Project to put old newspapers online

South Carolinians will soon find it easier to read newspaper accounts about the start of the Civil War, discriminatory Jim Crow laws and Gov. Benjamin Tillman's South Carolina Dispensary, which was once the only entity legally authorized to sell alcohol in the state.

The University of South Carolina's S.C. Digital Newspaper Project will make available online newspapers published throughout the state from 1860 to 1922.

The University Libraries landed a two-year $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities last spring to launch the project, said Kate Boyd, digital collections librarian. It will use the money to scan 100,000 pages of selected South Carolina newspapers and make them available through the Library of Congress' Chronicling America database.

The first phase of the project will be ready in time for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 2011, Boyd said.

An advisory board for the South Carolina project will select 15 to 18 newspapers with which to launch the project within the next week, Boyd said. The university plans to chose papers from different parts of the state. And, it will select publications geared to a variety of audiences including the state's African American community.

The university plans to expand the project over time to include more newspapers, and to create a site for South Carolina newspapers separate from the Library of Congress site.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.