The ACHS has historically collected Catholic newspapers from around the United States. Today, the society holds one of the largest collections of Catholic newspapers in the country. In total, there are 313 titles with an estimated 1.25 – 1.5 million pages. These newspapers range in date from 1824 to 1968 and include 31 states and the District of Columbia.

We are pleased to announce that we’re working with the Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (CHRC) and Boston College to undertake a large-scale digitization project of these papers. The CHRC has completed a detailed inventory of the collection and has compiled a list of the rarest papers. Some of these include papers that are not at other dioceses nor listed on WorldCat, so those held by the ACHS may be some of the few, if only, existing copies. The current goal of the project is to digitize approximately a quarter million pages across 123 titles.

A pilot run of 10,000 pages of both hard copies and microfilm have been completed. The next phase of scanning has begun with 35,000 pages set to be captured. This work has been done at a local third-party provider with plans to expand the workflow with additional digitization done at Boston College.

Once completed, the new electronic copies will be preserved at both CHRC and Boston College. In addition, Boston College is planning on hosting these newspapers and other printed material on an open-access database.

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting new project as it develops!