Virginia Gazettes

The Virginia Gazette was printed in Williamsburg from 1736 until 1780 and was the official newspaper of Virginia during that time. A typical issue of the Virginia Gazette was likely to contain official pronouncements, items of foreign or local intelligence, literary, religious, or political pieces, and advertising.

• There were sometimes two or three newspapers in Williamsburg that used the title "Virginia Gazette."
• Newspapers using the same title are distinguishable by their printers.
• In addition, a Virginia Gazette newspaper was printed in Norfolk from 1774 to 1775.
• After 1780, newspaper printing continued in Richmond before spreading to other localities in Virginia.

Exciting News! Digital versions of the Virginia Gazettes from Colonial Williamsburg, the Library of Virginia, and Swem Library at the College of William and Mary have been moved to the Rockefeller Library's new Digital Collections platform. In addition to the content formerly available here, the Digital Collections site now includes Williamsburg issues discovered after 1950, and issues of the Virginia Gazette published in Norfolk from 1774-1775.

Browse the Virginia Gazette Collection in Digital Collections

Highlights of this new system include:

• Keyword searching within the collection.
• Multiple copies (when available) for comparison or to compensate for issues of physical condition.

Support for making Virginia Gazettes available on the Digital Collections platform is provided by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Program. This program supports leadership development and technological infrastructure investment that builds audiences, increases fundraising, drives revenue, delivers dynamic programming, and helps develop best practices to share across a network of non-profit cultural organizations.

Additional resources for researching the Virginia Gazette

Cappon Index:

• A partial index to the Williamsburg issues is available here:    Volume 1   and here:   Volume 2.
• Issues indexed by Lester Cappon and his colleagues in the 1940s and published by the Institute of Early American History and Culture in 1950; issues which came to light after Cappon's index are NOT included

Browse the Virginia Gazette:

Accessible Archives

America's Historical Newspapers

Google News Archive