Research Guides: History: Primary Sources: Newspaper Databases (U.S.)

Historical Newspaper Research Guide

Historical Newspaper Research Guide
This guide includes more information on doing historical newspaper research. Includes video tutorials.

Library Databases

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This database offers full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 19th century. For most titles, the collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files. Current access includes: The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984); The Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003); The Baltimore Sun (1837-1991); The Chicago Defender (1909-1975); Chicago Tribune (1849-1993); Chinese Newspapers Collection‎ (1832-1953); The Christian Science Monitor (1908-2003); Hartford Courant‎ (1764-1922); Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005); Los Angeles Times‎ (1881-1993); Louisville Courier Journal (1830-1922); New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993); The New York Times (1851-2013); Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003); Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002); San Francisco Chronicle‎ (1865-1922); The Scotsman (1817-1950); St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922); The Wall Street Journal (1889-1999); and The Washington Post (1877-2000).
Newspapers.com – World Collection This link opens in a new window
Newspapers.com Library Edition offers full page newspaper images with searchable full-text of newspapers. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to both full runs and portions of runs of newspapers.
Early American Newspapers, 1690-1876 This link opens in a new window
Digitized versions of early American Newspapers from The American Antiquarian Society, private collections and The Library of Congress, Brown, Harvard, et al. Based on the microfilm collection of the same name.

Access requires on-campus authentication.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This collections features publications of all kinds, from political party newspapers to dailies and includes major newspapers as well as those published by African Americans, Native Americans, labor groups and other groups and interests. Also included in the collection are illustrated papers from a variety of artists.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5 This link opens in a new window
This collection of historical periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society documents life in America from the Colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Cover-to-cover digitizing gives access not only to the main text, but also to advertisements, illustrations, obituaries, cover art, and more.
African American Newspapers (1827-1998) This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the full text of historically significant African American newspapers, published in 36 states.

Access requires on-campus authentication.
Associated Press Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Associated Press Collections Online makes the varied resources of the Associated Press Corporate Archives, AP Images, and AP Archive available in an online platform. Exploring the history and back story of the Associated Press, and offers decades' worth of wire copy, correspondence, memos, internal publications, and more. The collection includes 1) News Features & Internal Communications; and 2) Washington, D.C. Bureau Collection.
American Periodicals Series (Collection I) This link opens in a new window
This collection includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles range from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's.
Accessible Archives Complete This link opens in a new window
Primary source material from 18th and 19th Century periodicals. Included in the collection is Godey's Lady's Book, The Civil War: A Soldier's Perspective, African American newspapers, American county histories and various other newspapers, gazettes and collections.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to periodicals by and about African Americans. Representing 26 states, the publications offer a range of material, including academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations’ bulletins, annual reports and other genres.

Access requires on-campus authentication.
Nation Archive This link opens in a new window
The Nation offers a 135-year archive of reporting opinion and criticism. It includes primary source material covering the history of politics, culture, books and the arts - in America and around the world. The Nation Digital Archive is a fully searchable electronic version of the magazine's complete backfile.
America's News This link opens in a new window
This collection of U.S. news from local, regional, and national sources offers print and online newspapers, blogs, journals, newswires, broadcast transcripts, and videos. Included are news sources from various Alabama counties.

Access requires on-campus authentication.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1998 This link opens in a new window
Hispanic American Newspapers is fully searchable, full-text compilation of Spanish-language or Spanish-English bilingual newspapers printed in the U.S.

Access requires on-campus authentication.
Alt-PressWatch This link opens in a new window
Provides news source coverage, viewpoints and perspectives to complement and challenge the mainstream media.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text database of newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Included is coverage of issues both in the U.S. and abroad, including Ireland, Israel and the Middle East, Mexico, Bosnia, Armenia, China, Nigeria, and the Ukraine, among other countries. This collection of articles, editorials, columns, reviews, etc. attempts to provide alternative viewpoints on current issues. Updated monthly.

Freely Available Databases

This is just a sampling of the freely available newspapers out there. There are many more similar collections available online.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
A range of newspapers published in late 1800s and early 1900s.
Georgia Historic Newspapers
A searchable and free collection of historical newspapers from Georgia.
Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press
Includes "historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s."
Google News Archive
Google News Archive is an extension of Google News that provides free access to scanned archives of newspapers and links to other newspaper archives on the web, both free and paid. Some of the news archives date back to 1700s
California Digital Newspaper Collection
This collection contains 397,173 issues comprising 4,758,497 pages and 30,071,893 articles.
Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection
A service of the Colorado State Library, the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) currently includes more than 1,400,000 digitized pages, representing more than 335 individual newspaper titles published in Colorado primarily from 1859 up to 1924.
Florida Digital Newspaper Library
All of the over 2.6 million pages of historic through current Florida newspapers in the Florida Digital Newspaper Library are openly and freely available with zoomable page images and full text.

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Historical Newspaper Research Guide

Library Databases

Freely Available Databases

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