As part of a partnership that includes the Library of Virginia, the Center for Local History of the Arlington library system and the Sun Gazette, archive materials from a number of Arlington newspapers can now be found online.
Editions of the Northern Virginia Sun from 1935 to 1978 have been digitized and made available through the Virginia Chronicle, a free online resource tool. Copies of the Columbia News also were digitized as part of the effort.
Previously, the materials had been available only on microfilm and digital scans at the Center for Local History, and had very limited search capabilities.
Getting them online represents “a fantastic resource for historians, teachers, genealogists and anyone curious about Arlington’s past through the eyes of local journalism,” county library officials said.
“Delve deeper into your family history, find information on the transformation and growth of Arlington and discover more of its unique history,” said library director Diane Kresh.
The free news archive is 100-percent keyword-searchable by location, date, title and issue, and features a “clipping” feature that allows researchers to save an image or text block of an article.
(A query for “Ellen Bozman,” who served on the Arlington County Board from 1974 to 1997, brought up dozens of results, including an analysis piece from 1977 by Sun reporter Carl Hilinski, dissecting the chances Bozman would win a second term in office. Hilinski pegged her the likely winner but not a sure thing, which proved correct, as the incumbent won a relatively small victory over challenger Sherman Pratt that year.)
Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, currently containing more than 213,000 separate editions comprising 1.6 million pages.
In addition to the growing collection of newspapers found at Virginia Chronicle, the Library of Virginia offers access to a wide array of resources for researching newspapers from its collection of more than 3,000 Virginia and West Virginia imprints.
For information, see the Website at www.virginiachronicle.com.