LibGuides: Primary Sources for Historical Research: Historical News Sources

Historical News Sources: United States

These sources provide indexing and/or access to newspapers and magazines before 1980.

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Provides full text, searchable access to important American magazines and newspapers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Provides full text, searchable access to:

• African-American Newspapers, Parts I-XII
   ⚬ The Christian Recorder (1861–1902)
   ⚬ The Colored American (1837–1841)
   ⚬ Frederick Douglass’ Paper (1851–1855; 1859–1863)
   ⚬ Freedom’s Journal (1827–1829)
   ⚬ The National Era (1847–1860)
   ⚬ The North Star (1847–1851)
   ⚬ Provincial Freeman (1854–1857)
   ⚬ Weekly Advocate (1837–1837)
• Civil War, Parts I-IV
• Godey's Lady's Book, 1830-1898
• The Liberator, Parts I & II, 1831-1840
• The Lily, 1849-1856
• The Pennsylvania Gazette, Parts I-IV, 1728-1800
• Virginia Gazette
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1998 This link opens in a new window
1690-1998. Searchable digital facsimiles of thousands of titles from all 50 states. Alternate title: Early American Newspapers.
Archive of Americana This link opens in a new window
Includes: America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922; America's Historical Imprints; Afro-Americana Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1535-1922; African American Newspapers, 1827-1998; African American Periodicals, 1825-1995; Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, periodicals, historical newspapers, and more.

Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and much more. At the heart of Black Studies Center is Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, consisting of essays that provide an introduction to major topics in Black Studies. Black Studies Center provides the historical full-text of one of the most influential black newspapers in the United States, The Chicago Defender, as well as the Michigan Chronicle (1936-2010).

Keyword(s): United States
Brooklyn Newsstand This link opens in a new window
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1955), Brooklyn Life (1890-1924), Brooklyn Life & Activities of Long Island Society (1924-1931), fully searchable.
California Digital Newspaper Collection This link opens in a new window
A freely accessible repository of digitized California newspapers from 1846 to the present.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Digitized historic American newspapers published from 1836-1922 produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program.
Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama This link opens in a new window
Collection of Confederate Newspapers published from 1861 to 1865.
Farm, Field, and Fireside: Agricultural Newspaper Collection This link opens in a new window
Agricultural newspapers and periodicals from 1841 to 2010, mostly early 20th century.
Gale Historical Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Provides cross-searching of 18 different British and American historical newspapers and periodical archive collections, ranging from the 18th century until a few years ago.
Includes these newspapers and collections of newspapers, which can also be searched separately:
- 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
- 19th Century UK Periodicals Digital Archive
- British Library Newspapers, 1732-1950
- Daily Mail Historical Archive
- Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2013
- Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive (1842-2003)
- Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
- International Herald Tribune Historical Archive 1887-2013
- Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950
- Listener Historical Archive 1929-1991
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
- Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957
- Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992
- Sunday Times Digital Archive, 1822-2006
- Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2012
- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Custom ProQuest cross-search of full-text backfiles of 20 United States and 4 international English-language newspapers. Click "More" for individual titles.
Includes:
- Arizona Republican (1890-1922)
- Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984)
- Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003)‎ *
- Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) *
- Baltimore Sun (1837-1996)
- Chicago Defender (1909-1975) *
- Chicago Tribune (1849-2012)
- Christian Science Monitor (1908-2008)
- Cincinnati Enquirer‎ (1841-2009)
- Cleveland Call and Post‎ (1934-1991) *
- Dayton Daily News‎ (1898-1922)
- Detroit Free Press (1831-1922)‎
- The Guardian (1821-2003) & The Observer (1791-2003)‎
- Indianapolis Star (1903-2004)
- Jerusalem Post (1932-2008)‎
- Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005) *
- Los Angeles Times (1881-2013)
- Louisville Courier Journal‎ (1830-1922)
- Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010) *
- Nashville Tennessean‎ (1812-1922)
- New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993) *
- New York Times (1851-2018)‎
- Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003)
- Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001)
- Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002) *
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003)
- South China Morning Post‎ (1903-2001)
- St. Petersburg Times / Tampa Bay Times (1901-2009)
- U.S. Midwest Collection (various years of coverage)
- Wall Street Journal (1889-2004)‎
- Washington Post (1877-2005)‎
- Windsor Star (1893-2010)
All the newspapers can be searched individually or in combinations in this database. They are listed separately in the A-Z list as "Historical Newspapers: Title." Newspapers noted with * are also searchable in the database Black Historical Newspapers.
Readers' Guide: Full Text Mega and Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
1890-present. General, historical events, business, humanities, science, social science.
Includes two collections:
- Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega™ includes indexing of over 450 periodicals as far back as 1983 and searchable full text of articles from over 250 journals as far back as 1994. Subject coverage includes antiques, arts, business, computers, education, entertainment, film & television, gardening, health & medicine, history, home improvement, literature, news & current events, photography, popular & classical music, politics, popular culture, religion, science, sports & fitness, transportation, travel and much more.
- Readers’ Guide Retrospective™: 1890-1982 provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™. This important resource offers a wide range of researchers access to information about history, culture and seminal developments across nearly a century.
(Descriptions from the publisher.)

Historical News Sources: Great Britain & Other Countries

These sources provide indexing and/or access to newspapers and magazines before 1980.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Foreign Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Newspapers from Great Britain, Israel, France, China, and Canada. They can be searched together or separately.
Includes these titles:
- The Guardian and The Observer (1791 - 2003)
- The Jerusalem Post (1932 - 2008)
- Le Monde (1944 - 2000)
- South China Morning Post (1903 - 2001)
- Montreal Gazette (1785 - 2010)
- Vancouver Sun (1912 - 2010)
- Windsor Star (1893 - 2010)
Gale Historical Newspapers (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Provides cross-searching of 18 different British and American historical newspapers and periodical archive collections, ranging from the 18th century until a few years ago.
Includes these newspapers and collections of newspapers, which can also be searched separately:
- 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
- 19th Century UK Periodicals Digital Archive
- British Library Newspapers, 1732-1950
- Daily Mail Historical Archive
- Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2013
- Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive (1842-2003)
- Independent Historical Archive, 1986-2016
- International Herald Tribune Historical Archive 1887-2013
- Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950
- Listener Historical Archive 1929-1991
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
- Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957
- Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992
- Sunday Times Digital Archive, 1822-2006
- Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2016
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2012
- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive