Two important announcements that will make some terrific additions to Chronicling America. The first adds 4 new states and additions to 10 existing state collections. The second announcement increases the span of years covered by the collection.
Announcement 1
The National Digital Newspaper Program in conjunction with the National Endowment of the Humanities - has just awarded 14 grants totaling over 3 million dollars.
4 new states will be added to Chronicling America - Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey. In addition, grants to add updates for 10 existing states have been awarded to Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas.
So look forward in the coming year for new collections and updates that will be added to the Chronicling America collection.
The complete announcement can be found at:
Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey Join the National Digital Newspaper Program
The Library of Congress and the National Endowment of the Humanities in a joint announcement, are expanding the years available in Chronicling America by way of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
You can read the entire Announcement or read some of the excerpts below:
"Expanding on our current scope (1836-1922), the program will now begin to allow state partners to digitize historic newspapers from 1690 to 1963." State partners must prove that any included digitized newspapers published after 1922 are not covered by copyright.
"By including the very first American newspapers, we can explore the history of the early days of the republic. In the twentieth century, the number of newspaper publications exploded and papers themselves grew in both length and scope. By extending the coverage of NDNP back to 1690 (when Benjamin Harris and Richard Pierce published the first American newspaper in Boston) and forward to 1963, we hope to capture the richness and diversity of our nation’s history."
"Chronicling America is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between NEH, the Library of Congress, and state partners. Over 11 million pages are currently available on the website, with more being added all the time."
"NDNP currently has thirty-nine state partners and one territorial partner. NEH awards enable state partners to select for digitization newspapers representing their states’ historical, cultural, and geographic diversity."
Great news for genealogy researchers searching for articles in U.S. historic newspapers.