The Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project (ADNP) at the Arkansas State Archives is a state partner on the National Digital Newspaper Program. With grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and in partnership with the Library of Congress, the ADNP team works to digitize historic Arkansas newspapers and make them available for free on the Library of Congress' Chronicling America.
The Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project team has created resources to help use and promote Chronicling America. These resources include promotional materials (posters, flyers), research guides, and topic guides for more subject-specific research in Chronicling America.
Topic guides are based on subject and can be used as a tool when beginning research on Arkansas topics. Each guide includes an overview of the topic, common search terms, significant dates related to the topic, a list of articles in Chronicling America newspapers, links to educational lesson plans, and partner websites.
New materials will be added regularly. If there are materials you think would be helpful, please let us know. To learn more about Arkansas's involvement in the NDNP project, visit ASA's Chronicling America Digitized Newspapers.
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Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project (ADNP) flyer
This color guide to the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) and Chronicling America gives an overview of Arkansas's involvement in the project. Print this for students, library patrons, and researchers interested in learning more about the project.
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Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project (ADNP) poster
This color poster promotes Chronicling America and the Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project (ADNP). It can be printed to include in classrooms, libraries, research rooms, etc.
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Chronicling America cemetery research guide
This one-page color cemetery-specific guide can be used to locate where someone was buried or to learn more about the history of a specific cemetery.
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Chronicling America comprehensive research guide
This eight-page color comprehensive guide gives in depth information about how to search on Chronicling America, including more advanced search features.
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Chronicling America genealogy research guide
This four-page color genealogy-specific guide provides tips, tricks, keywords, and other information about searching for relatives in historic newspapers on Chronicling America.
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Chronicling America quick guide
This one-page color quick guide can be used to introduce students, researchers, and library patrons to Chronicling America.
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List of Arkansas newspapers on Chronicling America website
This list details Arkansas newspapers on Chronicling America, a free newspaper repository managed by the Library of Congress. This list is intended to be comprehensive and will be updated periodically as new content is added to Chronicling America. To access these Arkansas newspapers on Chronicling America, visit https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/?state=Arkansasðnicity=&language=.
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List of free online digital Arkansas newspapers
This list details Arkansas newspapers available online free of charge, not including newspapers available on Chronicling America or newspapers included in paid repositories. This list is intended to be comprehensive. Please email us at state.archives@arkansas.gov if you know of any free online newspapers that should be added to this list.
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Topic Guide: Apple industry in Arkansas
Apples were the dominant crop in Northwestern Arkansas in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The apple industry had a significant impact not only in the Northwest but on the entire state, so much so that in 1901 the apple blossom was chosen as the state flower. By the 1930s, however, multiple factors contributed to the decline of Arkansas's apple industry and the apple boom was over.
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Topic Guide: Black Arkansans in the military until desegregation
The first all-black military units in Arkansas were formed in 1863 during the Civil War. Though black Arkansans were allowed to join the military, they were typically given inferior jobs and segregated from white troops. Black troops were expected to perform at the same level as white troops while facing unfair and unequal treatment. Despite this inequality, black divisions were an important part of the U.S. military until its desegregation after World War II.
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Topic Guide: Pearl rush and mother-of-pearl button industry in Arkansas
Arkansas's rivers and lakes are home to many species of freshwater mollusks that produce pearls. Native Americans were the first to collect pearls in what would later become Arkansas. As European settlers pushed Native Americans out of Arkansas Territory, mussels were largely left alone, and pearls built up for years without being harvested. Eventually the new inhabitants realized that Arkansas's mollusks created valuable pearls, and in the late 1800s the pearl craze began.
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Topic Guide: Race riots in Arkansas
Racial tension in Arkansas was high at the end of the Civil War. Though the South had been defeated and slavery was abolished, the lingering effects of slavery and racism continued. The changing economy and polarizing political climate caused social unrest, which turned into racial violence targeted at Black Arkansans. The first race riots and race wars in Arkansas followed soon after.
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Topic Guide: Railroads in Arkansas during the Civil War
The Memphis and Little Rock (M&LR) was the only working railroad in Arkansas when the Civil War began in 1861. It was still under construction, but the company planned to connect central Arkansas at Huntersville (now North Little Rock), on the Arkansas River, to the eastern edge of Arkansas at Hopefield, across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee. This route would link central Arkansas to the major Memphis port. The M&LR continued construction during the first few years of the Civil War, but progress eventually came to a standstill. The M&LR was commandeered by Union and Confederate Armies over the course of the war.
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Topic Guide: Railroad strikes in Arkansas
As industrialization increased across the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so did efforts to improve working conditions and pay. Workers formed unions, banding together to negotiate with their employers. Railroad workers were some of the first laborers in Arkansas to unionize. Labor strikes, that is withholding labor, were one of the tactics used by employees and unions during negotiations for better treatment. Strikes often turned dangerous, as workers resorted to sabotage and clashed with company men, law officers, and government militia. During the railroad’s Golden Age at the turn of the 20th century, there were many minor and two major railroad strikes in Arkansas.
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Topic Guide: Slavery in Arkansas
The first report of enslaved black people in Arkansas Territory came from French colonists in the early 1700s. Slavery was a major part of the early economic development in Arkansas, with significant slave labor occurring on large plantations throughout the state. The use of forced labor allowed for the rapid expansion of cotton farming, which added close to $16 million to the Arkansas economy each year. By 1860 the state was the sixth largest producer of cotton, and 25% of Arkansas's population was enslaved.
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Topic Guide: Timber industry in Arkansas
Arkansas’s abundant forests presented obstacles and opportunity for early European settlers. Clearing trees for settlements and farms by axe and saw was slow and laborious, but yielded the raw lumber needed for houses, barns, fences, and furniture. Advances in technology were used to improve timber processing, and by the 1850s steam powered sawmills were common across Arkansas. Despite the increase in output with advancing mechanization, these sawmills could only serve nearby communities because they lacked practical long-distance transportation. This changed after the Civil War, when railroads were built across Arkansas. In the late 1800s, timber companies began using trains to expand their operations and export lumber state and nationwide.