20 million newspaper pages to be online

Through an extensive database launched two years ago, decades of the country's newspapers can be searched online for major events and history-making names, as well as family connections and local celebrations. The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities have worked together for 20 years to preserve old newspapers, first through microfilm and now digitization.

Yesterday, officials from both federally funded agencies gathered at the Newseum to announce that the Chronicling America project (http://Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) has now posted its millionth page. Carole M. Watson, the acting NEH chairman, said the amassed journalistic reports "help to illuminate the history of our nation."

Eventually the organizers hope to post 20 million pages of newspapers from 1880 to 1922. "The newspapers provide firsthand and sometimes the only account of local news," said Deanna B. Marcum, an associate librarian at the Library of Congress. The library estimates that 140,000 newspapers have been published in the United States since 1690. Through an extensive database launched two years ago, decades of the country's newspapers can be searched online for major events and history-making names, as well as family connections and local celebrations. The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities have worked together for 20 years to preserve old newspapers, first through microfilm and now digitization.

Yesterday, officials from both federally funded agencies gathered at the Newseum to announce that the Chronicling America project (http://Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) has now posted its millionth page. Carole M. Watson, the acting NEH chairman, said the amassed journalistic reports "help to illuminate the history of our nation."

Eventually the organizers hope to post 20 million pages of newspapers from 1880 to 1922. "The newspapers provide firsthand and sometimes the only account of local news," said Deanna B. Marcum, an associate librarian at the Library of Congress. The library estimates that 140,000 newspapers have been published in the United States since 1690.

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