Historic Ohio Newspapers Now Online at the Library of Congress
Publications Chronicle State’s History on Website
            
(COLUMBUS, OHIO) — The Ohio History Connection is pleased to announce that six more historic Ohio newspapers have been digitized and uploaded to the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov thanks to a $248,600 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
 
The National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio, part of the National Digital Newspaper Program developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, enables the Ohio History Connection to digitize 100,000 additional Ohio newspaper pages published from 1836 to 1921 by August 2014. These pages will join the 40 other papers — more than 300,000 Ohio newspaper pages published between 1845 and 1922 — that are already available on Chronicling America through the project’s first and second of three phases.  This is welcome news to blurry-eyed researchers and genealogists who scour old microfilm in search of clues to history’s mysteries and family histories.
 
“Through this program, the Ohio History Connection is making it easy for Ohioans to access their history through the pages of local newspapers,” said Jenni Salamon, Project Coordinator for the National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio at the Ohio History Connection.  “Professional and family researchers and history enthusiasts can now search Ohio newspapers by using someone’s name, hometown or military regiment.”
 
The Ohio newspapers added to Chronicling America are: from Bellefontaine, Bellefontaine Republican>; from Celina, Celina Democrat>; from Painesville, Painesville Journal and Northern Ohio Journal>; from Washington Court House, Fayette County Herald>; and from Wauseon, Fulton County Tribune.
 
Ohio’s Chronicling America collection now includes over 318,000 pages published from 1832 to 1922 from over 65 titles representing 58 counties around the state. For a full listing of Ohio historical newspapers, visit http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/ohio.
 
Archived Newspapers Available at Ohio History Center
The Ohio History Connection’s Archives/Library at the Ohio History Center in Columbus contains the largest collection of Ohio newspapers in existence. The newspaper holdings contain newspapers published from 1793 to present, 4,500 titles, 20,000 volumes, and over 50,000 rolls of microfilm of Ohio titles.

Much of the microfilm in the Ohio History Connection’s newspaper collection was created starting in 1971 as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities initiative called the United States Newspaper Program. Since then, the information published in the thousands of deteriorating wood-pulp newspaper volumes in the institution’s collections has been transferred to more than 16,000 rolls of master negative microfilm. The National Digital Newspaper Program in Ohio builds upon this earlier effort.

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Ohio Historical Society is now Ohio History Connection
On May 24, 2014, the Ohio Historical Society changed its name to the Ohio History Connection. Established in 1885, this nonprofit organization provides a wide array of statewide services and programs related to collecting, preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, archaeology and natural history through its more than 50 sites and museums across Ohio, including its flagship museum, the Ohio History Center in Columbus. For more information about programs and events, call 800.686.6124 or go online at www.ohiohistory.org.