Simpson Library owns many old Fredericksburg newspapers on microfilm. The complete list is below. "Microfilm" refers to reels of film that contain microscopic images of documents. To read microfilm, you load it into a machine called a microfilm reader, which uses a microscope to expand the documents to readable size. Simpson Library provides microfilm readers that can create PDF scans of microfilmed articles.

The library owns printed indexes for many of these newspapers. These indexes are shelved with the books in the Reference section, and are marked below with a blue book icon.

The UMW Department of Historic Preservation has created a combined online index for all newspapers published in Fredericksburg between 1787 and 1928. Use this index to find the date of an article, and then use the microfilm to read the full text.