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VIRGINIA NEWSPAPERS
The Library of Virginia offers access to a wide array of resources for researching newspapers, from its broad collection of over 2,500 titles, both in original ink press copy and on microfilm, to a suite of online resources that provide gateways to a significant range of historical newspapers. Please refer to the Project's Research Guides and Indexes on the Library of Virginia site for a comprehensive overview of the available resources for newspaper research.
The Virginia Newspaper Project (VNP), established in 1993, has worked to locate, describe, inventory, preserve, and provide public access to United States imprint newspapers housed throughout the commonwealth. To search specific titles and holdings here at the Library, visit the Newspapers in Virginia Bibliography.
Virginia Digital Newspaper Project
The Virginia Digital Newspaper Project (VaDNP) is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) and is an ongoing initiative to provide free access to text searchable digital images of historical newspapers. The NDNP has partnered with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress, and an ever growing number of awardee states to provide this content, which can be found on the Chronicling America site.
The goal of the VaDNP is to digitize 300,000 pages of Virginia newspapers published from 1860 to 1922 by the end of 2010. Please click here to see a list of newspaper titles along with available dates that are currently online for searching. The Chronicling America repository and database is text searchable and provides full page images with crop, zoom, and print features. A brief history and a complete bibliographic record are also available for each title at the Chronicling America site. The Chronicling America repository has over one million pages of digitized U.S. imprint newspapers.
Map of Digitized Newspapers
View Virginia Newspaper Project - Holdings Map in a larger map
Newspaper Web Exhibitions
Periodically, project staff put together Web based exhibitions on newspaper related topics of interest. Below are links to some past efforts on this front. Explore the art of the newspaper, experience events through the words of those witnessing history, and follow stories of triumph and failure as they developed each day.
Born in the Wake of Freedom: John Mitchell, Jr., and the Richmond Planet
John Mitchell, Jr., founder of the Richmond Planet was a man of enormous stature and complexity. This web exhibition images provide a context to understand Mitchell's life and work better, as well as his contributions to the social and political life of Virginia's African-American Community. The images and accompanying text also provide viewers a glimpse into the world of newspaper publishing as America entered the twentieth century.
Lewis and Clark : "We send from this place with dispatches."
Enjoy an online sample of newspaper accounts created in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
R. M. S. Titanic: 100 Years Later
The story of the Titanic -- its building, as well as its destruction -- is a great human story with cultural significance, enduring appeal, and old and new controversy. This web exhibition highlights how newspapers told the story, showing the pathos of 1500+ casualties, the heroism and/or cowardice among the passengers and crew, the very real questions relating to cause and effect, and the continuing aftermath.
The Engraver's Art: Newspaper Mastheads
There was once an artistry in the creation of a newspaper's masthead. Whether they came from an original name, an artistic image, or a declaration of intention, newspaper mastheads (and titles) were much more vibrant than today's rather staid, computer and color enhanced examples. The Virginia Newspaper Project offers a small selection of the more interesting mastheads we have uncovered to date. Many of the linked images below are fairly large, but well worth the wait.