"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."
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.