To celebrate Black History Month, we’re pleased to add The Atlanta Voice to our newspaper archives. Founded in 1966, the paper originated with a goal to provide fair and credible coverage to the growing Civil Rights Movement. According to the paper’s motto: “A People Without A Voice Cannot Be Heard.” The Atlanta Voice is the largest audited African-American community newspaper in Georgia. It is a weekly publication, and our archives contain issues that date back to 1969.

The Civil Rights Movement took root in the fertile ground of Atlanta. As it did, The Atlanta Voice used its editorial voice to shine a light on injustice. For example, in this clipping, a local taxi company refused to hire African-American drivers simply because they just “hadn’t thought about it.” In another instance, the paper reported on realtors who discriminated against African-American home buyers that were suddenly told that a potential home was either no longer on the market or had suddenly jumped in price. In this 1969 clipping, a 40-year-old Atlanta man was fired from his job at a hospital after hospital officials learned his wife was black.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and a native Atlantan. His legacy is deeply intertwined with the history of the city. His assassination in 1968 created shock waves that rippled through Atlanta and across the world. On the 10^th anniversary of his death, The Atlanta Voice poignantly noted that the most precious gift he left to African-Americans was a change in their minds and spirits.

That dramatic shift was manifest in 1973 when Atlanta elected its first black mayor. The Atlanta Voice chronicled Mayor Maynard Jackson’s sometimes uphill battle to govern the city even as he and other elected black officials faced harassment. In an effort to overhaul the police department which stood accused of discriminatory behavior towards black citizens, Mayor Jackson ousted police chief John Inman. A number of black citizens had been killed or injured under questionable circumstances during Inman’s watch, and many accused him of racism. The Atlanta Voice reported on the police department’s “Gestapo-type unit” that spied on politicians. In an effort to determine the source providing inflammatory information to the paper, Inman sent an undercover officer to work as a typesetter at The Voice. This infuriated many, particularly the black community. Mayor Jackson continued to press forward and was a force in changing racist behaviors. When Maynard Jackson died in 2003, he was eulogized as a trailblazer in a ceremony the likes of which Atlanta had not seen since the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Atlanta Voice archives are a great place to search for clippings that pertain to your family tree. Did your family member sing in the church choir or serve in the military? News Briefs and society pages are another great place to see birth announcements, wedding announcements and learn about community events your family may have been a part of.

Dive into our archives today* to learn more about the people of Atlanta and the part they played in the historic Civil Rights Movement. Search Newspapers.com to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement today! 

*The Atlanta Voice requires a Publisher Extra subscription to search their archive

To celebrate Black History Month, we’re pleased to add The Atlanta Voice to our newspaper archives. Founded in 1966, the paper originated with a goal to provide fair and credible coverage to the growing Civil Rights Movement. According to the paper’s motto: “A People Without A Voice Cannot Be Heard.” The Atlanta Voice is the largest audited African-American community newspaper in Georgia. It is a weekly publication, and our archives contain issues that date back to 1969.

The Civil Rights Movement took root in the fertile ground of Atlanta. As it did, The Atlanta Voice used its editorial voice to shine a light on injustice. For example, in this clipping, a local taxi company refused to hire African-American drivers simply because they just “hadn’t thought about it.” In another instance, the paper reported on realtors who discriminated against African-American home buyers that were suddenly told that a potential home was either no longer on the market or had suddenly jumped in price. In this 1969 clipping, a 40-year-old Atlanta man was fired from his job at a hospital after hospital officials learned his wife was black.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and a native Atlantan. His legacy is deeply intertwined with the history of the city. His assassination in 1968 created shock waves that rippled through Atlanta and across the world. On the 10^th anniversary of his death, The Atlanta Voice poignantly noted that the most precious gift he left to African-Americans was a change in their minds and spirits.

That dramatic shift was manifest in 1973 when Atlanta elected its first black mayor. The Atlanta Voice chronicled Mayor Maynard Jackson’s sometimes uphill battle to govern the city even as he and other elected black officials faced harassment. In an effort to overhaul the police department which stood accused of discriminatory behavior towards black citizens, Mayor Jackson ousted police chief John Inman. A number of black citizens had been killed or injured under questionable circumstances during Inman’s watch, and many accused him of racism. The Atlanta Voice reported on the police department’s “Gestapo-type unit” that spied on politicians. In an effort to determine the source providing inflammatory information to the paper, Inman sent an undercover officer to work as a typesetter at The Voice. This infuriated many, particularly the black community. Mayor Jackson continued to press forward and was a force in changing racist behaviors. When Maynard Jackson died in 2003, he was eulogized as a trailblazer in a ceremony the likes of which Atlanta had not seen since the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Atlanta Voice archives are a great place to search for clippings that pertain to your family tree. Did your family member sing in the church choir or serve in the military? News Briefs and society pages are a great place to see birth announcements, wedding announcements and learn about community events your family may have been a part of.

Dive into our archives today to learn more about the people of Atlanta and the part they played in the historic Civil Rights Movement. Start searching The Atlanta Voice archives today!

Do you have ancestors from Kentucky or Pennsylvania? We’re thrilled to announce our newspaper archives from these states are expanding!

The Paducah Sun: Paducah, Kentucky is located just past the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and is home to The Paducah Sun. Our archives date back to 1896 and contain more than 1.5 million pages from The Sun and related titles including The Sunday Chat; the Paducah Weekly Sun; the News-Democrat; the Weekly News-Democrat; and the Paducah-Sun Democrat.

These papers covered important developments in the history of Paducah including steamboat commerce and railroad growth. One historic event that made Paducah headlines was the flood of 1937. Weeks of steady rain followed by sleet caused the Ohio River to crest at 60.8 feet. Flood waters consumed the city and some 27,000 citizens were evacuated. Many residents were trapped in their homes or stranded on the upper floors of downtown buildings. Following the disaster, the US Army Corps of Engineers constructed a 14-foot high floodwall. In the early 1990s, in an effort to beautify downtown Paducah, one citizen suggested painting murals along the floodwall. In 1996, the city hired an artist to paint more than 50 murals that depict the history of Paducah.

If you have ancestors from Paducah, society columns are a great place to piece together your family story. They often mention travels, and births and deaths.

The Daily Item: Based in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, The Daily Item archives go back to 1894. Thomas Edison made a mark in Sunbury in 1883 when he installed and successfully tested the first three-wire electric lighting system in a local Sunbury hotel. The hotel’s name was later changed to the Edison Hotel in his honor. Electricity in Sunbury led to one of the first electric streetcar systems in the country. In 1906, the State of Pennsylvania established a bureau to record all the state’s births and deaths. Before then, newspapers like The Daily Item published birth announcements and obituaries.

Just 13 miles from Sunbury is the town of Danville. We have archives from the Danville Morning News and the Danville News that date back to 1898. In the 19^th century, Danville became an important stop along the early transportation routes that included railroads, the Susquehanna River, and roads. Does your family tree contain an orphan from the Danville area? These newspapers are a great resource for information about institutions like the Mother House of Christian Charity and the Odd Fellows’ Orphans Home.

In 1919, during the early days of aviation, Danville residents poured into the streets to see an airplane. For many, it was their first time! The government plane circled the town dropping leaflets advertising Victory Liberty Loans (war bonds) to fund the war effort.

These stories are just a sampling of many fun and historical stories in these newspapers. Get started searching our Kentucky and Pennsylvania archives today at Newspapers.com!

Happy New Year! We’re so excited for what’s to come in 2019, but we wanted to pause a moment and reflect on all we accomplished in 2018. Last year we:

• • Added more than 5,000 new papers
  • More than doubled the number of titles in our archive
  • Added more than 120 million pages
  • We’re adding 10-13 million pages each month
  • We now have nearly a half a billion searchable pages – making us the largest online historical newspaper archive

In 2018 we continued to increase our international newspaper titles from Canada, England, Scotland, and Wales. We’ve also added Puerto Rico. Plus, we added new papers from the following states:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

Our archives have unlocked roadblocks in family history research and provided a unique tool for those searching for historical and academic data. Did you make an incredible discovery this year using Newspapers.com? Tell us about it! From our team to you, Happy New Years!

Do you have ancestors from New Jersey or Kentucky? This month we’re excited to announce additions to our archives from these states!

The Coast Star is a weekly paper from the beachside community of Manasquan, New Jersey. Our archives date back to 1899 when the paper was known as The Coast Democrat. The population of Manasquan was just 1,500 back then – small enough that when a local mother wanted to visit a neighbor while her baby napped, she simply called the operator and left the line open so the operator could notify her if the baby cried.

After the turn of the century, beach cottages, many belonging to residents of nearby New York City, began springing up along the New Jersey coast. In 1930, plans were made to dredge the Manasquan inlet and open the waterway for boat traffic. Residents soon found that bootleggers were using the waterway to transport booze (it was the middle of prohibition) and stepped up patrols.

The Ocean Star is published weekly in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, just a couple of miles away from Manasquan and serves the northern Ocean County area. It launched in 1998 and among other news, chronicled heavy damage along the New Jersey coast from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Franklin Favorite hails from Franklin, Kentucky. Our archives date back to 1887 and are a valuable resource for research in Franklin and surrounding communities like Russellville, Richland, Price’s Mill, and Stevenson; and Northern Tennessee towns like Springfield and Orlinda.

The paper reported on local landmark Octagon Hall. The octagon-shaped home was built in 1859 by Andrew Jackson Caldwell and served as a refuge for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Caldwell’s son remembered Confederate soldiers camping in the yard. He also recalled the time a weary soldier needed a place to sleep for the night. The family took him in and soon discovered the soldier was Caldwell’s long, lost nephew! 

The Messenger-Inquirer is published in Owensboro, Kentucky. Our archives go back to 1890 when the paper was known as The Messenger. In 1929, The Messenger was sold to the owners of The Owensboro Inquirer. The two papers merged and became known as The Messenger-Inquirer. Now owned by Paxton Media Group, the paper has a rich history in Owensboro.

Like other Kentucky communities, Owensboro’s history is closely tied to the area’s distilleries, and Owensboro has recently been named part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The Messenger-Inquirer also covers surrounding communities like Pleasant Ridge, Cleopatra, and Nuckols. The Neighborhood News column is a great place to search for relatives from nearby towns.

Get started searching our updated New Jersey and Kentucky archives today!

This month we’re excited to announce that our Canadian newspaper archives are expanding! We’ve added several papers from publisher Postmedia Network and will be adding more pages and titles through 2019!  We have papers from Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll find.

Parliament Burns – February 1916
The Ottawa Citizen

The Montréal Gazette: Founded in 1778, the Montréal Gazette is one of the oldest newspapers in North America. Though originally published in French, the Gazette has been English-only since 1822. Montréal is Canada’s second largest city and established itself early on as an important center for the fur trade. Our earliest issues date back to 1857 when the Gazette published this ad for fur coats made from beaver, doeskin or Siberian fur. This story printed in 1858 teaches readers how to care for and clean their furs. In the late 1800s, expansion on the St. Lawrence River canal system began. The river provided a water shipping corridor and the Grand Trunk Railway provided a land connection, enabling Montréal to undergo rapid growth industrialization. The Gazette recorded births, marriages, and deaths of many of Montréal’s citizens. It also reported on a tragic fire in 1927 at the Laurier Palace Theatre that killed 78 children who had gathered to watch a silent film.

The Calgary Herald: With issues dating back to 1888, we have papers chronicling life in Calgary for the past 130 years! The Herald was initially published in a tent at the junction of the Bow and Elbow rivers in 1883. Early on, Fort Calgary was established as an outpost for the Mounted Police. As homestead land became available, the population grew along with Calgary’s mining and ranching industries. The world-famous Calgary Stampede started in 1912 and celebrates that ranching heritage. In 1914, the discovery of oil at the Dingman well created a frenzy that died down as the First World War began.

Edmonton Journal: In 1903, around the time Edmonton got its first railway, three newsmen printed the first edition of the Edmonton Journal in the back of a fruit store. The population was just 4,000 back them, and the Journal has chronicled the growth for the past 115 years! In 1947, the Imperial Oil Company struck a rich deposit of “black gold.” The oil discovery sent the population of the city booming and cemented Alberta’s reputation as a province rich in oil and gas.

The Ottawa Citizen:  Royal Engineers set up a campsite in present day Ottawa during construction of the Rideau Canal (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site). In 1845, the Citizen published its first edition and 12 years later Ottawa was named Canada’s capital by Queen Victoria. Our archives begin in 1898 and cover notable events like the great Ottawa-Hull fire that destroyed a large tract of Ottawa and most of Hull in 1900. The “Social and Personal” column is a great place to search for historic news of your Ottawa ancestors!

Our Canadian newspaper archives are a great way to research your Canadian ancestors or Canadian history. Check back often as we’re updating this collection regularly. Get started searching our Canadian archives today!

This month we’re excited to highlight a few of our papers by publisher Lee Enterprises. If you have roots in Wisconsin, North Dakota, or the quad cities of northwest Illinois and southeast Iowa, these newspaper archives are a valuable resource!

Wisconsin State Journal: In 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state. That same year, printer turned publisher David Atwood purchased a small paper called the Wisconsin Express that would later become the Wisconsin State Journal. We have issues of the State Journal dating back to 1852! The State Journal has chronicled news, births, deaths, anniversaries and community news from the greater Madison area for more than 175 years!

One story that shocked the nation happened in 1914. Noted architect and Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright built his famous home Taliesin outside Madison in Spring Green. The home was the scene of a brutal mass murder when a deranged servant murdered Wright’s companion Mamah Borthwick, her two children, and four others at Taliesin by setting fire to the house and then killing the occupants with an ax as they tried to escape.

Bismarck Tribune: In the 1870s, railroads were given land grants to expand the rail system into the Dakota territory. In June 1873, the first train rolled into Bismarck carrying a hand-set press. Within a month, the first edition of the Bismarck Tribune was published. In this introduction in the first issue, the paper urged citizens to support it and help bring prosperity to the tiny settlement. The Bismarck Tribune is the oldest paper still published in North Dakota. It advocated for the relocation of the Territorial Capital from Yankton to Bismarck, and then lobbied aggressively for statehood. The paper recorded notable events like the fire of 1898 when flames raced through downtown buildings constructed of wood; or the floods in 1952 when snowmelt and ice backed up causing major damage in the city.

The Rock Island Argus and The Dispatch: The archives for these two papers (that later combined to form the Dispatch-Argus) are a great resource for anyone with roots along the Mississippi River in the quad cities of Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline, Illinois; and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa. The Rock Island Argus gets its name from the largest island in the Mississippi River (now known as Arsenal Island) and is one of Illinois’ oldest papers. We have issues that date back to 1855, about the time the railroad expanded to the island. This clipping from 1859, urges residents to play an active role in bringing industry to town. The island housed a fort, and later an arsenal, and was a hub of activity during the World Wars. Clippings like this one from 1863 listing citizens who have a letter to claim at the Post Office are a great way to research ancestors who lived on Rock Island.

A few miles from Rock Island lies Moline, Illinois – home to The Dispatch with papers dating back to 1894. The paper recorded the dramatic fire that ignited in the psychiatric ward of Mercy Hospital, known as St. Elizabeth’s, in 1950. Frantic patients trapped behind windows locked shut by rusty bars fought to escape. Before it was over, 41 lost their lives.

To see these newspapers and other titles, search our archives at Newspapers.com!

This month we head across the pond to highlight our British collection of newspapers. We have papers from cities across England. We also have issues from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Our archives date back to 1700 and cover more than 300 years of history.

This clipping from The Post Man and The Historical Account from 1700, advertises a book that scholars consider the world’s first scientific journal. It was published by Sir Hans Sloane. Sloane was King George’s doctor, a scientist, and an avid collector of objects from all around the world. Upon his death, Sloane willed his collection of 71,000 items to Britain. This collection became the foundation for the British Museum.

The events leading up to the Revolutionary War are covered from a British perspective in this collection. In one last attempt to avoid war, The Derby Mercury published this letter sent by the Continental Congress to “The Inhabitants of Britain” in 1775. The letter asked for compassion and understanding and pointed out injustices.

The American Revolution has been just one of many conflicts covered by British papers. This dispatch published in The Morning Post in 1814 described when the British set fire to the White House. “The following buildings were set fire to and consumed – the Capitol, including the Senate-house and House of Representation, the arsenal and the President’s palace,” the report said.

The royal family has long dominated British newspaper headlines. In 1837, the papers reported on the crowning of Queen Victoria. The Jackson’s Oxford Journal celebrated her marriage to Prince Albert; and this 1861 headline in The Morning Chronicle announced the death of Prince Albert.

Queen Victoria reigned during a time of rapid industrial growth. British newspapers recorded the deaths of many men, women and children who worked in unsafe working conditions in factories and mines.

The Shefflield and Rotherham Independent reported on a violent storm in 1838. It filled ventilation shafts with water at the Huskar Colliery, resulting in the deaths of 26 child mine workers. Queen Victoria pressed for an inquiry on working conditions. In 1842, the Children’s Employment Commission released a report that made its way to the papers and caused a sensation. The report found it was not uncommon for children as young as five to work 12-hour days in the mines. They hauled heavy loads through narrow shafts, some just 18-inches tall. The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842 was designed to protect women and children from these conditions.

Industrialization led to increased pollution. The Guardian reported on the great smog of 1952. An anticyclone caused high pressure that trapped pollutants and formed a layer of smog over London. Visibility was reduced to inches. The smog claimed more than 4,000 lives during the 5-day event, and thousands more after.

To learn more about these stories, or to research your British ancestors, search our British collection on Newspapers.com!

We’re excited to announce that Newspapers.com now has Topic Pages! Topic Pages are a free, curated collection of newspaper articles and clippings focused on subjects throughout American and world history.

Want to learn more about the Great Depression, the D.B. Cooper Hijacking, or Jackie Robinson? These are just a few of the Topic Pages we’ve created! Each Topic Page includes a description of the person or event and a selection of newspaper clippings related to the subject.

As primary sources, these newspaper clippings help you learn how people of the time viewed the person or event highlighted on the Topic Page. For example, our Topic Page for the Battle of Bunker Hill includes newspaper clippings from Patriot, Loyalist, and British perspectives, so you can see the battle from three different points of view.

Whether you’re doing research or are just curious about a subject, Topic Pages are a great place to dive deeper.

Our Topic Pages include:

Battle of Gettysburg Prohibition Panama Canal End of World War I Harlem Renaissance Apollo 11 Moon Landing Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks D.B. Cooper Hijacking Chappaquiddick Incident

Battle of Gettysburg

Our collection of Topic Pages is still growing, so keep checking back to find more topics. Or if there’s a topic you want to see, suggest it to us!

Get started exploring our new Topic Pages here.