Winthrop University’s library archives will have help from a local $14,000 grant to digitize area newspapers dating back to the 1860s.

The college’s Dacus Library joins other South Carolina university libraries that are moving print records to digitize microfilm in an effort to preserve the Palmetto state’s history.

The long-term plan for archives is to make the digitized records available to researchers and the general public where applicable under new copyright court rulings.

Included in the digitization is Winthrop’s student paper, The Johnsonian, dating back to 1923. The newspaper, library staff says, provides valuable insights about S.C. women's history, civil rights and integration.

Archives staff members also plan to cooperate with the Chester County library in the digitization of other newspapers, including back issues of The News and Herald (Winnsboro), The Chester News and The Chester Reporter.

The library will also move original, historical records related to Chester and York counties, such as the York County Soldiers Board of Relief Papers, from 1862 to1863, which document the counties’ militia troop strength during the Civil War.

The most recent grant to Winthrop comes from Chester’s Lutz Foundation, established in 1995 after the deaths of Clarence H. and Anna E. Lutz.

Anna Douglas •  803-329-4068