One of my favorite historical newspaper resources is the Chronicling America site by the National Digital Newspaper Program partnership between the Library of Congress & the National Endowment for the Humanities. The site contains digital images of newspapers from 16 states covering 188-1922 and is a valuable source of information in our genealogical research.
The goal of the project is to have representation from all states and in the latest round of grant awards, more states have received funding to come aboard – Tennessee included. I personally am thrilled to have a chance to be involved in the project as I will be a member of the Advisory Board in the role of an interested recreational genealogist/end user of the project results. Newspaper research is a high priority for me so I’m ecstatic!
More about the TN Project
- Coordinated by joint collaboration between the University of Tennessee Knoxville & the Tennesse State Library & Archives
- Goal is to digitize 100,000 pages of historical TN newspapers from 1836-1922. There will be representation from all three of the grand divisions of the state
- Selection of the papers to digitize is part of the project, but there are over 1,000,000 pages to choose from!
The grant involves an experienced body of individuals; coordinated by JoAnne Deeken @ UTK. I look forward to getting to know others on the team and helping to assist in the recommendations for titles to digitize. High on my personal wish list for inclusion is the Nashville Globe, a black newspaper published in Nashville from 1907-1960. I have been indexing parts of it over the past three years and access to the full run during this time frame would be of benefit for African-American genealogical research.
Other states awarded funds to add newspapers (some already have contributed) to the Chronicling America site are:
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Missouri
- New Mexico
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Vermont
- Washington
How exciting!
I have been waiting for something like this to help in researching my brick wall (from Tennessee). So happy to hear this news!
Greta – yes indeed is a great project! I can’t wait for the scanning to begin.
With plenty of TN ancestors to research I am really excited about this project. Thank you!
Hi Theresa,
Yes, I think this will be a great boon to researchers. I’ll try to keep updates on the blog accordingly.
This is awesome, Taneya. You know TN is one of my primary research states. Until now. I’ve had to purchase microfilm rolls of newspapers from the state archives. My ancestors lived in smaller, more rural areas, so I don’t expect their papers to be digitized anytime soon, but I’m always thrilled to hear news like this.
yes, isn’t it great! I too understand the challenges of those living in smaller communities whose papers aren’t likely to get digitized, but efforts like these help don’t they 🙂