Welcome to The Charlotte News Archive!
If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.
—Pearl Buck (1892-1973)
Sometime between the outbreak of the Vietnam War (1957) and the first person in space (1961), a humble community paper came into being. Nancy Wood and a team of enthusiastic high schoolers cranked out the first issue of The Charlotte News on July 18, 1958. Through countless volunteer hours, community support and a love of local journalism, the paper is still here. But now, fully searchable!
At your fingertips is the complete digitized collection of The Charlotte News from 1958 to 2016—nearly 60 years of nonprofit community journalism, documenting the history, people and events that make the town of Charlotte unique.
Looking for that article you wrote 25 years ago on biking across the country? Just key in your name and all your articles will come up.
Doing research on local business development over the past 50 years in Charlotte? Search the ads (some are hilarious).
Wondering what the people of Charlotte did for fun in the 1960s? Search a whole decade with the click of a mouse.
Amazing what computers can do nowadays, right?
This enhanced access to our town’s history would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of all the editors and writers who brought the paper forward, year after year. On the shoulders of giants we stand...and thank them all!
The archive project was completed in 2016 by then-Editor in Chief Alex Bunten with the dependable help of Kali Adams, an Outwater Intern. Generous financial support for the project came from a loyal reader.
Appreciation goes to the The Charlotte News board members and Charlotte Library for their support of the project over the past year.
Free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.
—Albert Camus (1913-1960)