World libraries: North Carolina’s oldest newspapers are available online

History buffs, academics, schoolchildren and genealogists have a new treasure trove at their fingertips - an online archive of the state's earliest newspapers.

The collection, 23,483 digital images of newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries, is available through the N.C. State Archives' Web site. The papers date from 1751 to the 1890s and are mostly from the oldest towns in the eastern part of the state, including Wilmington, Edenton and New Bern. A selection from Salisbury offers a perspective from the western part of the state.

The newspapers document North Carolina's civic, political, cultural and social events from Colonial times through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Previously, they had been available only on microfilm at the State Archives in Raleigh.  But now the collection is available free and can be searched by publication, year and keyword.