We now have over 40,000 pages of freely accessible, keyword searchable Vermont newspapers available online here. We have another 53,000 pages currently in process that will become available in the coming months. We are adding these to the now more than 4 million pages available on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website. The Rutland Herald for 1836-1854, Burlington Free Press for 1836-1920, the Vermont Farmer for 1872-1877, and the Vermont Phoenix from Brattleboro for 1836-1873, and 1911-1912, are now all available.

We have a treasure trove of new titles in process, including the Vermont Phoenix from 1874-1910, and 1913-1922, and the Vermont Transcript of St. Albans 1864-1869, covering the 1864 St. Albans Raid, and the Fenian Raid of 1866–material missing from the currently available digitized material for St. Albans. Also coming soon are the Rutland Daily Globe from the 1870s, a paper described by a noted Vermont historian as the best in the state for the era, the Windham County Democrat 1837-1853, edited by women’s rights pioneer Clarina Nichols in the latter years, and the Watchman and State Journal from Montpelier for 1836-1920.

In the months following we will make available scans of the Middlebury Register from 1837-1922, the Spirit of the Age from Woodstock for 1840-1913, and we will digitize close to 10,000 pages of both the Bennington Banner and Caledonian Record title families. We are particularly pleased to be able to announce that we will be digitizing the Bennington Banner and Caledonian Record, because we recently received permission from Library of Congress and The National Endowment for the Humanities to do this additional work. This means that we will digitize close to an additional 30,000 pages of historic Vermont newspapers this year without requiring any additional funds.

Above: some quick scans of our newly added titles. The final scans will be higher resolution and won’t have lines.

– Tom McMurdo, VTDNP Project Librarian