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VIRGINIA NEWSPAPERS
Map of Digitized Newspapers
View Virginia Newspaper Project - Holdings Map in a larger map
The Library of Virginia offers access to a wide array of resources for researching newspapers, from its broad collection of over 2,500 titles, in original ink press copy, on microfilm, and in digital format through the Library's web based repository, Virginia Chronicle. There are also a suite of subscription-based newspaper resources that the Library offers for free, providing 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 Newspaper Project is also one of the six original partners in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), an initiative to provide free access to digitized images and full text searching of historical newspapers. The NDNP is a partnership between 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.
All the titles delivered to Chronicling America are also found in Virginia Chronicle with the added bonus of Virginia imprint titles that are out of the scope of the NDNP.
Virginia Chronicle's main page provides a brief overview of the site including the number of issues and pages processed to date. A click of the mouse and you can access an up to date list of all the titles contributed to the database.
Virginia Chronicle also has a number of research friendly features including full text searching, image sizing, links to title histories, and a text correcting function that allows users to correct text that was incorrectly interpreted by text recognition software. After a simple registration process, users can be part of making Virginia Chronicle a better resource while being a part of an engaged community.
It's easy and all it requires is registration. The Virginia Newspaper Project will continue adding historical newspapers to Virginia Chronicle in the coming months.
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.
Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School Records, 1877-1929
Records, 1877-1929, of the Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School in Gloucester County, Virginia, founded in 1888 by William B. Weaver (1852-1929) and Thomas Calhoun Walker (1862-1953) to educate African Americans. Included are articles on the school, catalogues, circulars and forms, correspondence, deeds, programs, and teacher licenses. Of note is a minute and record book containing minutes from the school's formation, as well as invitations and flyers, including to programs where Frederick Douglass was the speaker. The Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School records are part of the Weaver Orphan Home records (LVA accession 51625). The rest of the Weaver Orphan Home records are closed until 2065.
John Mitchell Jr. and the Richmond Planet, a Newspaper "Born in the Wake of Freedom"
John Mitchell Jr., founder of Richmond's first Black newspaper, the Richmond Planet, was a man of enormous stature and complexity. The Library of Virginia's web exhibition John Mitchell Jr. and the Richmond Planet, a Newspaper "Born in the Wake of Freedom" provides a context in which to understand Mitchell's life and work. It sheds light on his many contributions to the social and political life of Virginia's African American community while offering 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.
Virginia Chronicle
Virginia Chronicle expands on the Library's participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program's Chronicling American collection with the inclusion of Virginia imprint titles out of scope to the NDNP. The collection is full text searchable, as well as browseable by both title and date. Hardy souls can also register and help us perfect the collection's searchability by making corrections to the OCR full-text output.
Willis M. Carter Digital Collection
Willis McGlascoe Carter was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Samuel Carter and Rhoda Brown Carter. Born into slavery the first of eleven children, Carter was educated at Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C., became a teacher, a newspaper editor, and a statesman and political activist respected for his work to promote African American political rights and educational opportunities. This digital collection contains a sample of items from the larger, print collection held in the Private Papers Collection at the Library of Virginia.