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Community History Archives

Community History Archive Partner

Fort Smith Public Library

Fort Smith, Arkansas

Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Fort Smith.

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43Titles

Explore publications and collections from the past.

1848 to 2026Dates represented

See individual titles for available dates.

2,025,764Archive pages

Historical pages reported for this collection.

Explore local history

Discover the people, places, and stories of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Discover another side of Fort Smith, Arkansas through newspapers preserved in the Fort Smith Public Library's digital archive. Its forty-three titles include material from 1848 to 2026.

You can open the archive using the link below.
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  • Selected titles

    In the collection shared by Fort Smith Public Library, you will find “Arkansas Developer” and “Wheelers Western Independent”.

  • Free and open access

    No subscription or payment required.

  • A closer look

    A familiar name or event takes on another dimension in the newspaper coverage of its time, alongside the stories that mattered to the readers of that issue.

The reporting of earlier years offers a way to explore how events were understood as they happened and how local experiences became part of the historical record. A family story, a classroom project or curiosity about a familiar place can lead to a closer look at the community and the lives of earlier generations. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.

Explore the collection

Titles in this collection

Browse forty-three titles and 2,025,764 digitized pages, with material from 1848 to 2026. Through a partnership with Advantage Archives, Fort Smith Public Library shares these sources from the past. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.

If you are tracing a family connection or exploring local history, the titles below offer a place to begin and a thread to follow.

Arkansas Developer

8 pages in 1894

Belle Grove School Journal

16 pages in 1872

Daily News Record

548 pages from 1894 to 1895

Daily Southwest American

16 pages in 1911

Entertainment Fort Smith

14,220 pages from 2013 to 2022

Evening Call

288 pages in 1891

Fort Smith Bulletin

40 pages in 1862

Fort Smith Daily Herald

2,736 pages from 1877 to 1879

Fort Smith Daily Time and Herald

444 pages in 1861

Fort Smith Elevator

18,168 pages from 1878 to 1909

Fort Smith Enterprise

8 pages in 1895

Fort Smith Herald

3,680 pages from 1848 to 1881

Fort Smith Herald and New Elevator

2,418 pages from 1912 to 1915

Fort Smith New Era

1,318 pages from 1863 to 1870

Fort Smith News Record

50,658 pages from 1896 to 1907

Fort Smith Southwest American

19,762 pages from 1908 to 1911

Fort Smith Standard

8 pages in 1867

Fort Smith Times Record

17,328 pages from 1924 to 1968

Fort Smith Tri Weekly Bulletin

52 pages in 1862

Fort Smith Tri Weekly Herald

402 pages from 1865 to 1866

Fort Smith Weekly Herald

2,854 pages from 1867 to 1879

Fort Smith Weekly New Era

1,684 pages from 1865 to 1874

Fortnightly Club Papers

9,030 pages in 1888

New Southwest Times Record

20,176 pages from 2023 to 2024

News Record

56 pages in 1894

Ouachita Conference Journal

8 pages in 1863

South West Independent

4 pages in 1854

Southwest American

578,672 pages from 1908 to 1969

Southwest American

2,502 pages in 1969

Southwest American And Fort Smith Times Record

2,628 pages from 1943 to 1969

Southwest Times Record

104,238 pages from 1969 to 1973

Southwest Times Record

972,682 pages from 1923 to 2025

Sun

24 pages in 1898

The Lincoln Echo

7,498 pages from 1993 to 2018

Thirty Fifth Parallel

36 pages from 1860 to 1861

Times Record

184,380 pages from 2013 to 2026

Tri Weekly Fort Smith Herald

1,578 pages from 1870 to 1872

War Times

8 pages in 1863

Weekly New Era

1,796 pages from 1880 to 1884

Western Independent

972 pages from 1872 to 1877

Wheelers Daily Independent

8 pages in 1879

Wheelers Independent

2,232 pages from 1878 to 1883

Wheelers Western Independent

580 pages in 1878

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More ways to explore and share local history

Research Guidance

Look for the story behind a result

The history of Fort Smith includes individual lives as well as events remembered by the wider community. In the digital archive shared by the Fort Smith Public Library, begin with a name, place or date connected with the story you want to explore. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Search a person, place, or event with a second term, then compare the date and context of each result. A repeated name needs more evidence before it identifies the same person or connects two parts of a story.

After recording the issue and page, search a second term tied to the result and compare the surrounding dates and accounts. Keep matching names provisional until the place and context fit. This can turn one result into a better question without turning a repeated name into a confirmed story.

Capture the title, date, and page or item location for a detail you may want to revisit. Label your interpretation as your reading, not the source's own words. Keep enough context with the note that another reader can retrace it.

Review collection titles

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Community Partnership

Keeping local history a community resource

This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Fort Smith Public Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.

Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.

Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.

Learn about partnerships
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Read All About It

Stories, research tips, and archive news

Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.

Newest published articles

March 18, 2025

It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?

We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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