Find past news in the Archive

Chronicling America Update: 800,000 added pages, including newspapers from North Dakota and Indiana

March 20, 2013

On March 18, the Library of Congress updated the Chronicling America Web site to add more than 800,000 newspaper pages, published from 1836 to 1922 in the U.S. In addition to the 25 states and the District of Columbia already represented on the site, this update adds newspapers from Indiana and North Dakota as well as additional French and Spanish newspapers from Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas. Other updates include improved use on iOS devices, added navigation features, and updated US Newspaper Directory information.

Chronicling America Posts 5 Millionth Page

October 24, 2012

Popular Online Resource Provides Access to Nation’s Historic Newspapers

The Chronicling America website, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, a free, searchable database of historic U.S. newspapers, has posted its 5 millionth page.

Launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2007, Chronicling America provides enhanced and permanent access to historically significant newspapers published in the United States between 1836 and 1922. It is a part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint effort between the two agencies and 32 state partners.

"This magnificent resource captures the warp and weft of life as it was lived in grassroots America," said NEH Chairman Jim Leach. "Metropolitan newspapers were early targets for digitization, but Chronicling America allows the journalism of the smaller cities and the rural countryside to become accessible in all its variety—and sometimes, quirkiness."

"Chronicling America is one of the great historical reference services on the web," said Roberta Shaffer, associate librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress. "It is a treasure trove of information about communities, personalities, key events and culture in the United States, and it is all free and available to the public."

The site now features 5 million pages from more than 800 newspapers from 25 states. The site averaged more than 2.5 million page views per month last year and is being used by students, researchers, congressional staff, journalists and others for all kinds of projects, from daily podcasts to history contests. The news, narratives and entertainment encapsulated in the papers transport readers in time.

Library of Congress press release: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2012/12-198.html

NEH press release: http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2012-10-22

NEH Announces Guidelines for 2013 National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) Awards - Application Deadline: January 17, 2013

October 19, 2012

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is now soliciting proposals from institutions wishing to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Applications are due January 17, 2013. Program awardees participate in the creation of a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 in all U.S. states and territories and printed in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish. Each award supports a 2-year project to digitally convert 100,000 newspaper pages from that state's collections, primarily from microfilm negative.

The program provides access to this resource through the Chronicling America web site (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/), hosted by the Library of Congress (LC).

For more program information, please visit the NEH's program page at http://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation/national-digital-newspaper-program or for technical information, visit the LC site at http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/.

Last Updated: 03/20/2013