Special Collections Research Center received a new collection of historic local newspapers from the Prince William County Library in November 2016. We have been working to reorganize and address preservation needs of these papers for future use by our patrons. The papers in this collection date roughly from 1861 to 1992. They are currently organized by date and paper title which has been split up into six series. The series are:
- The Manassas Journal
- The Prince William News
- The Manassas Messenger
- The Journal Messenger
- Potomac News
- Miscellaneous
- This contains article clippings and issues from other papers like the Alexandria Gazette, The Fauquier Democrat, The Richmond News Leader, and The Richmond Times-Dispatch
We began processing this collection in January and have just finished boxing the documents and created the Finding Aid in early February.
Processing Coordinator and Manuscript and Archives Librarian looking through new collections in the processing area of Special Collections Research Center.
Along the way, we found many interesting articles. One article that stood out to us came from The State:
“A Woman in Pants” from The State. Undated but between 1870’s to 1890’s.
And of course the advertisements are always entertaining, like these from The Manassas Messenger dated November 15, 1951:
“Magic skin bodies…”
So if you are doing research on local history, love newspapers, or just have some free time, stop by and check out the new Prince William County Historic Newspaper collection, #C0301! The finding aid is now up on our website and you can find it here by searching our collections alphabetically or by subject under Northern Virginia and Regional History. You may also e-mail us at speccoll@gmu.edu or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions. Appointments are not necessary to request and view collections.
