Liaison Librarian
What are Historical Newspapers?
Newspapers are published daily or weekly and reveal unique perspectives of historical events. Because they are published so quickly after an event, many refer to these sources as a “first draft of history.” The value of historical newspapers is that they provide a viewpoint that may have been edited out of history books. These articles are often referred to as primary documents, the words (or images) of someone that witnessed an event.
Such firsthand accounts may provide a useful source for many issues and can add depth to an assignment. For this reason, the library subscribes to several databases of historical newspapers and historical societies across the US digitized smaller regional newspapers. The list below highlights some of these sources available through the library and on the internet.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowHistorical Newspapers provides full text scans of American newspapers from the 19th and 20th century. The collection includes The New York Times (1851-2018), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), The Washington Post (1877-2005), The Los Angeles Times (1881-2013), and The St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-2003). Black Newspapers is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th Century. The full text of the articles can be searched by keyword, and options to search documents types such as ads or marriage announcements are available.
- New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new windowNew York Times full text, full image from for 1851-2009.
- The Times Digital Archive (London) This link opens in a new windowDigitally reproduced full-text articles and images from the London Times dating back to 1785 and current through 5-6 years ago.
Many States have digitized local newspapers of historical significance. A representative selection are listed below:
-California Digital Newspaper Collection
-Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection
-Missouri Digital Newspaper Project:
-Historical Nebraska Newspapers