Newspapers are one of the most versatile and heavily used sources of information for researchers, genealogists, students and the general public. Feature stories, society news, classified and picture advertisements, school and church announcements, news from surrounding towns, editorials and cartoons, all give the reader the sense of “being there.” Often the papers contain historical information that is not available in any other source.
The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) was created using federal grant funds from the Institute for Museums and Library Services and the Library Services and Technology Act, but now continues to grow through contributions from individual libraries, museums, and other organizations. Together, these institutions have supported the digitization of over 3,600,000 additional pages. But there is still much more to do. You can help make these important resources available online by donating to the CHNC.
If you have found the CHNC to be useful, we hope that you will consider making a tax deductible contribution to provide general support for the resource. Your donation will support the CHNC’s mission to get all of Colorado’s earliest newspapers online. There are more than 2 million pages from over 200 Colorado newspapers still available for digitization through 1923.
SWAG: The CHNC now has some nifty branded products available for purchase. Check out our Cafe Press CHNC online store at: https://www.cafepress.com/coloradohistoricnewspaperscollection. All funds received will go directly into more newspaper digitization. Look sharp and support the cause!
You can make a general donation to the CHNC and we will put the funding towards our ongoing digitization projects. You can also choose to fund a Special Project listed below, or specify your own choice of title for digitization.
Your donation will be processed by PayPalOUT FRONT Magazine (OFM) is a bimonthly publication for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community published in the Denver metropolitan area. The print edition is distributed in many large metropolitan locations—from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., to California, Utah, and Wyoming. Remaining operational and relevant at a time when so many independent publications have ceased operations, OFM has the distinction of being the second-oldest independent LGBTQ publication in the United States and the largest in the Rocky Mountain region.
We believe there is a need to invest in preserving Colorado’s LGTBQ history by making the entire OFM collection available to the public. In order to make this resource fully and freely available online, more funds need to be raised. We have digitized over 13,000 pages of OFM, but there are over 40,000 more pages that need to be digitized and indexed, so that the content can be made freely searchable and discoverable online for anyone, anywhere, anytime. We will need more than $30,000.00 to complete this goal of making OFM completely available online.
Colorado is an example of a classic boom bust state. According to some sources – there are over 1,500 ghost towns within our borders. Towns went bust for many reasons, including the closing of mines, introduction of the railroad, depopulation of rural farming areas, and changes in fortune . Some of the towns that popped up lasted a decade or two, some a few years – and many – less than that. Those that were able to establish themselves were often endeavored to produce a newspaper to keep their inhabitants informed and included in what was going on in their area and the larger world, but also to record their history for generations to come. Many of the known papers from these towns are presumed lost, but there are some that do still exist on microfilm, and need a champion to bring their stories to the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
The following ghost towns have newspapers on microfilm at History Colorado that are available for digitization.
For more information about any of these titles or projects, contact CHNC-Support.
Can’t find your community’s historical news in the CHNC? Or are you looking for more historical news from a particular region? You can help put this news online. Use the map below to locate the names of the titles that need support.
This map shows the location of papers yet to be fully digitized.
We would also be delighted to visit your community to provide free presentations to interested groups upon request. If you are interested in a free presentation or want more information on financially supporting the digitization of your community’s newspapers, including cost estimates, please contact CHNC-Support at the Colorado State Library: CHNC-Support@coloradovirtuallibrary.org or 303.335.0709.