The Washington State Library

The Washington State Library in Tumwater

Washington State Library (WSL) has digitized over 450,000 pages of historic Washington newspapers for the Washington Digital Newspapers (WDN) website, including more than 27,000 pages now available and free to the public.

These include the Anacortes American (1985-2000) and The Catholic Northwest Progress(1957-1966). The WDN program is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

In 2018, WSL received a $324,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program by digitizing 100,000 more pages for Chronicling America. 

Hosted by the Library of Congress, Chronicling America is a national newspaper site with over 15 million keyword-searchable pages. New titles including The Northwest Enterprise, Northwest Times, Spokane Woman, Southwest Washington Labor Press, and White Bluffs Spokesman are now available – all of which are in the public domain.

WSL’s physical newspaper collection in Olympia includes over 6,500 newspaper titles with more than 50,000 reels of microfilm. It’s one of the best “go-to” places for Washington newspapers!

--From the office of the Washington Secretary of State