The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records (LAPR), together with the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL), have secured a $319,588 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to bring to digital life 100,000 pages of historical Arizona newspapers. This grant, part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), marks the sixth time LAPR has been awarded NEH funding and the fourth collaboration with UAL. The NDNP itself is a partnership effort between the NEH and the Library of Congress.
The selection of the Arizona project aligns with the NEH's special initiative, "American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future." This initiative is aimed to directly address contemporary social challenges—like strengthening democracy, pursing to advance equity, and responding to climate change—through the lens of the humanities. In an effort to support research and community engagement, the digitization of these newspapers will offer a window into Arizona's historical relationship with both the natural and built environments and the impact of human activities on the climate.
In anticipation of Route 66's centennial in 2026, the project has set its sights on a special collection of newspapers. “The 100th anniversary of Route 66 will be in 2026, so one of our goals is to digitize some of the newspapers that were published in Arizona towns along Route 66,” Mary Feeney, a News Research Librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries and co-principal investigator and co-project director of the grant expressed to the Arizona Secretary of State's office. The digitized collection of newspapers will not only celebrate this significant anniversary but will also enhance the historical record of the iconic highway.
The process of digitization will culminate with the inclusion of the archived newspapers in Chronicling America, a freely accessible database of historical newspapers hosted by the Library of Congress. Asa Espanto, the Newspaper Collection Librarian at the State of Arizona Research Library and co-project director of the grant, told the Arizona Secretary of State's office, “We are so delighted and honored to receive this grant, and we look forward to working closely with our advisory board to select titles that will best reflect over seventy years of Arizona history across each of the state’s fifteen counties.”
The commitment to such an extensive digitization project comes with the recognition that preserving history is crucial for understanding the trajectory and development of Arizona's communities. The selection of titles will inherently tell a story that spans over seven decades, providing context and connectivity to Arizona's past and its evolution. Any opinions, conclusions, or recommendations found in the digitized materials don't necessarily align with those held by the National Endowment for the Humanities, though they are made possible by its major grant support under the banner that democracy indeed demands wisdom.
