Penn State receives grant to digitize more historical newspapers

Penn State receives grant to digitize more historical newspapers

University Park, Pa. —The University Libraries recently were awarded funds to digitize more key historical Pennsylvanian newspapers, as part of a wider effort by the National Endowment for the Humanities aimed at increasing public access to such materials. Under phase two of the Pennsylvania Digital Newspaper Project (PaDNP), Penn State received $393,489 and selection of titles is now under way.

Sue Kellerman, head of the Digitization and Preservation Department in the University Libraries, said the second phase encompasses an extended time period, from 1836 to 1922. The fact that this time period includes the Civil War era, she said, will have an impact on title selection. The first phase of the project focused a narrower time frame, from 1880 to 1922. For phase one, Penn State selected the Scranton Tribune, Pittsburg Dispatch, Lancaster Daily Intelligencer and Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. These newspapers, along with those from 24 other states and the District of Columbia, now can be read, searched and downloaded from http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/ online.

Researchers also may be interested in other historical material available from the University Libraries’ Digital Collections website, http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital.html, which includes The Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection. This collection features Pennsylvania newspapers published between Feb. 23, 1831 and Feb. 14, 1877, including some local publications from Bellefonte, Clearfield and Altoona.