The Sumter Item's historical archives are available online

When Sumter saw its first automobiles in the early 1900s, The Sumter Item reported on several residents' attempts to climb the courthouse steps in their new vehicles. After several accidents, city leaders enacted safety measures and speed limits.

In 1960, Sumter native and Yankees legend Bobby Richardson became the first and still only player to be named MVP of the World Series from the losing team.

A tornado struck Sumter along its 135-mile path in April 1924, destroying buildings and burying people in rubble as it carved a path that looked like "a forest after an artillery barrage."

These and countless other events from Sumter's recent and long-ago history are now available in a digitized, searchable online database at Newspapers.com. The Sumter Item joined the largest online newspaper archive as a content provider, its 125 years of news coverage to the 615 million-plus pages of historical newspapers from more than 19,600 newspapers across the United States and beyond.

By going to www.theitem.com/archives, archives date back to 1881 when The Watchman and Southron covered the area and to 1894 when The Sumter Daily Item was founded in the same offices by Noah Graham Osteen, whose father became owner of The Watchman and Southron in 1881.

As the news and the world has changed through the decades and centuries, The Sumter Item, the state's oldest continuously family owned paper and one of the oldest in the country, has been there to record history. Newspapers.com is great for historians, genealogists, family historians, researchers, teachers and students. If you have ancestors from Sumter, search the pages of this archive for things like death notices or wedding announcements. The society columns are another place to search for colorful details about your family.

"The Item has some of the most complete archives I've ever seen at any newspaper, thanks primarily to archivist Sammy Way and generations of the Osteen family," Publisher Vince Johnson said. "This new tool gives Sumter an endless, searchable guide through the area's history. I'm excited to see what community members find, clip and share with others."

Whether it's family records, sports, comics, historic events or seeing how The Sumter Item wrote headlines to announce prohibition or the attack on Pearl Harbor, the archives' high-quality digital images and powerful viewer are easy to search, print, save and share.

Currently, the archives end at 2017, which is when our regular e-edition begins on our website.

The Sumter Item's historic archives are accessible with a monthly subscription for $4.95 or a semiannual subscription for $19.95. Other options, such as Newspapers.com's Publisher Extra subscription, are available to view additional titles on the site. For those who are interested in this, a free seven-day trial is available.

Go to www.theitem.com/archives to sign up now.