13Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Wilton Public Library
Wilton, Iowa
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Wilton.
1867 to 2025Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
172,026Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Wilton, Iowa.
Explore the past of Wilton, Iowa through newspapers in the Wilton Public Library's digital archive. Its thirteen titles include material from 1867 to 2025.
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Selected titles
The collection from Wilton Public Library includes “Advocate News” and “Wilton Review”.
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Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
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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.
Reporting from the time can reveal how people described the events, work and concerns of their day, placing a local story within the history unfolding around it. Whether you are tracing a family connection, exploring a local event or sharing history with a class, there is more to discover than names and dates alone. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.
Explore the collection
Titles in this collection
Browse thirteen titles and 172,026 digitized pages, with material from 1867 to 2025. This collection is shared through Wilton Public Library's partnership with Advantage Archives. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Explore the titles below for a closer look at the places, people and everyday life of earlier generations.
Advocate News
14,872 pages from 1970 to 1982
Muscatine Journal
60 pages in 1976
The Durant News
8,008 pages from 1962 to 1970
The New Advocate News
4,042 pages from 1980 to 1982
The Wilton Advocate
30,102 pages from 1921 to 1970
The Wilton Advocate and Durant News
248 pages from 1965 to 1966
The Wilton Advocate And Review
5,548 pages from 1912 to 1921
The Wilton Chronicle
530 pages from 1867 to 1874
Wilton Daily Herald
10 pages from 1874 to 1901
Wilton Durant Advocate News
103,124 pages from 1982 to 2025
Wilton Exponent
672 pages from 1874 to 1876
Wilton Herald
658 pages from 1874 to 1876
Wilton Review
4,152 pages from 1876 to 1885
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About the Library
About The Wilton Public Library
The Wilton Public Library serves the community with a broad range of media, programs, and technologies to encourage life-long learning, satisfy curiosity, and stimulate imagination. The Library promotes community through opportunities to gather, create, and discuss. With a mission to provide a welcoming space for learning, engagement, and community connection, the Wilton Public Library is dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of its patrons.
Library History
The History Of The Wilton Public Library
The Wilton Public Library has a rich history of serving the local community, evolving with the times to meet the needs of its patrons. The library has expanded its services over the years to include a variety of programs and technological resources, ensuring that it remains a vital and relevant institution in the community. This commitment to progress and accessibility has helped the library preserve the past while looking toward the future.
About the Community
About The City of Wilton
Wilton, Iowa, located in Muscatine County, is a small town with a rich historical heritage. Known for its strong community spirit and agricultural roots, Wilton has a vibrant history reflected in its local landmarks and events. The Wilton Public Library plays a crucial role in preserving this history, offering residents access to a wealth of local historical resources that document the town's growth and development over the years.
Local History
Did You Know?
Did you know that the Wilton Public Library's digital archives include rare editions of local newspapers, such as The Wilton Chronicle from 1867-1874 and Wilton Daily Herald from 1874-1901? Additionally, the library's collection features unique resources like the Muscatine Journal from 1976 and The Wilton Advocate and Durant News from 1965-1966. These resources provide a fascinating glimpse into the past, capturing the history and growth of the Wilton community over the years.
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Trace a name across nearby issues
A family name, a familiar street or a story passed down through generations can lead to a closer look at the history of Wilton. The digital archive shared by the Wilton Public Library offers a place to begin. 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.
If a name does not appear, try an alternate spelling or a related term, then read around any match. Note the issue date and page so a result stays connected to its context. Use those details to follow a story without treating one search result as a complete answer.
Build a trail through the past that someone else can follow: record the title, date, page or item reference, and a link when available. Keep historical quotations distinct from your own interpretation. If accounts disagree, note what each source supports before deciding how the details fit together in a family or community story.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Wilton 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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