Newspaper Archive

Columbia is proud of its many newspapers that have been published over the years. The Columbia Historic Preservation Society in partnership with LancasterHistory.org digitized many Columbia newspapers to a word searchable PDF format for researchers and genealogists use. Over 250,000 issues have been completed to date and are available at the museum.

The most famous newspaper is The Columbia Spy whose title was later acclaimed as being suggested by the anti-slavery sentiment during the time of the Underground Railroad. The newspaper also prided itself of having a high literary standard. In an arrangement with the newspaper, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a weekly letter, occupying about one column in the paper.

The Columbia News also a noteworthy newspaper was published daily starting in 1888 and ran continuous for over 100 years. In 1920 The Columbia News bought The Columbia Spy and merged the two newspapers.

The following links connect to a PDF file that contains information of description, history and available issues of that newspaper. It will not result in the download of an actual newspaper. To see the digital copy of any newspaper issue(s) of interest, please contact us or stop in during our open hours.