Newspaper history and current digitized newspapers...
Quincy Historical Newspaper Archive is a work in progress.  We have currently digitized daily newspapers from 1835 through 1890.  We began with the Quincy Daily Whig and Quincy Daily Herald.  The Quincy Daily Journal, and the weekly editions of these newspapers, will be added as time and funding allow.  Eventually we hope to continue the years of coverage up to nearly the present day, to meet the more current online database that will be available through the Quincy Herald-Whig website.

Quincy's earliest newspaper was the Illinois Bounty Land Register.  Our earliest copy is of April 17, 1835.  Our earliest Quincy Whig is May 12, 1836.  The earliest available Quincy Herald is October 20, 1848.  Some issues of the Herald include the name Argus; some issues of the Whig include the name Republican.  There was also a paper called the Evening Call as early as September 5, 1870, and a Quincy Journal with available copies beginning September 11, 1883.  These papers published variously as daily or weekly papers, and with slight title variations, throughout early Quincy history.  The Quincy Herald and Quincy Whig Journal merged in May 1926 to become the Quincy Herald-Whig which is still publishing today.

Unfortunately many issues of these newspapers were lost, and never microfilmed, and others were in such poor condition that they are difficult to read, and may be inaccurately indexed.  Our goal is to provide the most complete and accurate coverage possible for this exciting period of early Quincy history.

Quincy Herald is included in the archive from August 1853-July 1854, then fairly consistently from 1858 through 1890.  Missing periods include 1864, 1873, March to December 1875, June to December 1877, most of 1880, 1886 and most of 1887.  The Quincy Daily Whig or Quincy Daily Whig and Republican is included beginning in 1859 and continuing through 1890, but all of 1867, 1868, 1869 and 1870 are missing, along with several months of 1859, 1860, and 1866.  Some weekly editions of the Whig are included from 1838, 1842, 1843, and 1844.

Be sure to look for special events like the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Mormons in Quincy, as well as items of personal interest to you.