North Carolina Online Historical Newspapers Summary

North Carolina has one large online state collection for searching historical newspapers. Several states use the Library of Congress Chronicling America site as their main central online site for searching old newspapers and currently, North Carolina has several newspapers available on that site as well. There are many free online newspapers also available on other sites and there are collections available on subscription sites. Below is a list of where the titles are stored and the link so that you can access them. 

There are over 2,600 newspapers that have been published in the Tar Heel State – certainly not all of them are searchable online. But there are several that are indeed available. So go for it – find your North Carolina ancestors and all the interesting articles that capture the stories of their lives. 

Please note that I have not always entered the dates that are included in the collections, as I suspect they will change as more items are digitized. Also, I suspect that some of these links may change over time – so if there is a dead link – please use your favorite search engine to find their new location. 

(Updated July 2023; recently added links are in BOLD)

North Carolina Historical Newspapers

Free Sites:

Statewide Collections:

Chronicling America – North Carolina Newspapers

Google News Archive

North Carolina Newspapers

North Carolina Community Newspapers

County and Library Collections:

Alamance County

Alamance County Public Library

  • The Daily Times-News
  • The Saturday Times-News
  • The Sunday Times-News

Dare County
Dare County Library

  • The Coastland Times
  • Coastland Times
  • The Dare County Times
  • Dare County Times
  • Sea Chest Magazine 

Harnett County

Harnett County Newspaper Archives

  • Angier Independent
  • Bakersville-Burlington
  • Daily Record
  • Democratic Banner
  • Harnett County News
  • Harnett Leader
  • Little River Record
  • State Voice

Haywood County
Haywood County Public Library

  • The Carolina Mountaineer
  • The Carolina Mountaineer And Waynesville Courier
  • The Daily News
  • The Enterprise Mountaineer
  • The Haywood Enterprise
  • The Mountaineer
  • The Waynesville Mountaineer
  • The Waynesville News
  • The Western Carolina Enterprise
  • Waynesville Courier

Nash County
Braswell Memorial Library

  • Evening Telegram 

Randolph County

Randolph County Library

  • The Courier-Tribune

Robeson County
Mary Livermore Library

  • The Robesonian 

Rowan County
Rowan Public Library

  • Salisbury Evening Post
  • The Salisbury Post

Davidson College Library Community Newspaper Collection, 1883-1958

  • North Star (1956-1958, 22 issues)
  • Red and White (1944-1945, 12 issues and 1954-1955, 13 issues)
  • Community (1947, 6 issues)
  • Twin City (1946, 1 issue)
  • Davidson Newsleader (1945-1946, 21 issues)
  • Post Exchange (1943-1945, 12 issues)
  • Star Ace Review (1944, 1 issue)
  • Ace Review (1938-1941, 4 issues)
  • Davidson Leader (1936-1938, 25 issues)
  • Weekly News (1930-1931, 1935, 20 issues)
  • Weekly Enterprise (1883-1884, 7 issues)

Davie County Newspaper Collection

Mooresville Public Library Special Collections

  • Mooresville Enterprise
  • Mooresville Tribune
  • Mooresville Monitor
  • The Record-Times
  • The Gazette
  • Weekly Register
  • Mooresville Record

Morganton Area Newspaper Index

  • Asheville Citizen-Times
  • The Blue Ridge Blade
  • The Burke County News
  • The Carolina Mountaineer
  • The Charlotte Observer
  • The Farmer’s Friend
  • The Hickory Daily Record
  • The Morganton Herald
  • The Morganton Star
  • The News Herald 1902 –
  • The Valdese News

UNC Greensboro Library Historical Newspapers

  • Greensboro Patriot
  • Greensborough Patriot
  • The Little Ad
  • The Patriot and Flag
  • The Patriot and Greensborough Palladium
  • Carolina Beacon
  • Carolina Patriot
  • Southern Telescope
  • 10-Shun
  • BTC 10-shun
  • ORDealings
  • The ORD News
  • The Rotator

Student Collections:

North Carolina Student Newspapers

Catawba College – Salisbury

Davidson College – Davidson

Duke University – Durham

East Carolina University – Greenville

High Point University – High Point

​North Carolina A&T State University – Greensboro

North Carolina State University – Raleigh

South Mecklenburg High School – Charlotte

University of North Carolina – Greensboro

University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina, Department of Chemistry – Chapel Hill                      

University of North Carolina – Wilmington

Miscellaneous Collections and Indexes:

Forsyth County Newspaper Index

  • Winston-Salem Journal
  • The Sentinel
  • Union Republican
  • Winston-Salem Chronicle
  • Clemmons Journal

Independent Voices – Alternative Press

  • Bragg Briefs
  • Do It Loud
  • Fort Bragg Sick Slip
  • Head-ON!
  • Inquisition
  • Last Incursion, The
  • North Carolina Anvil
  • On Korps
  • Other Side, The
  • Paper, The
  • Rage
  • Straight to the Point
  • Strike Back
  • Sinister Wisdom
  • Sinister Wisdom

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Newspapers 1933-1942

Southern School News Archive 

American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020

Old Fulton Postcards

Small Town Papers

Newspaper Abstracts – North Carolina

For Obituary Indexes, transcriptions, and other death/obituary information from historic newspapers, please check out the Obituaries page.

Other Free Sites:

Asheville

Barium Springs

Buncombe County

Charlotte

Cullowhee

Durham

Greensboro

Hendersonville

Jefferson

New Bern

Pembroke

Raleigh

Tarborough

West Asheville 

Whiteville

Wilson

Subscription or Pay Sites:

Ancestry.com:

There are currently 37 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Ancestry – North Carolina Newspapers

Genealogy Bank:

There are currently 319 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Genealogy Bank – North Carolina Newspapers

Newspaper Archive:

There are currently 219 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspaper Archive – North Carolina

Newspapers.com:

There are currently 1,099 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspapers.com – North Carolina

And Finally:

You also need to visit the North Carolina Newspapers site from the North Carolina State Library from time to time, which can tell you what is occurring in the state with regard to online newspaper availability. It also has a locator which can tell you where hard copies and microfilm copies can be found.

Please note – even more may be available via a local or state library where a library card is required. And of course, there is always microfilm for those that have not been made available online as yet.

For more links for different states, provinces, and countries – please see the Newspaper Links page on this website.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

For other Free North Carolina Links, click on the category of interest:

Newspapers
Yearbooks
Births
Marriages
Deaths
BMD Records
Alumni Records
Cemetery Records
Church Records
Coroner Records
Criminal Records
Digital Archives
Directories
Divorce Records
Immigration Records
Institutional Records
Military Records
Mortuary Records
Naturalizations
Obituaries
Photos
Probate and Wills
School Records
Tax Records
Voter Records

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