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News from Elgin's past is now more readily available.
Elgin Courier editions spanning back to 1936 can be viewed at The Portal to Texas History, a University of North Texas Libraries website. The Courier and Elgin's municipal government collaborated on making the editions available through the UNT project.
“Thanks to a grant from the Tocker Foundation in 2022,” said Amy Miller, city community services director, “four decades of the Elgin Courier's newspapers have been digitized and made available online for anyone around the world to view.”
As part of an Elgin Sesquicentennial project, newspaper and city staff's goal was to make past Couriers accessible beyond the newspaper office during normal business hours. The Elgin Public Library worked with the Tocker Foundation and UNT on the digitization and adding the editions to The Portal to Texas History.
Of the 86 years from 1936 to 2022, editions from 30 calendar years are available at The Portal to Texas History. More than 1,470 editions can be viewed at the website.
The online portal makes the papers available 24/7 on the internet. Residents without computer access at home can access The Portal to Texas History from the Elgin Public Library, 404 N. Main St. in Elgin. Business hours are 9 a.m. through 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, through 6 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and through 2 p.m. Saturday.
Original newspapers are in preservation boxes to extend longetivity. Some past editions have aged to the point where casual perusals are no longer possible, but pages in better condition can be reviewed at the newspaper office at 105 N. Main St. in downtown Elgin.
For more information and to access past editions, visit https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/elgin.
