Atla’s Catholic News Archive has surpassed one million digitised newspaper pages, giving researchers greater access to Catholic history and helping connect records to build a fuller picture of the past.
The collection now contains 61,377 issues comprising more than 1.08 million pages, bringing together Catholic newspapers published in cities and communities across the United States. With material dating back to 183, the archive provides free access to a rich historical record of Catholic news, commentary, community history, and public discourse.
Fully searchable through the Veridian platform, the archive attracts more than 1.1 million page views each year and is regularly consulted by journalists, Church leaders, clergy, researchers, family historians, students, and readers around the world.
Built to grow from the beginning
The Catholic News Archive launched in 2016 as an initiative of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance, now the CRRA Program at Atla. The project was created to meet a growing need for online access to historical Catholic newspapers and their long-term digital preservation.
Support from organisations including the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists and the Catholic Library Association has helped the archive expand steadily since its launch.
The Catholic News Archive has been hosted on the Veridian platform from the beginning. Using a platform designed for large and continually expanding newspaper collections has enabled Atla to add new publications, issues, and pages without needing to replace the archive’s underlying technology as the collection has grown.
Related reading: Built to Scale: Veridian Software Supports Collections of All Sizes
Veridian provides the scalable infrastructure required to manage and deliver access to the collection while supporting full-text searching across decades of OCR content.
Search engine-friendly record and page structures also help individual newspaper pages become discoverable beyond the archive itself, connecting new audiences with the publications, institutions, communities, and stories represented in the collection.
Connecting records to wider historical stories
Historical newspapers often provide valuable context needed to understand documents held elsewhere in an archive.
One example was shared by Mary Brown, Archivist at the Center for Migration Studies in New York City. While reviewing records from the National Catholic Welfare Conference Bureau of Immigration, Brown and an intern discovered an unusually substantial file relating to Czechoslovakia.
The documents described efforts by a Czech Catholic immigrant aid agency to assist refugees fleeing Nazi persecution during the 1930s.
Using names, dates, and other clues found in the file, they searched the Catholic News Archive and located news reports and press releases describing political developments in Czechoslovakia and Catholic efforts to help people placed at risk by the Nuremberg Laws.
By connecting the archival records with material found in the Catholic News Archive, they were able to reconstruct a story of refugee assistance that neither source could have revealed as fully on its own.
Examples such as this demonstrate how searchable newspaper collections can help researchers connect fragmented records, verify details, and uncover relationships across institutional collections.
Recognised as an outstanding academic resource
The Catholic News Archive’s value as a research resource was formally recognised in 2021, when ACRL Choice Reviews named it an Outstanding Academic Title. It was one of just 11 electronic resources selected among 440 titles, placing it within the top three percent of resources reviewed that year.
Jennifer A. Younger, Executive Director of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance, emphasised that the recognition reflected the collective work behind the archive: “This award is not just a recognition of the Catholic News Archive, it is a recognition of the CRRA community and its effort and commitment to collaborating to build a resource that is a significant contribution to research.”
She also recognised the archive’s digitisation and technology partners: “The CRRA community includes all of our digitizing and vendor partners, especially Veridian, which we consider the gold standard of newspaper platform services.”
Now containing more than one million pages, the Catholic News Archive continues to build on that collaborative achievement and strengthen its value to researchers.
This milestone demonstrates the value of establishing a strong and adaptable digital foundation from the outset. As further material is digitised and contributed, the Catholic News Archive can continue to grow within the same platform while maintaining a consistent research and discovery experience.
More than a growing digital collection, it has become a trusted academic resource and a valuable research tool, helping users connect records, build fuller historical stories, and deepen their understanding of the past.
Congratulations to the entire Catholic News Archive community on reaching this significant milestone.