about the advances we have seen in the last 50 years alone.  I am not just talking about storage technology becoming obsolete like floppy disks and CDs have, but even the way we consume digital content. The changes are exponential from decade to decade. The iPhone in my pocket has more computing power than the $16M Cray 2 super computer had in 1985. Where will digital technology be 50 years from now? We are not “chasing” the highest quality digital image that technology can provide today…because it WILL become obsolete. When it comes to our digital product, we strive to strike the perfect balance between value, volume, and quality. None of these factors can become more important than the other when considering digitization.  We will always be improving our online platform, but will be doing so in the most pragmatic cost effective manner as possible.

That being said, we will make no such “compromises” when it comes to the preservation of the newspaper content. Their value and volume are clearly secondary and tertiary concerns behind the quality and care of the microfilm. Without well preserved content on archival quality film, what source material will we have to digitize from in the future? 500 years from now, a simple candle and a magnifying glass will be all the technology one needs to view this content if properly preserved. 

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Thanks to Jeff Kiley, for his time and letting us know a bit more about the Advantage Preservation Company. For readers who are interested in the free online collections that Advantage Preservation provides, check out my recently updated list of links - Search 45 Million Historic U.S. Newspaper Pages from Advantage Preservation for Free!

And for links to other U.S. online historical newspapers available to search for free online, check out the Newspaper Research Links page.

For the last 3 years I have been tracking the online collections made available by the Advantage Preservation company, who has contracted with several hundred libraries across the U.S. to digitize and host their online newspaper collections.

The great majority of these links have been Incorporated in the state collection summaries found in the Newspaper Research Links page on this site. 



The most recent update from Advantage Preservation totals over 465 collections from 37 states and a total number of pages exceeding 45 million!
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Some of the collections are small, but others have over 50 different newspaper titles. Although Advantage-Preservation gets the credit for making these available, much of the credit should go to the individual libraries, library systems, historical societies and other institutions, who do the really hard work of obtaining the funds via grants and other funding sources to digitize these old newspapers and make them available online for their patrons.  In these times where funding for digitization of old newspapers from libraries, archives and other institutions is not easy to get, those of us who want to research our genealogy through newspapers and other documents owe a large debt of gratitude to the librarians and archivists who make all of this possible.  The moral of the story is "Support your local libraries and archives!"


Here is a list by state and county of the online collections available to search for free (with page counts in parentheses):

Alaska

• Wrangell-Petersburg - Petersburg Public Library (64,453 )  

Arizona

• Pinal - Casa Grande Public Library (386,991 )  
•  Pinal - Eloy Santa Cruz Library (49,384 )  

Colorado

• Yuma - Yuma Public Library (54,021 )  

Connecticut

• Hartford - Farmington Libraries (77,135 )  
•  Hartford - New Britain Public Library (11,963 )  
•  Hartford - Windsor Locks Historical Society (32,586 )  
•  Litchfield - Beardsley & Memorial Library (7,707 )  
•  Litchfield - Thomaston Public Library (50,443 )  
•  Middlesex - East Hampton Public Library (18,995 )  
•  New Haven - James Blackstone Memorial Library (146,895 )  
•  New Haven - North Haven Public Library (52,476 )  
•  New Haven - Wallingford City Directories (6,945 )  

Delaware

• New Castle - New Castle Public Library (32,986 )  

Georgia

• Colquitt - Moultrie Colquitt County Library (46,582 )  
•  Dawson - Dawson County Library (82,361 )  
•  Glynn - Marshes of Glynn Library (3,573 )  
•  Laurens - Oconee Regional Library System (359,710 )  (Library Access only)
•  Lee - Lee County Library (55,233 )  
•  Morgan - Uncle Remus Regional Library System (343,563 )  
•  Worth - Worth County Library (106,431 )  

Idaho

• Bannock - Marshall Public Library (22,193 )  
•  Bear Lake - Bear Lake County Library (101,595 )  
•  Cassia - Burley Public Library (24,718 )  
•  Clearwater - Elk River Free Library (1,334 )  
•  East Bonner - East Bonner County Library District (322,733 )  
•  Franklin - Franklin County Library District (87,172 )  
•  Jerome - Jerome Public Library (1,026 )  
•  Kootenai - Hayden Community Library Network (155,112 )  
•  Lemhi - Salmon Public Library (65,025 )  
•  Payette - Armoral Tuttle Public Library (15,532 )  
•  Teton - Valley of the Tetons District Library (78,682 )  

Illinois

• Brown - Brown County Public Library (97,378 )  
•  Cassio - Beardstown Houston Memorial Library (199,698 )  
•  Clark - Marshall Public Library (148,757 )  
•  Cook - Bellwood Public Library (43,994 )  
•  Cook - Forest Park Public Library (95,440 )  
•  Cook - Midlothian Public Library (43,613 )  
•  Cook - Park Ridge Library (285,797 )  
•  Cook - River Forest Public Library (367,403 )  
•  DeKalb - Shabbona Lee Rolo Historical Museum  (42,972 )  
•  DeWitt - Farmer City Public Library (82,968 )  
•  Hancock - Warsaw Public Library (89,228 )  
•  Henry - Clover Public Library District (35,570 )  
•  Henry - Galva Public Library (86,436 )  
•  Henry - Geneseo Public Library District (135,494 )  
•  Henry - Kewanee Public Library District (190,057 )  
•  Henry - Western District Library (73,075 )  
•  Kane - Town and Country Public Library District (91,184 )  
•  LaSalle - Earlville Library District (69,504 )  
•  Logan - Atlanta Public Library and Museum  (28,012 )  
•  Marshall - Henry Public Library (97,028 )  
•  McHenry - Harvard Diggins Library (87,024 )  
•  Ogle - Polo Public Library (6,512 )  
•  Peoria - Brimfield Public Library (39,097 )  
•  Peoria - Peoria Heights Public Library (19,878 )  
•  Rock Island - Moline Public Library (398,315 )  
•  St. Clair - Freeburg Area Library District (41,341 )  
•  St. Clair - New Athens District Library (65,534 )  
•  Stark - Bradford Public Library District (48,878 )  
•  Stark - Toulon Public Library (57,434 )  
•  Tazewell - Morton Public Library (150,302 )  
•  Whiteside - Erie Illinois Public Library (21,885 )  
•  Whiteside - Sterling Public Library (173,334 )  
•  Will - Plainfield Public Library (6,686 )  
•  Winnebago - Talcott Free Library District (103,246 )  

Indiana

• Knox - Knox County Public Library (235,996 )  

Iowa

• Allamakee - Postville Public Library (81,341 )  
•  Appanoose - Centerville Iowegian (362,302 )  
•  Benton - Baseball Museum of Norway (13,404 )  
•  Benton - Belle Plaine Community Library (108,981 )  
•  Benton - Blairstown Public Library (50,633 )  
•  Benton - Schroeder Public Library (9,524 )  
•  Benton - Vinton Public Library & the Benton County Historical Society (260,414 )  
•  Bremer - Sumner Public Library (87,920 )  
•  Bremer - Waverly Public Library (54,390 )  
•  Buchanan - Jesup Public Library (55,529 )  
•  Buena Vista - Albert City Historical Society (28,626 )  
•  Buena Vista - Marathon Public Library (14,388 )  
•  Buena Vista - Newell Public Library (115,590 )  
•  Buena Vista - Sioux Rapids Public Library (54,175 )  
•  Buena Vista - Storm Lake Public Library (285,917 )  
•  Butler - Aplington Legion Memorial Library (11,145 )  
•  Butler - Greene Public Library (63,595 )  
•  Carroll - Carroll Public Library (536,559 )  
•  Carroll - Coon Rapids Public Library (83,703 )  
•  Cass - Griswold Public Library (63,944 )  
•  Cedar - West Branch Public Library (19,480 )  
•  Cherokee - Cherokee Public Library (366,834 )  
•  Cherokee - Marcus Public Library (41,255 )  
•  Chickasaw - New Hampton Public Library (197,805 )  
•  Clarke - Oseola Public Library (115,874 )  
•  Clay - Kirchner French Public Library (42,855 )  
•  Clayton - Elkader Public Library (118,209 )  
•  Clayton - Garnavillo Historical Society (13,089 )  
•  Clayton - Guttenberg Public Library (106,593 )  
•  Clayton - Monona Public Library (34,238 )  
•  Clinton - Clinton Public Library (74,964 )  
•  Crawford - Norelius Community Library (130,888 )  
•  Crawford - Schleswig Public Library (40,515 )  
•  Dickinson - Dickinson County (232,817 )  
•  Dubuque - City of Dubuque (70,999 )  
•  Dubuque - The Witness (64,784 )  
•  Fayette - Fayette Public Library (67,492 )  
•  Emmet - Estherville Public Library (477,123 )  
•  Fayette - Elgin Public Library (64,277 )  
•  Fayette - Oelwein (357,211 )  
•  Fayette - The Collegian (13,872 )  
•  Fayette - West Union Community Library (131,029 )  
•  Floyd - Rockford Public Library (50,719 )  
•  Greene - Jefferson Public Library (155,900 )  
•  Grundy - Beaman Community Memorial Library (5,231 )  
•  Grundy - Conrad Museum (1,372 )  
•  Grundy - Kling Memorial Library (114,276 )  
•  Grundy - Ostfriesen Heritage Society (17,699 )  
•  Guthrie - Bayard Public Library (44,190 )  
•  Guthrie - Mary Burnett Memorial Library (108,649 )  
•  Guthrie - Stuart Public Library (56,863 )  
•  Hamilton - Ellsworth Public Library (46,831 )  
•  Hamilton - Hamilton County (451,874 )  
•  Hardin - Ackley Public Library (51,084 )  
•  Hardin - Hardin County Iowa (560,630 )  (Library Access only)
•  Harrison - Missouri Valley Public Library (101,029 )  (Library Access only)
•  Henry - Winfield Public Library (49,082 )  
•  Humblodt - Humboldt County Genealogical Society (25,663 )  
•  Ida - Battle Creek (29,441 )  
•  Ida - Ida Grove Public Library (70,274 )  
•  Iowa - Iowa County Genealogical (57,317 )  (Library Access only)
•  Iowa - Iowa County Iowa (289,209 )  (Library Access only)
•  Iowa - Williamsburg Iowa (289,209 )  (Library Access only)
•  Jasper - Monroe Public Library (28,277 )  
•  Johnson - Oxford Public Library (12,090 )  
•  Jones - Jones County Genealogical Society (319,387 )  
•  Jones - Ross & Elizabeth Baty Public Library, Monticello (142,426 )  
•  Keokuk - Hedrick Public Library (46,362 )  
•  Keokuk - Warren County Historical Society (49,629 )  
•  Kossuth - Algona Public Library (216,139 )  
•  Kossuth - Kossuth County Newspapers (173,196 )  
•  Linn - Cedar Rapids Public Library (1,886,367 )  
•  Linn - Cornell College (54,126 )  
•  Linn - Linn County Atlas (1,245 )  
•  Linn - Marion Public Library (150,538 )  
•  Linn - Mount Vernon Public Library (71,929 )  
•  Louisa - Mellinger Public Library (64,750 )  
•  Lucas - Chariton Public Library (119,334 )  
•  Lyon - Rock Rapids Public Library (115,623 )  
•  Madison - Earlham Public Library (30,578 )  
•  Madison - Winterset Public Library (122,001 )  
•  Marion - Central College Newspapers (34,250 )  
•  Marion - Pella Public Library (150,142 )  
•  Marshall - Gutekunst Public Library (64,881 )  
•  Marshall - Marshalltown Public Library (83,417 )  
•  Mills - Malvern Public Library (63,022 )  
•  Mills - The Silver City Historical Society (12,312 )  
•  Mitchell - Nissen Public Library (50,044 )  
•  Mitchell - Osage Public Library (31,835 )  
•  Monona - Mapleton Public Library (76,893 )  
•  Monona - Onawa Public Library (134,742 )  
•  Monroe - Monroe County Historical Society (164,560 )  
•  Montgomery - Red Oak Community (173,648 )  
•  Montgomery - Stanton Historical Society (25,094 )  
•  Montgomery - Villisca Public Library (69,503 )  
•  O'Brien - General N.B. Baker Library  (41,576 )  
•  O'Brien - Hartley Public Library (85,176 )  
•  O'Brien - Paullina Public Library (60,729 )  
•  O'Brien - Sanborn Public Library (100,650 )  
•  Osceola - Sibley Public Library (123,846 )  
•  Page - Essex Lied Public Library (41,265 )  
•  Page - Lied Library (186,598 )  
•  Page - Shenandoah Public Library (260,365 )  (Library Access only)
•  Palo Alto - Graettinger Public Library (10,636 )  
•  Palo Alto - Palo Alto County (86,308 )  
•  Plymouth - Akron Public Library (61,799 )  
•  Plymouth - Kingsley Public Library (55,902 )  
•  Plymouth - LeMars Public Library (232,808 )  
•  Plymouth - Remsen Public Library (57,179 )  
•  Pocahontas - Laurens Public Library (76,222 )  
•  Pocahontas - Pocahontas Public Library (96,852 )  
•  Pocahontas - Rolfe Public Library (43,637 )  
•  Polk - Children and Families of Iowa (3,938 )  
•  Polk - Johnston Public Library (29,599 )  
•  Pottawattamie - Avoca (13,543 )  
•  Pottawattamie - Botna Valley Genealogy Society (6,821 )  
•  Pottawattamie - Walnut Public Library (50,370 )  
•  Ringgold - Tingley Vindicator (16,223 )  
•  Sac - Odebolt Public Library and Museum (135,397 )  
•  Scott - Catholic Messenger (77,175 )  
•  Scott - Scott County Library (131,857 )  
•  Sioux - Libraries of Sioux County (621,597 )  
•  Story - Bertha Bartlett Public Library (66,145 )  
•  Taylor - Lenox Public Library (46,281 )  
•  Wapello - Eddyville Public Library (49,246 )  
•  Washington - Kalona Public Library  (69,908 )  
•  Wayne - Seymour Community Library (52,068 )  
•  Webster - Fort Dodge Public Library (189,341 )  
•  Woodbury - Morningside College (19,789 )  
•  Worth - Worth County Historical Society (8,426 )  
•  Wright - Clarion Public Library (98,811 )  
•  Wright - Eagle Grove Memorial Library (132,032 )  
•  Wright - Talbot Belmond  Public Library (40,655 )  (Library Access only)

Kansas

• Allen - Humboldt Public Library (51,852 )  
•  Anderson - Garnett Public Library (13,688 )  
•  Brown - Morrill Public Library (186,049 )  
•  Chase - Chase County Historical Society (4,632 )  
•  Coffey - Lebo Branch-Coffey County Library (42,540 )  
•  Cowley - Arkansas City Public Library (489,785 )  
•  Franklin - Ottawa University (25,223 )  
•  Geary - Dorothy Bramlage Public Library (469,242 )  
•  Gove - Grinnell-Angelus Heritage Center (24,600 )  
•  Harvey - Bethel College (28,030 )  
•  Harvey - Newton Public Library (171,444 )  
•  Logan - Oakley Public Library (72,137 )  
•  Lyon - Lyon County Library (23,446 )  
•  Marion - Peabody Township Library (63,088 )  
•  Marshall - Waterville Public Library (48,609 )  
•  Montgomery - Independence Public Library (29,092 )  
•  Nemaha - Mary Cotton Public Library (103,860 )  
•  Nemaha - Seneca Free Library (114,928 )  
•  Osborne - Osborne Public Library (227,429 )  
•  Pawnee - Jordaan Memorial Library (7,868 )  
•  Pottawatomie - Wamego Public Library (121,222 )  
•  Rooks - Plainville Memorial Library (77,403 )  
•  Russell - Russell Public Library (7,608 )  
•  Sedgewick - Derby Public Library (26,891 )  
•  Stevens - Stevens County Library (73,469 )  

Kentucky

• Adair - Adair County Library (27,845 )  
•  Clark - Clark County Public Library (14,771 )  
•  Clinton - Clinton County Public Library District (15,144 )  
•  Green - Green County Public Library (84,038 )  
•  Meade - Meade County Public Library (100,813 )  
•  Russell - Russell County Public Library (99,307 )  
•  Wayne - Wayne County Public Library (113,884 )  

Louisiana

• Acadia - Acadia Parish Library (534,006 )  
•  Bienville - Bienville Parish Public Library (57,609 )  
•  Concordia - Concordia Parish Public Library (158,427 )  
•  East Baton Rouge - East Baton Rouge Parish Library (19,103 )  
•  Jefferson Davis - Jennings Carnegie (29,379 )  
•  Lafayette - Lafayette Public Library (86,945 )  
•  LaSalle - LaSalle Parish Library (91,374 )  
•  Rapides - Rapides Parish Library (225,151 )  
•  Union - Union Parish Library (52,974 )  
•  Vermillion - Vermilion Parish Library (325,483 )  
•  Vernon - Vernon Parish Library (202,308 )  
•  Webster - Webster Parish Library (234,590 )  

Maine

• Aroostook - Fort Fairfield Public Library (55,608 )  
•  Aroostook - Houlton High School Yearbooks (9,711 )  
•  Aroostook - Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library (37,471 )  
•  Aroostook - Walter TA Hansen Memorial Library (8,403 )  
•  Cumberland - Bridgton Public Library (87,941 )  
•  Cumberland - Scarborough Public Library (68,530 )  
•  Kennebec - Gardiner Public Library  (17,851 )  
•  Lincoln - Skidompha Library (11,045 )  
•  Lincoln - Skidompha Public Library (2,077 )  
•  Penobscot - Old Town Public Library (110,681 )  
•  Piscataquis - Thompson Free Library (30,053 )  
•  Waldo - Belfast Free Library (7,881 )  
•  York - Springvale Public Library and Goodall Memorial Library (34,517 )  

Maryland

• Montgomery - Montgomery County Public Libraries (1,148 )  
•  Queen Anne's - Queen Anne's County Library (134,455 )  
•  Worcester - Worcester County Library (133,106 )  

Massachusetts

• Essex - Newburyport Public Library (132,311 )  
•  Franklin - Montague Public Libraries (18,246 )  
•  Hampden - Wilbraham Public Library (10,200 )  
•  Middlessex - Tewksbury Public Library (12,277 )  
•  Norfolk - Holbrook Public Library (17,129 )  
•  Norfolk - Turner Free Library (40,987 )  
•  Worcester - Ashburnham (802 )  
•  Worcester - Oxford Public Library (827 )  

Michigan

• Alger - Munising School Public Library (87,109 )  
•  Bay - Delta College Collegiate (6,944 )  
•  Berrien - Bridgman Public Library (1,535 )  
•  Genesee - Kettering University Library (5,954 )  
•  Gratiot - Alma College (4,753 )  
•  Newaygo - White Cloud Community Library (10,573 )  

Mississippi

• Coahoma - Carnegie Public Library (212,976 )  
•  Wayne - Waynesboro Wayne County Library System (115,916 )  

Missouri

• Grundy - Grundy County Jewett Norris Library (365,819 )  
•  Livingston - Livingston (50,180 )  
•  Putnam - Putnam County Public Library (150,014 )  

Montana

• Gallatin - Bozeman High School (7,880 )  
•  Hill - Havre Hill County Library (349,848 )  
•  Hill - Havre Hill Obituaries (13,135 )  
•  Yellowstone - Billings Public Library (118,976 )  

Nebraska

• Antelope - Neligh Public Library (80,924 )  
•  Boone - Albion Public Library (76,906 )  
•  Burt - Lyons Public Library (70,700 )  
•  Burt - Oakland Public Library (82,157 )  
•  Cheyenne - Dalton Delegate (2,769 )  
•  Dixon - Dixon County Nebraska (51,555 )  
•  Dixon - Ponca Carnegie Library (80,520 )  
•  Dodge - North Bend Public Library (71,345 )  
•  Dodge - Scribner Public Library (66,830 )  
•  Furnas - Arapahoe Public Library (86,063 )  
•  Furnas - Butler Memorial Library (65,776 )  
•  Greeley - Scotia Public Library and Heritage Center (40,091 )  
•  Holt - Atkinson Library (62,079 )  
•  Howard - Saint Paul Library (115,781 )  
•  Knox - Creighton Public Library (65,509 )  
•  Lincoln - North Platte Genealogical Society (182,174 )  
•  Madison - City of Norfolk (618,340 )  
•  Merrick - Central City Public Library (6,258 )  
•  Perkins - Hastings Memorial Library (80,314 )  
•  Pierce - Lied Pierce Public Library (88,237 )  
•  Pierce - Plainview News (66,516 )  
•  Polk - Polk County Historical Society  (119,358 )  
•  Seward - Seward Memorial Library (218,498 )  
•  Stanton - Stanton Public Library (54,520 )  
•  Valley - North Loup Public Library (18,132 )  

Nevada

• Douglas - Douglas County Public Library (176,336 )  

New Hampshire

• Grafton - Bethlehem Public Library (4,644 )  
•  Hillsborough - Fuller Public Library (69,679 )  
•  Hillsborough - Peterborough Public  Library (19,394 )  
•  Hillsborough - Wadleigh Memorial Library (70,510 )  
•  Hillsborough  - Nashua Public Library (229,239 )  
•  Rockingham - Derry Public Library (157,978 )  
•  Rockingham - Kelley Library (14,694 )  
•  Rockingham - Plaistow Public Library (47 )  
•  Rockingham - The Nesmith Library (66,454 )  
•  Strafford - Dover NH Public Library (13,785 )  
•  Strafford - Farmington News of Farmington New Hampshire (29,108 )  
•  Strafford - Lee Public Library (16,537 )  
•  Sullivan - Fiske Free Library (5,863 )  
•  Sullivan - Richards Free Library (129,191 )  

New Jersey

• Camden - Cherry Hills Public Library (61,685 )  

New York

• Albany - Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany (78,464 )  
•  Broome - George Johnson Memorial Library (148,662 )  
•  Broome - Lisle Free Library (12,950 )  
•  Broome - Mary L. Wilcox Memorial Library (35,660 )  
•  Cattaraugus - Allegany Public Library (29,813 )  
•  Cattaraugus - Saint Bonaventure University - Friedsam Memorial Library (39,624 )  
•  Cayuga - The Seymour Public Library (28,671 )  
•  Chenango - Afton Free Library (23,483 )  
•  Chenango - Bainbridge (NY) Historical Society (10,380 )  
•  Chenango - Guernsey Memorial Library (138,650 )  
•  Columbia - Roeliff Jansen Community Library (62,413 )  
•  Delaware - Sidney Memorial Library (107,451 )  
•  Jefferson - Roswell P Flower Memorial Library (3,518 )  
•  Madison - Cazenovia Public Library (134,087 )  
•  Madison - Oneida Public Library (3,974 )  
•  Nassau - Glen Cove Public Library (3,063 )  
•  Nassau - Hewlett Woodmere Public Library (108,069 )  
•  Nassau - Long Beach Public Library (1,882 )  
•  Nassau - Massepequa Public Library (34,498 )  
•  Onondoga - Fayetteville Free Library (68,717 )  
•  Onondoga - Marcellus Free Library (9,577 )  
•  Ontario - Pioneer Library System (80,059 )  
•  Orange - Albert Wisner Public Library (102,240 )  
•  Orange - Josephine - Louise Public Library (32,546 )  
•  Otsego - The Village Library of Morris (13,594 )  
•  Rensselaer - Troy Public Library (23,107 )  
•  Rockland - Nyack Library (798 )  
•  Steuben - Addison Public Library (8,216 )  
•  Steuben - Hornell Public Library (24,261 )  
•  Suffolk - Long Island Republic Airport Historical Society (2,847 )  
•  Sullivan - The Liberty Public Library (31,824 )  
•  Tompkins - Southworth Library (52,622 )  
•  Tompkins - Ulysses Philomathic Library (50,679 )  
•  Ulster - Saugerties Public Library (69,507 )  
•  Ulster - Woodstock Public Library (21,216 )  
•  Wayne - Clyde-Savannah Public Library (38,599 )  
•  Wayne - Sodus Community Library (39,169 )  
•  Wayne - Williamson Public Library (52,218 )  
•  Westchester - Chappaqua Public Library (93,377 )  
•  Westchester - Katonah Village Library (10,117 )  
•  Westchester - North Castle Public Library (17,329 )  
•  Westchester - Port Chester - Rye Brook Public Library (16,568 )  
•  Wyoming - Perry Public Library (59,738 )  
•  Wyoming - Stevens Memorial Library & The Attica Historical Society (35,531 )  

North Carolina

• Dare - Dare County Library (154,054 )  
•  Dare - Dare County Library (148,151 )  
•  Dare - Dare County Library (1,555 )  
•  Nash - Braswell Memorial Library (21,407 )  
•  Robeson - Mary Livermore Library (25,892 )  

Ohio

• Brown - Union Township Public Library (82,685 )  
•  Champaign - Champaign County Library (504,157 )  
•  Columbiana - Carnegie Public Library (35,922 )  
•  Columbiana - Lepper Public Library (212,478 )  
•  Erie - Huron Public Library (63,773 )  
•  Franklin - Southwest Public Libraries (63,441 )  
•  Franklin - Westland Area Library (36,127 )  
•  Fulton - Archbold Community Library (38,954 )  
•  Fulton - Swanton Public Library (60,439 )  
•  Hardin - Ada Public Library (106,352 )  
•  Hardin - Forest Jackson Public Library (1,325 )  
•  Holmes - Holmes County District Public Library (22,027 )  
•  Huron - Bellevue Public Library (280,856 )  
•  Huron - Huron County Community Library (231,973 )  
•  Lawrence - Briggs Lawrence County Public Library (10,683 )  
•  Licking - Mary Babcock Library (70,013 )  
•  Lorain - Avon Lake Public Library (1,841 )  
•  Mercer - Fort Recovery Public Library (18,807 )  
•  Ottawa - Oak Harbor Public Library (65,404 )  
•  Preble - Brown Memorial Library (37,532 )  
•  Richland - Marvin Memorial Library (214,351 )  
•  Seneca - Seneca East Public Library (43,113 )  
•  Stark - Stark County District Library (227,420 )  
•  Trumbull - McKinley Memorial Library (373,168 )  
•  Wayne - Wayne County Public Library (54,174 )  
•  Wood - Rossford Public Library (34,612 )  
•  Wood - Way Public Library (115,087 )  
•  Wood - Wayne Public Library (35,673 )  
•  Wood - Weston Public Library (32,766 )  
•  Wood - Wood County District Public Library (46,557 )  
•  Wyandot - Dorcas Carey Public Library (87,250 )  

Oklahoma

• Bryan - Donald W Reynolds Community Center & Library (176,478 )  
•  Kingfisher - Hennessey Public Library (73,564 )  
•  Texas - Guymon Public Library (324,916 )  

Oregon

• Coos - Flora M Laird Memorial Library (57,489 )  
•  Umatilla - The Weston Public Library (12,290 )  
•  Wallowa - Wallowa History Center (14,418 )  

Pennsylvania

• Chester - Spoke Newspaper (5,422 )  
•  Franklin - Alexander Hamilton Memorial Free Library (462,792 )  

Rhode Island

• Bristol - Bristol Phoenix (131,629 )  
•  Kent - East Greenwich Free Library (76,375 )  
•  Kent - Warwick Public Library (102,302 )  
•  Kent - West Warwick Public Library (9,424 )  
•  Newport - Jamestown Philomenian Library (14,721 )  
•  Washington - Island Free Library (22,040 )  
•  Washington - Maury Loontjens Memorial Library (3,281 )  
•  Washington - North Kingstown Library (117,423 )  

South Dakota

• Union - Beresford Public Library (62,412 )  

Texas

• Andrews - Andrews County Library (101,136 )  
•  Austin - Bellville Public Library (96,266 )  
•  Beeville - Joe Barnhart Bee County Library (135,570 )  
•  Blanco - Blanco County North and South Library Districts (24,363 )  
•  Cameron - Harlingen Public Library (283,403 )  
•  Camp - Pittsburg-Camp County Public Library (55,515 )  
•  Chambers - Chambers County Library System (47,697 )  
•  Colorado - Nesbitt Memorial Library (130,816 )  
•  Comal - New Braunfels Public Library (23,933 )  
•  Crane - Crane County Public Library (20,534 )  
•  Dallam - XIT Museum (298,714 )  
•  Frio - Dilley Public Library (29,603 )  
•  Galveston - Friendswood Public Library (37,812 )  
•  Grayson - Denison Public Library (38,748 )  
•  Hays - San Marcos Public Library (155,603 )  
•  Hidalgo - Speer Memorial Library (47,851 )  
•  Hood - Hood County Public Library (188,187 )  
•  Karnes - Kenedy Public Library (56,478 )  
•  Oldham - Oldham County Public Library (14,573 )  
•  Pecos - Fort Stockton Public Library (18,089 )  
•  Pecos - Iraan Public Library (10,088 )  
•  Reeves - Reeves County Library (3,897 )  
•  Scurry - Scurry County Library (15,425 )  
•  Swisher - Swisher County Public Library (60,474 )  
•  Tarrant - John Ed Keeter Public Library (9,327 )  
•  Tom Green - Tom Green County Library (23,235 )  
•  Trinity - Blanche K. Werner Library  (8,787 )  
•  Wichita - Electra Public Library (57,992 )  
•  Wichita - Wichita Falls Public Library (626,868 )  
•  Williamson - Eula Hunt Beck Florence Public Library (2,271 )  
•  Wood - Gilbreath Memorial Library (3,168 )  

Vermont

• Chittenden - Charlotte News (19,977 )  
•  Franklin - Arvin A Brown Public Library (12,910 )  
•  Lamoille - Stowe Free Library (6,027 )  
•  Rutland - Sherburne Memorial Library (1,400 )  

Virginia

• Frederick - Handley Regional Library (6,385 )  
•  Frederick - Wayside Theater (2,217 )  

West Virginia

• Mercer - Princeton Public Library (2,206 )  
•  Mineral - Potomac State College Mary Shipper Library (102,787 )  
•  Ohio - Ohio County Public Library (138,781 )  

Wisconsin

• Barron - Rice Lake Public Library (19,161 )  
•  Chippewa - Chippewa Falls Public Library (36,498 )  
•  Columbia - Kilbourn Public Library (137,117 )  
•  Dunn - Menomonie Public Library (34,950 )  
•  Jefferson - Irvin L Young Memorial Library (205,502 )  
•  Juneau - Elroy Public Library (118,900 )  

Happy Hunting!​

The State of North Dakota has just announced that they have received funding that will enable the state to add 100,000 historical newspaper pages to their collection in Chronicling America.  From the State Historical Society:

"The Archives Division of the State Historical Society of North Dakota has been awarded a fourth National Digital Newspaper Program grant of $246,605 from the National Endowment for the Humanities."

For the complete article, please click on Historical society awarded grant to digitize newspapers.



Terrific News from the State of North Dakota!

For access to historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out​​
North Dakota Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

The State of Delaware has just announced that they have received funding that will enable the state to add 100,000 historical newspaper pages to their collection in Chronicling America.  From the state:

"The University of Delaware Library has received a $253,869 two-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue its efforts of digitizing historic Delaware newspapers as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Once digitized, these newspapers will be freely accessible to the general public on the Library of Congress’ searchable, full-text database, Chronicling America.
​

With the help of its advisory board, the Library’s Delaware Digital Newspaper Project (DDNP) team has selected the two titles it will digitize and the issue dates it will choose from during this grant phase: Every Evening (1871-1922) and Evening Journal (1888-1922). Competing titles at the time, these newspapers eventually merged to form The News Journal that Delawareans know today."

For the complete article, please click on UD Library receives NEH grant to continue digitizing historic newspapers

Terrific News from the State of Delaware!


For access to historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out​​
Delaware Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

The State of Florida has just announced that they have received funding that will enable the state to add 100,000 historical newspaper pages for Florida and Puerto Rico to their collections in Chronicling America.  From the state:

"UF’s George A. Smathers Libraries recently received $310,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make pages from historic newspapers from Florida and Puerto Rico available digitally. The grant supplements earlier awards of $288,000 in 2015 and $325,000 in 2013 for a total award $923,000, the single largest direct award ever received by the Libraries.  The funds will be used to digitize more than 100,000 additional pages as part of the Florida and Puerto Rico Digital Newspaper Project, a collaboration between UF and the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. By the project's conclusion, it aims to provide free online access to more than 300,000 pages dating from 1690 to 1963."

For the complete article, please click on With NEH grant, libraries preserve pages of the past

Terrific News from Florida and Puerto Rico!


For access to historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out​​Florida Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

If you follow this website at all, you know that I from time to time update the free online historical newspapers that are available for you to search. I originally posted the New York Online Historical Newspapers Summary in February, 2014, and have added many updates, the latest in June, 2017. The largest collection for the state is Old Fulton New York Postcards which has significant updates every few months. I usually write an article alerting you to those updates as they are published.


​


​There is another fast growing site for New York that you should be aware of. And that is NY State Historic Newspapers. They are adding and updating titles at a very rapid rate and now have over 7.2 million pages available.

All of the counties in the state are now represented. It is brought to you by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network. You should take advantage of this resource and check back often.
​
Here are the latest added and updated newspapers included in the June and July, 2017 update

• Lackawanna Leader
• Buffalo Express
• Morning Express
• Buffalo Morning Express, 1849-55
• Buffalo Morning Express, 1878-1926
• Buffalo Morning Express and Daily Democracy
• Batavia Daily News
• The Daily News
• Daily News
• Daily Morning News
• The Ray
• The Clarion

For a complete list of all this collection's titles as well as all New York titles available online, go to New York Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

Good luck with your research!

For other states and additional Newspaper research resources, check out the Newspapers! page.

The State of West Virginia has just announced that they have received funding that will enable the state to add 100,000 historical newspaper pages to their collection in Chronicling America.  From the state:

"The West Virginia University Libraries’ West Virginia & Regional History Center has received a $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue digitizing newspapers published in West Virginia from 1836 to 1922.The award is the Libraries’ fourth NEH grant as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. The collaboration between the NEH and the Library of Congress enlists libraries and institutions from around the country to create a digital database of historical United States newspapers.

“We are honored that the NEH recognizes the tremendous value of the historical newspapers archived in the WVRHC,” WVRHC Director John Cuthbert said. We are thrilled to make more of these resources accessible to the world. So far, the WVRHC has contributed 300,000 pages from 39 historic West Virginia newspapers."

“Newspapers are possibly the most significant single resource for studying the history of civilization since newspaper publishing began. They are a daily chronicle of what is happening in society,” Cuthbert said."
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WVRHC Curator Stewart Plein said the grant will enable the Center to digitize 100,000 more newspaper pages. They will focus on a period of significant change with the opening of coalfields and the influx of African-Americans who migrated to West Virginia for jobs, and the expansion of the railroad and the corresponding birth of Huntington as a city developed to serve the exportation of coal."

For the complete article, please click on WVU Libraries receives fourth grant to digitize historical newspapers

Terrific News from the State of West Virginia!


For access to historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out​​
West Virginia Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

The State of Connecticut has just announced that they have received funding that will enable the state to add 100,000 historical newspaper pages to their collection in Chronicling America.  From the state:

"The Connecticut State Library is pleased to announce that it has received a supplemental grant award of $320,536 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue to digitize historically significant Connecticut newspapers through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) over the next two years. This grant brings the total award amount the State Library has received for the project to $844,570.  The digital images will be included in the Library of Congress’ newspaper site: Chronicling America http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.

I am very excited that the National Endowment for the Humanities has recognized the excellent work that is being done here at the State Library through the Connecticut Newspaper Project. This grant also recognizes the importance of adding Connecticut’s voice to the Chronicling America database. Everyone expects everything to be online today, but without financial support from federal agencies like the NEH, we wouldn’t be able to digitize the tens of thousands of newspaper pages that we have done over the past 4 years. – – State Librarian, Kendall Wiggin.

Following the NDNP guidelines, the grant will allow Connecticut to add another 100,000 pages, digitized from microfilm of newspapers published in the state between the new timeframe of 1690 and 1963.  The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project advisory board will select the newspapers to be scanned."

For the complete article, please click on Connecticut State Library Receives Grant for Phase 3 of Newspaper Digitization

Great news for Connecticut newspaper researchers!


For access to historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out​​ 
Connecticut Online Historical Newspapers Summary

Did you know that there is a special collection for historic newspapers from the island countries in the Caribbean? It is called the Caribbean Digital Newspaper Library (CBNL), which is part of the Digital Library of the Caribbean​ (DLOC). DLOC has a wide variety of digitized materials as well as newspapers.





The CBNL Newspaper Library has about 220 different titles from most of the island countries in the Caribbean. If you have relatives or ancestors from the islands, it is definitely worth searching this free online historical newspaper collection.

In terrific news regarding Haiti historic newspapers, here is a summary of a new exciting project from the caribbeanhistories.com website:

"The British Library’s Endangered Archives programme contributes to the preservation of archival material that is in danger of destruction, neglect, or physical deterioration world-wide.  In exciting news for historians of Haiti, the Endangered Archives programme has just approved a grant to work with the Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne (BHFIC) in Port-au-Prince to digitise ninety-one Haitian newspapers published between 1813 and 1913. As set out in the Project overview, the material in the collection has been identified as BHFIC staff as vulnerable to degradation."

The complete announcement  can be read by clicking on:

Endangered Archives: Digitising 19th Century Haitian Newspapers

Great news from the Caribbean for those of us who wish to research online historic newspapers (for free)!