UW Student Newspapers Archive

The University of Washington Student Newspapers Archive is a pilot project to provide access to digital facsimiles of the student newspapers published at the University of Washington over time. You can browse the newspapers by date or search by keyword across articles, advertisements, and photo captions. You can print, download, or email individual articles. And it's free!

At this time we have digitized:

• Independent— November 1993 to February 1996
• Ledger— November 1996 to December 2005
• Daily— September 1967 to February 1968
• Commons— October 1995 to April 1997

University of Washington Student Newspapers

The University of Washington currently has three student newspapers: The Daily of the University of Washington on the Seattle campus, the Ledger on the Tacoma campus, and the Commons on the Bothell campus. These papers are the historical records of each campus as seen through the eyes of the students, faculty, and staff who contributed to each issue. Student-run newspapers often document university life better than any other source — including photographs, news stories, editorials, cartoons, reviews, calendars of events, and advertisements.

The University of Washington has had several student newspapers over time — some have ceased and others have changed names.

UW Seattle

• The College Idea, the first UW student newspaper— 1895 to 1896
• University of Washington Daily (absorbed The College Idea in 1896)— September 1891 to August 1976
• The Daily— September 1976 to present

UW Bothell

• UW Bothell Commons — October 1995 to June 2001
• Commons — October 2001 to present

UW Tacoma

• Independent— May 1993 to June 1996
• The Ledger— November 1996 to present

These important reflections of campus life are archived in the library on each campus; some on microfilm and some in the original paper. Until these newspapers are digitized, researchers seeking to use them are largely limited to the microfilm collections. To find articles by subject, researchers must use Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index a card file started in the 1930's that is located in Special Collections. The Index identifies articles about people and events deemed important at the time, but often omitted items that researchers today might find important.

Once the student newspapers are digitized, the University of Washington Student Newspapers Archive will provide access to all words, photographs, and advertisements. You will see an exact image of each newspaper page, as well as be able to browse each issue page-by-page. The Archive will allow researchers greater flexibility in locating articles and provide access from outside the University Libraries. The University of Washington Student Newspapers Archive will allow students, faculty, staff, and alumni to engage in the history of campus life.

The University of Washington Student Newspapers Archive pilot database was created from the microfilm copy. The digitization and distillation of the microfilm was done by OCLC's Preservation Service Center (Bethlehem, PA). The issues are accessible through CONTENTdm software.

Special Thanks

Thank you to the following donors and granting agencies for their generous support of the University of Washington Student Newspaper Archive.

• University Libraries 21st Century Grants for Innovation, Service, and Program Enrichments

We need your help to continue digitizing the Daily, Bothell Commons, and Tacoma Ledger. Contact Jessica Albano [jalbano at uw dot com] if you would like to contribute.

Donating to the University of Washington Student Newspapers Archive

The initial phase of this project was funded by the Kenneth S. Allen Endowment and the University Libraries. While the cost of digitization is reasonable, the sheer number of pages that need to be digitized requires us to seek additional funding.

Interested in contributing monetary funds that will be used to digitize UW student newspapers for inclusion in the UW Student Newspapers Archive? Contact Jessica Albano [jalbano at uw dot com].

Your support will allow us to continue to build the website into a complete archive of University of Washington student newspapers, completely documenting the history of the University of Washington’s three campuses.

Thank you for your support.