The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project: 646,000 Pages and Counting

by Erin Shapland

The Connecticut State Library has received seven awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grants to digitize historically significant Connecticut newspapers.

These grants resulted in the creation of the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project (CDNP), which manages all aspects of the grant project and works in conjunction with NEH and the Library of Congress to deliver the digitized newspapers in each grant cycle.

To date, the Connecticut State Library has been awarded $1.7 million in funds to digitize 700,000 pages of microfilmed newspapers in total. The current cycle, our seventh, runs from January 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027. The initial grant cycle began in 2013.

The titles listed below represent the work of the Connecticut project, but the Chronicling America database encompasses the work of projects across the country, including content from nearly every state and territory totaling an astonishing 23 million full-text pages.

The content is freely available to the public, fully text-searchable, and content can be filtered by criteria including date ranges, state(s), title(s), ethnicity, and language.

In addition to the newspaper database, Chronicling America includes a Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, where users can find newspapers published in the United States from 1690 onward, helping researchers not only find digitized newspapers, but newspapers on microfilm and print, and where those materials are housed.

The site also provides Topic Guides for over 300 research subjects, provided by researchers on the state projects and staffers at the Library of Congress. A few examples of these Topic Guides (available here in alphabetical order), include April Fools' Day, the Dust Bowl, the League of Nations, the Roller Skating Craze, and the World War I Draft, among many, many others.

To learn more about the project, and to explore Chronicling America, please visit their website at ctdigitalnewspaperproject.org and the full collection at loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america.

Erin Shapland is Project Manager of the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project.

DIGITIZED TITLES

Dailies

● New Haven Journal and Courier, 1880-1908

● Bridgeport Evening Farmer / The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, 1909-1922
Note: There are scattered issues of Republican Farmer, a weekly edition

● Norwich Bulletin, 1909-1922

● New Britain Herald, 1914-1930

● Waterbury Evening Democrat, 1887-1908

● Waterbury Democrat, 1931-1946

● New Haven Daily Herald (New Haven)

○ Daily Herald, 1839-1839

○ New-Haven Daily Herald, 1841-1847

Weeklies

● The Litchfield County Post 1826-1829

● The Litchfield Enquirer 1829-1881 (a continuation of The Litchfield County Post)

● The New Haven Union (New Haven), 1905-1913

● Connecticut Western News (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1922

● Newtown Bee 1877-1909

● Tolland County Press (Stafford Springs), 1883

● The Press (Stafford Springs), 1883-1922

● Putnam Patriot (Putnam), 1908-1949

● The Willimantic Journal (Willimantic), 1857-1911

● Windham County Observer  (Putnam), 1905-1949

● Watchman (Hartford)

○ Watchman, 1836

○ Hartford Watchman, 1837-1838

○ Northern Watchman, 1838-1839

○ Congregationalist, 1839-1841

○ Connecticut Observer, 1842

● Danbury Times (Danbury)

○ Danbury Times, 1837-1870

○ The Danbury News, 1870-1871

● Connecticut Home (Willimantic/Hartford)

○ Connecticut Home (Willimantic), 1889-1891

○ New England Home (Hartford), 1892-1894

● New-England Weekly Review (Hartford)

○ New-England Weekly Review, 1828-1832

○ New England Review, 1834-1836

○ Review and Telegraph, 1839-1839

○ New England Weekly Review, 1839-1843

● New-England Religious Herald (Hartford)

○ The Religious Herald, 1845-1846

○ New-England Religious Herald, 1847-1852

○ The Religious Herald, 1853-1856

● The Connecticut Observer, and New-York Congregationalist (Hartford)

○ The Connecticut Observer, and New-York Congregationalist, 1839-1840

○ The Congregational Observer, 1840-1842

● Maine Law Advocate (New Haven)

○ Maine Law Advocate and Home Circle, 1852-1853

○ Maine Law Advocate, 1853-1855

○ Advocate and Examiner, 1856

○ The Examiner, 1853-1855

● Connecticut Hebrew Record (Hartford), 1920-1923

● East Hartford Gazette (East Hartford)

○ The Weekly Gazette, 1925-1942

○ The East Hartford Gazette, 1942-1963

● Newington Citizen (Newington), 1958-1959

● Town Crier (Newington), 1959-1963

Monthlies and Quarterlies

● The Morris Herald (Morris), 1898-1902

● Priestcraft Exposed (New Haven), 1833-1833

● Tally (Wethersfield/West Hartford)

○ Tally (Wethersfield), 1944-1947

○ Echo-Tally (West Hartford), 1947-1948

○ Echo (West Hartford), 1948

○ Wethersfield News (Wethersfield), 1925-1934

○ Wethersfield Chronicle (Wethersfield), 1933

African American

●  Hartford-Springfield Chronicle, 1940

●  Hartford Chronicle, 1946-1947

●  Connecticut Chronicle (Hartford, Conn.), 1948

●  New England Bulletin (Hartford, Conn.), 1949

Italian Language

●  La Tribuna del Connecticut (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1906-1908

●  L’Indipendente (New Haven, Conn.), 1907-1936

●  La Sentinella (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1920-1948

● La Verita (Waterbury), 1926-1939

● La Verita, Corriere del Connecticut (New Haven), 1939-1946

Polish Language

● Przewodnik Katolicki (New Britain), 1908-1926

Labor

● Mechanics’, Operatives’, and Laborers’ Advocate (Norwich, Conn.), 1836-1837

● American Mechanic and Home Journal (Norwich, Conn.), 1849

● The Liberty Bell and Workingmen’s Advocate (Norwich, Conn.), 1867

● The Examiner (Hartford, Conn.), 1881-1888

● The Weekly Examiner (Hartford, Conn.), 1890-1901

● Workmen’s Advocate (New Haven, Conn.), 1883-1891

● Connecticut Citizen (Ridgefield, Conn.), 1892

● Hartford Labor, 1894

● Connecticut Workman (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1901

● The Stamford American, 1906

● The Labor Standard (Hartford, Conn.), 1910-1922

● The Connecticut Labor Press (New Haven, Conn.), 1918-1921

● The Connecticut Labor News (New Haven, Conn.), 1921-1925

● The Connecticut Craftsman (Hartford, Conn.), 1932

Military / WWII

● Bradley Beam (Bradley Field, Windsor Locks), 1943-1945

● The Messenger (Bloomfield), 1943-1945

● The Sub (Groton), 1943-1946

● Eastern Connecticut News (Groton), 1946-1947

● The Union Times (New Haven), 1941-1948

The following are among the titles selected for digitization during 2025-2026. They will be available in the Library of Congress database Chronicling America by Spring 2028:

● Connecticut valley advertiser, 1872-1929

● New era/Deep River new era, 1874-1963

● Connecticut farmer, 1879-1894

● Middlesex County record, 1886-1896

● Shore recorder/Clinton recorder, 1895-1963

● Middletown tribune/Middletown sun/Middletown times, 1893-1915

● American mercury, 1784-1833

● Republican advocate, 1818-1828

● Print newspapers from late 1700s/early 1800s

○ The Bee (New London, Conn.), 1784-1830

○ The Connecticut Herald (New Haven, Conn.), 1808-1817

○ The Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy family, 1773-1776