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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
After years of serving as territories, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington all join the Union as new states in November 1889. Congress agreed to split the Dakota territory into two new states and allowed Montana and Washington territories to become their own states. Less than a year later, the Idaho territory followed, gaining statehood in July 1890. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| November 2, 1889 | North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states. |
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| November 8, 1889 | Montana is admitted to the Union as the 41st state. |
| November 11, 1889 | Washington is admitted to the Union as the 42nd state. |
| July 3, 1890 | Idaho becomes the 43rd state to enter the Union. |
