20Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Le Mars Public Library
Lemars, Iowa
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Lemars.
1876 to 2025Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
771,616Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Lemars, Iowa.
Discover another side of Lemars, Iowa through newspapers preserved in the Le Mars Public Library's digital archive. Its twenty titles include material from 1876 to 2025.
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Selected titles
The titles shared by Le Mars Public Library include “Daily Sentinel” and “Le Mars Weekly Sun”.
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Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
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A closer look
Newspaper pages connect individual accounts with a wider story, preserving how events were reported and presented to the readers of the day.
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 twenty titles and 771,616 digitized pages, with material from 1876 to 2025. Through a partnership with Advantage Archives, Le Mars Public Library shares these sources from the past. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Every search for the past starts with a question. Explore the titles below, follow the sources that speak to it, and see what new detail appears.
Daily Sentinel
49,274 pages from 2005 to 2009
Daily Sentinel
3,164 pages in 2021
Evening Sentinel
2,170 pages in 1885
Floyd Valley Farmers News
2,014 pages from 1954 to 1957
Floyd Valley News
4,240 pages from 1962 to 1964
Iowa Liberal
3,212 pages from 1876 to 1882
Le Mars Daily Liberal
2,940 pages from 1881 to 1882
Le Mars Daily Liberal Globe - Post
8 pages in 1969
Le Mars Daily Sentinel
436,690 pages from 1884 to 2025
Le Mars Daily Sentinel
Page count not currently available dates not yet available
Le Mars Globe - Post
153,824 pages from 1891 to 1969
Le Mars Leader
28 pages in 1887
Le Mars Semi - Weekly Globe
2,086 pages from 1887 to 1891
Le Mars Semi - Weekly Post
2,816 pages from 1899 to 1902
Le Mars Semi - Weekly Sentinel
79,394 pages from 1885 to 1952
Le Mars Sentinel
11,376 pages from 1876 to 1969
Le Mars Sun
812 pages from 1889 to 1890
Le Mars Weekly Sentinel
2,648 pages from 1883 to 1955
Le Mars Weekly Sun
1,272 pages from 1890 to 1892
LeMars Daily Sentinel
13,648 pages from 1985 to 2001
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About the Library
About The Le Mars Public Library
The Le Mars Public Library, located in Le Mars, Iowa, has served as a vital hub of knowledge, learning, and community engagement. Originally built in 1903 with funds from industrialist-financier Andrew Carnegie, the library was dedicated in 1904 and housed 3,885 books. The library remained in the Carnegie building until August 1976, when it moved to a remodeled Red Owl supermarket purchased by the city in July 1973. The library building, located at 46 1st Street Southwest, occupies 7,694 square feet and was remodeled in 2017. The library is open for service daily, providing resources to the residents of Le Mars, rural Plymouth County, and the surrounding area. As an administrative agency of the City of Le Mars, the library is governed by the Library Board of Trustees.
Library History
The History Of The Le Mars Public Library
The original Le Mars Public Library was built in 1903 with funds from Andrew Carnegie and dedicated in 1904, housing 3,885 books. The library remained in the Carnegie building until 1976 when it moved to a remodeled Red Owl supermarket at 46 1st Street Southwest. The new building, purchased by the city in 1973, offered 7,694 square feet of space and was remodeled in 2017. The library has continually adapted to meet the needs of its patrons, expanding its collection and services over the years. Today, it serves as a crucial resource for the community, providing access to a vast array of educational and cultural materials.
About the Community
About Le Mars, Iowa
Le Mars, located in Plymouth County, Iowa, is a vibrant town known for its strong community spirit and rich history. Established in the late 19th century, Le Mars has grown into a thriving community with a robust local economy and a commitment to preserving its heritage. The town is famous for being the "Ice Cream Capital of the World," home to Wells Enterprises, makers of Blue Bunny ice cream. Le Mars boasts a friendly atmosphere, historic buildings, and annual events that celebrate its history and community spirit. The Le Mars Public Library plays a significant role in preserving and sharing the town's history through its extensive archives.
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Keep publication context with a finding
The history of Lemars includes individual lives as well as events remembered by the wider community. In the digital archive shared by the Le Mars 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. Note the newspaper title, issue date, and page for a useful report. Compare another account where available, and keep differences in timing or perspective visible rather than blending them into a single version.
Save the newspaper title, issue date, and page, then compare another dated account where available. Keep differences in timing and perspective visible so the source context is not lost. If the accounts disagree, record what each source supports and use the difference to shape a further search rather than smoothing them into one version.
A research trail is most useful when it leaves room for what is not yet known. Record the title, date, and page or item reference where available, along with what remains uncertain and which question you want to follow next. Those details help keep a possible connection from becoming an unsupported conclusion.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Le Mars 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
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.
May 7, 2025
Why Microfilm is still important in 2023
Preserving documents on microfilm has been a popular method of storage for many years, and it still holds many benefits today. Here…
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May 7, 2025
Don’t Search For An Obituary By Only Searching For An “Obituary”
In the quest to trace our roots and understand our heritage, obituaries often serve as a crucial starting point. Obituaries are undoubtedly…
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April 9, 2025
Unveiling the Hidden Mysteries: Exploring Cold Cases and Unconventional Clues
Even the most esteemed police forces in the county encounter perplexing cold case files. These unsolved mysteries often leave investigators and genealogists…
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April 1, 2025
This Week in History: March 31st through April 6th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. This week in history, there is absolutely nothing to talk about… April Fools! April…
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March 24, 2025
This Week in History: March 24th through March 30th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. It has officially been a year since I started writing This Week in History,…
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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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