University of Virginia Library

Section G. Newspapers.

The Virginia libraries contain several fair collections of
earlier Virginia newspapers, scattering files from other sections
of the eastern United States, and a few foreign newspapers.
Through a plan devised by Dr. Lestor J. Cappon, University of Virginia
Archivist, responsibility has been assumed by a considerable
number of libraries for the preservation of current local
papers. Other libraries have been deterred from adopting this
policy of cooperation only by lack of space for the storage of
bulky newspaper files. Doctor Cappon's `Virginia Newspapers,
1821-1935', which was published by the Appleton-Century Company in
1936, serves both as a bibliography and as a record of holdings,
not only by Virginia but also by other American libraries. Details
concerning Virginia newspapers appearing within the limits
covered by his volume will therefore be, for the most part,
omitted from this survey report.

The most extensive collection of bound volumes of newspapers
— 4,400 — is at the Virginia State Library; and this Library is
currently receiving and preserving forty-one titles. The largest
number of the papers which appear in this collection are Virginia
publications; but the other localities represented include Alabama,
Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, Texas, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, England, France,
and Germany. Among the earlier runs, several being incomplete,
are [Annapolis] Maryland Gazette, 1728-54; [Boston] Columbian
Sentinel, 1797-98; [Edenton] State Gazette of North Carolina, 178790;
[Hartford, Connecticut] American Mercury, 1788-95; [Hartford]
Connecticut Courant, 1793-96; Bache's Philadelphia Aurora, 1799;
[Philadelphia] County Porcupine, 1798; Philadelphia Gazette, 179597;
[Philadelphia] General Advertiser, 1799; [Philadelphia] Universal
Gazette, 1798-1800; [Richmond] Daily Compiler, 1816-46;

[Richmond] Enquirer, 1804-77; [Richmond] Examiner, 1799-1804;
[Richmond] Virginia Argus, 1797-1816; [Richmond] Virginia Gazette,
1780-1809; [Richmond] Virginia Independent Chronicle, 1786-89;
[Richmond] Virginia Patriot, 1809-21; [Washington] National Intelligencer,
1800-59; and the [Williamsburg] Virginia Gazette
(original and photostat copies), 1736-80.

The files of foreign newspapers at the State Library include
[London] Bell's Life in London, 1851-1861; [London] Times, 185760,
1914-19; [Paris] Le Charivari, 1847-52; [Paris] Le Corsair,
1849-52; [Paris] Calignani's Messenger, 1846-54; [Paris] La
Gazette de France, 1849-54; [Paris] Le Moniteur Universal, 17891864;
and four volumes of miscellaneous French newspapers for
1848-50.

In other libraries in the State the files of newspapers
dating earlier than 1820 mainly duplicate the holdings at the State
Library. For example, William and Mary and the University of Virginia
both have the photostat sets of the Virginia Gazette (dating
from 1736), and the University of Virginia has a run of Le Moniteur
Universel covering the years 1789-1849, 1856, 1871-75. At
the College of William and Mary there are files of the [Richmond]
Virginia Argus, 1802-12, and of the [Richmond] Enquirer, 1812-13;
and there are volumes 21-40 of the [Boston] Columbian Sentinel,
1794-1804. This library has 249 bound volumes of newspapers. The
University of Virginia Library has scattered issues of foreign
papers from England, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Santo
Domingo, and South Africa, and longer runs of the [Sofia, Bulgaria]
La Bulgarie, 1925-36, [Leeds, England] Leeds Mercury, 1883-93, and
[London] The Times, 1890-94, 1918-19. This collection contains
1450 bound volumes, and a rather large number of unbound volumes,
and is currently receiving and preserving fifty-two newspapers.
The Virginia Historical Society has 250 bound volumes which include
the [Richmond] Virginia Argus, 1804-16, and the [Richmond]
Virginia Patriot, 1809-10.

The Library at Hampton Institute is preserving files of three
negro papers, the [Newport News] Star, the [Norfolk] Journal and
Guide, and the [Richmond] Planet. At the Randolph-Macon Woman's
College there are 326 bound volumes, including files of the Lynchburg
News, the New York Times, and the foreign Le Matin and La
Prensa. Sweet Briar College has an early run of Niles' Weekly
Register (1811-49) and subscribes to the Manchester Guardian.
The library at Washington and Lee University contains early
issues of the [Alexandria] Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette
and of the Lexington News Letter, 1819-30. The Petersburg Public
Library, which at its foundation fell heir to the library which
had belonged to the Petersburg Mechanics Association, has 302
bound volumes of old newspapers, mostly of southside Virginia. At
the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg there is a file of local
newspapers beginning in 1814; at the Norfolk Public Library a local
file dates from 1802; and the Public Library at Roanoke has files
of Roanoke, Floyd, and Salem newspapers running back towards

the period of the War between the States.