The pages of a newspaper preserve the flavor of a time as no other chronicle can. Along with reports of key historical events, one can find smaller, though no less important items in newspapers: vital statistics (records of births, marriages and deaths which function as substitutes for missing civil or religious registrations); biographical sketches; legal notices; public announcements; advertisements; immigration, migration, and shipping information. This is history captured as it happened. Digitized newspapers combine the look and feel of newspapers in print, the deep archive of newspapers on microfilm and the searchability and browsability of newspaper article databases.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers™ is designed to be the definitive digital archive of leading newspapers in North America. The database consists of:
New York Times (1851-2003)
The Times of London (1785 – 1985) (aka “Palmers Full Text Online” )
Wall Street Journal (1889-1987)
Washington Post (1877-1988)
Los Angeles Times (1881-1984)
Chicago Tribune (1849- forward)
This database offers full-text and full-image articles for these papers dating back to their first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in PDF files.
Search Methods: Keyword subject, author, article title, journal title, and other access points.
Article Types: front page, article, obituary/death notices, birth announcements, comics, letters to editor, weddings/engagements, display ad, classified ads, losses by fire, real-estate transfers, comics, editorials/opinions, stock quotations
How to Access ProQuest:
ProQuest is available as a paid service, with remote access, through private organizations, or free, on site, at most large public and university libraries. Many libraries offer the password option to card-holders so remote access from your home computer is possible.
Private Libraries – whose yearly membership will provide remote access to ProQuest—various (but not all) historical newspapers databases—check with each one for particulars:
Godfrey Memorial Library - $35 http://www.Godfrey.org
N. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Society - $60 http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/
The New York Public Library offers remote Proquest access to library card holders: free to New York City residents, $100 per year to out-of-state subscribers. Their subscription, however, includes all the major historical papers, including the Times of London. (Free on-site access available.) http://www.nypl.org/databases/ or http://www.nypl.org/books/cards.html
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle : an excellent (free) NYC online resource:
-digital version from 1841-1902 at http://brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/)
NYC Microfilmed Newspapers:
(Available at the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library)
-Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1891-1900
-New York Evening Post 1873, 1875, 1876 (incomplete), 1877, 1880, 1884, 1886-1903, 1905-1921
-New York Times 1851 - present (see also Personal Name Index to the New York Times Index, 1851-1989)
-New York Tribune 1875-1906 (In print and on microfilm. Print copy lacks 1879, 1894 and 1900.)
-New York World 1885-1890, 1892
How to find U.S. Regional Newspapers available online or on microfilm in libraries:
Do a “google” search on your town or newspaper to see what access is offered and for what years. (Remember that full-text or indexing and abstracting electronic resources provide access to a wide range of newspapers, but often cover only more recent materials.) For historical articles you may need to consult microfilm or print indexes. Check with your local library to see what U.S. newspapers it has. (Films can usually be borrowed on inter-library loan.) Another option is phoning an out-of-town library to see if they will research newspaper microfilms for you and copy articles for a reasonable fee. (Usually not indexed, so you must provide detailed info.)
Some newspaper offices have "morgues" of back issues. Check public or academic libraries and genealogical or historical societies in localities of interest. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Library of Congress also have large collections.
Ancestry.com – “Ancestry's Historical Newspaper subscription enables you to read history
as it was happening in more than six million pages from more than 400 different newspapers across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada dating from 1786 to the late 1900s.”
Paid subscription service—but may be available at various library/FHC computers:
http://www.ancestry.com/landing/historicnewspapers/newstoyou.htm
http://www.ancestry.com/landing/multisubs/products/newspaper_offer3.html
The United States Newspaper Program involves the federal government and all states to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm those newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. The site links to all state projects.
http://www.huc.edu/libraries/losangeles/ Ph: 213-749-3424
The Frances-Henry Library has an extensive collection of these periodicals, in both English and Hebrew, from throughout the United States.
Additional Newspaper Resources Online: (there are many others!)
Colorado Digitizing Program: http://www.cdpheritage.org/newspapers/
The British Library Online Newspaper Archive: http://www.uk.olivesoftware.com/
http://www.bl.uk/collections/britishnewspapers1800to1900.html
For information about and links to many newspaper archives, see:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson20.htm
Article of interest:
“A Guide to Newspaper Research” at The New-York Historical Society Library
http://www.nyhistory.org/library/resnews.html
And this just in: According to recent reports the U.S. government promises that within a few years anyone with a computer will be able to see and search millions of newspaper pages dating from 1836 to 1922. The first images should be ready by 2006.