1,691 issues of The Asheville-Gazette News are now available on the site, thanks to our partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries. This paper was published daily and is an incredibly rich resource for information on life in early 1900s Asheville. 1904-1909 were years of rapid growth, as Asheville grew from a small mountain town to a major hub for the region. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s transformed Asheville into a popular resort town for travelers seeking the healthful mountain air and beautiful landscapes. Just a few years before these issues were published, George W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate was completed as the largest private residence in the United States, cementing the city as both a tourist destination and a desirable place to live. While trains and electric cars still reigned as the main method of transportation, these newspapers show the advent of the automobile and its early adoption by some residents.

The city was growing in population, commerce, and technological advancement. Asheville in the early 1900s was maturing into a real urban center, with 14,000 permanent residents in 1901. As such, the issues in these newspapers are concerned with matters ranging from hyper-local to international. Readers could see which of their neighbors was traveling and to where, and on the next page get the latest updates on the 1905 Russian Revolution. Elections, both regional and national, were covered in The Asheville-Gazette News. Advertisements reveal the many businesses operating in town and speak to the needs and interests of residents, including many promoting various elixirs and compounds for healing illness. The content in these newspapers is wide-ranging and reveals a great deal about the history of Western North Carolina and its place in the world.

Researchers can view all of The Asheville-Gazette News issues on DigitalNC here. See all of the materials contributed by Buncombe County Public Libraries here, and visit the digital collections on their site here. Lastly, visitors to our site can see all of our digitized newspapers on the North Carolina Newspapers page.

Thanks to our partners at the Appalachian Regional Library and Ashe County Public Library, new issues of The Skyland Post (West Jefferson, N.C.) newspaper are now available on our website DigitalNC. The microfilm issues are now ready for viewing in an easily accessible digital format! This latest batch of newspapers range from 1947-1952. You can view more issues of The Skyland Post (West Jefferson, N.C.) newspaper using keyword(s) and date.

To browse all of our newspapers by location, date, and type, take a look at our North Carolina Newspapers collection. To see what other materials they have contributed, visit the Appalachian Regional Library partners page. To learn more about what the library has been up to, check out the Appalachian Regional Library website.

Six years of the Mount Olive Tribune are now on DigitalNC, thanks to our partner University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. The new issues are the first from the Tribune to be hosted on our site. The Mount Olive Tribune is based out of Mount Olive, North Carolina, and has served Duplin and Wayne Counties since 1904.

This batch covers 1942 to 1944, as well as from 1954 to 1956. The issues, numbering almost six hundred in total, contain articles covering daily life in the Carolina Piedmont during the second world war and the post-war period. Articles feature stories on how to reach your deployed loved ones, news at the Southern Farm Market, and advertisements for newfangled soda fountains. The papers are both comprehensive and cohesive, covering a myriad aspects of life within Mount Olive during the period.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, visit our North Carolina Newspapers portal.

Our newest partner, the Bessemer City History and Art Society, has contributed the 1964-1967 volumes of its local newspaper The Bessemer City Record. Founded in 1898, Bessemer City is a town of about 5,000 people 25 miles from Charlotte. Its newspaper shows a close-knit community at the end of an era, with many of the same names and families reoccurring throughout the publications. These volumes reveal the beginning of the transformational changes of the 1960s, and in between high school graduations, local club events, and engagement announcements are stories about the Vietnam War and its impact on the town.

Visitors to the site can also see a variety of interesting advertisements, many of which are promoting Duke Power and its supposed benefits to housewives. These newspapers could be of interest to anyone researching Bessemer City history and genealogy, advertising, 1960s North Carolina, and much more. Learn more about the Bessemer City History and Art Society here, and keep an eye out for future batches at their DigitalNC contributor page here.