Abstract: The dynamic stability of simple supported viscoelastic column, subjected to a periodic axial force, is investigated. The viscoelastic material was assumed to obey the fractional derivative constitutive relation. The governing equation of motion was derived as a weakly singular Volterra integro-partial-differential equation, and it was simplified into a weakly singular Volterra integro-ordinary-differential equation by the Galerkin method. In terms of the averaging method, the dynamical stability was analyzed. A new numerical method is proposed to avoid storing all history data. Numerical examples are presented and the numerical results agree with the analytical ones.