Chronicling America
This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1860-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. The data is open and can be used outside of the platform.
Richmond Daily Dispatch
November 1860-December 1865. There are currently 1384 issues of the paper available online,
Virginia Chronicle
Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, providing free access to full text searching and digitized images of over 4 million newspaper pages. This collection contains 482,459 issues comprising 4,243,426 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 broad collection of over 3,000 Virginia and West Virginia imprints, both in original ink press copy and on microfilm, to a suite of online resources that provide gateways to a significant range of historical newspapers.
Virginia's Historical NewspapersThis link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers from the state of Virginia covering the time of colonial development to World War I.
Virginia Specific
Histories Along the Blue Ridge
Histories Along the Blue Ridge is the new name for the Exploring Rockingham’s Past project, which was launched in 2017-2018 to make selected historic records from the Rockingham County Court digitally available to the public. Since 2018, the project has grown rapidly beyond Rockingham County through collaborations with interested community actors and courthouses in neighboring counties along the Blue Ridge Mountain Range in Virginia.
Martha Washington: a Life
Explore "the contours of Martha Washington’s life while also providing a window on women’s lives during the 18th century." Includes primary sources materials such as letters. Click on the "Archive" link.
Papers of the War Department
Digitized documents form the US War Department from 1784 and 1800. "The War Department was responsible for Indian affairs, veteran affairs, naval affairs."
Unknown No Longer: Names of Enslaved Virginians
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture launched Unknown No Longer in 2011 to make accessible biographical details of enslaved Virginians from unpublished historical records in its collections.
VCU Libraries Digital Collections
"Ranging in subject matter from African American history in Virginia to Richmond's past and present...Collections are presented in a variety of formats, including photographs, art, text, video, and audio. "
Virginia and Maryland Probate Inventories, 1740-1810
"Probate records provide valuable information about the lifestyles of people during the colonial and early national periods. Such listings of possessions, from a time when household goods were not widely mass-produced, illuminate a family’s routines, rituals, and social relations, as well as a region’s economy and connection to larger markets. They also shed light on attitudes and policies toward slavery."
Virginia Memory
Digital collection provided by the Library of Virginia including photographs, Virginia newspapers, maps, and public records.
Voices of Freedom
Oral histories from Civil Rights Movement in Virginia. From VCU Libraries.
Voices of Virginia
Voices of Virginia pulls together stories from oral history collections from across decades and archives to create an all-audio source companion for Virginia’s high school and college students. The "album" is only two hours long, but contains dozens of short oral histories from eyewitnesses to key moments in American history, from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s. The excerpts are downloadable, accessible by smartphone, and accompanied by a transcript.
Archival Histories of the Virginias
Archival Resources of the Virginias (formerly Virginia Heritage) is a consolidated database of finding aids that provides information about the vast array of manuscripts and archival materials housed in Virginia and West Virginia.
