Virginia Chronicle, the Library of Virginia’s freely accessible database of historic newspapers, has surpassed the 4.5-million-page mark with new additions spanning over 250 years now searchable on the site. From Early American newspapers like the Virginia Gazette, to twentieth-century local weeklies like the Times-Register of Salem, the offerings continue to grow on Virginia Chronicle.
Just a few announcements before we get to the new titles on Virginia Chronicle: first, the Library of Virginia would like to give a big thank you to all the registered users who have corrected text. The number of lines corrected is now more than 8,000,000, and each and every corrected line makes the database better. If you haven’t tried text correction, you can learn more about it in the “Text Correction” tab on the Virginia Chronicle site. Thank you, text correctors, we very much appreciate the valuable work you do!
A new way registered users can add value to Virginia Chronicle is by creating tags for newspaper pages. Tags are labels for specific topics that allow researchers to quickly identify people, places, events, and subjects within newspaper pages. If you are correcting the OCR-text for an article or page, you might consider also adding tags as you work to further enhance findability and searchability of specific topics within the newspapers. The tags dropdown is located above the OCR text on the left of the screen, and you can find directions and best practices for creating tags on the “Tags” page of the site.
Now, onto all the new, good stuff you can find on Virginia Chronicle. Among the fantastic array of recent additions, the Virginia Newspaper Program is very excited to announce that 1949-2009 issues of the Rappahannock News, published in Washington, Virginia, are now available. Introduced to readers on November 3, 1949, the Rappahannock News is still being published in the town of Washington, located 70 miles west of Washington, DC, in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. See a local sample ballot from 1949, discover Chamber of Commerce news from 1966, or find the 1982 birth announcement of a family member—with six decades of the Rappahannock News now digitized, researchers have fully text-searchable access to this incredibly rich historical record of Rappahannock County.
Several local newspapers of note from Southside Virginia have also been added. Newly available newspapers from this previously underrepresented region include an 1873-1962 run of the Charlotte Gazette, 1947-1985 issues of the Danville Commercial Appeal (also called the Commercial Appeal), 1916-1963 of the Union Star of Brookneal, and 1922-1930 of the Nottoway Record, which merged with Crewe’s Blackstone Courier to form the Courier Record in 1931. These newspapers not only contain a colossal amount of local history, but they also covered key historical events affecting the state, nation, and the world at large during the twentieth century.
Another exciting development comes thanks to the Virginia Conference Historical Society, who generously donated for the digitization of over 55,000 pages and nearly 100 years of the Richmond Christian Advocate and the Baltimore and Richmond Christian Advocate, which can now be accessed on Virginia Chronicle. Originally edited by Leroy M. Lee and published by W. A. Smith, T. Crowder, and J. Early, the weekly Methodist newspaper the Richmond Christian Advocate began in 1837 and had wide circulation throughout the South. From 1867-1878, the newspaper was edited and published by Reverend William Wallace Bennett who, along with being a newspaper publisher, authored several books on Methodist history, including Memorials of Methodism in Virginia (1871), and served as president of Randolph-Macon College from 1877-1886. The Virginia Conference Historical Society has given the Library an additional donation to digitize post-1939 issues of the paper, so look for those later in 2025.
An array of early American newspapers published out of Richmond, Lynchburg, Alexandria, and Winchester are also now on Virginia Chronicle including the Virginian, Virginia Patriot, Visitor, Impartial Observer, Lynchburg Star, and the Spirit of ’Seventy-Six. These newspapers reveal in vivid detail the philosophy, politics, culture, and industry that shaped the nation. All six of the abovementioned newspapers were published in or near 1808, a year marked by the election of America’s fourth president, James Madison, and the end of the transatlantic slave trade in the US. Two more early newspaper publications, both published in the 1820s, the Alexandrian and Winchester Republican, are also now online, as is a later edition of the Winchester Republican, published from 1843-1862.
A long-running student publication has also been added to the growing list of school newspapers on Virginia Chronicle. On January 30, 1920, Hampden-Sydney published volume 1, number 1 of the Hampden-Sydney Tiger. The substantial run of digitized issues spans from 1920-1996 and offers a wealth of history about the college and the students who attended it. Throughout its history, the paper was alternately called the Tiger and the Hampden-Sydney Tiger, so be aware that there are multiple editions of the same title when searching the paper. With a quick search of the 1979 edition of the Hampden-Sydney Tiger, you may stumble upon the name “Steve Colbert” (also referred to as “Stephen Colbert” in the paper), listed as a staff writer for the newspaper from 1983-1984. He also shows up in theatre productions like the Good Doctor and The Ugly Duckling around the same time.
Stephen Colbert in ``The Ugly Duckling``
Hampden-Sydney Tiger, April 08, 1983
Alongside new titles that have been loaded onto Virginia Chronicle, supplementary issues of Berryville’s Clarke Courier, Accomac’s Peninsula Enterprise, and Richmond’s Central Presbyterian have also been added. And while much has been done, there is still so much more to come. Look for these titles to arrive soon: the Parks ed. of the Virginia Gazette, the American Beacon, the Falls Church News Press, the Herndon Chantilly Times, the Springfield Independent, the Piedmont Virginian, the Fredericksburg Ledger, the McLean Providence Journal, the Squib (published by the students of Marion College), and the student newspapers of the Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke.
Visit Virginia Chronicle and dive into some newspaper research today!
