Michelle Baildon Librarian for History and History of Science & Technology baildon@mit.edu
Newspapers are valuable primary sources for historical research, both for the narrative and description of the past that they provide, as well as for the insight they give to attitudes and culture of the time.
The MIT Libraries subscribe to several databases with online digitized newspapers and also hold some newspapers in microfilm going back many decades. This guide describes MIT's holdings and the holdings of other nearby libraries; lists some freely available, reputable web sites that offer newspaper content; and also describes how to locate "analog" historical newspapers (usually in microfilm) held by libraries and other repositories.
Ethnic NewsWatch (1990-present) http://libraries.mit.edu/get/ethnic Full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and Native press.
Factiva http://libraries.mit.edu/get/factiva Newspapers and newswires worldwide.
LexisNexis Academic http://libraries.mit.edu/get/lexis-nexis Includes over 1400 newspapers from around the world. Click "sources" to see a list of titles and coverage (some go as far back as the 1970s). Also includes AP newswire back to 1977.
Any resident of Massachusetts is eligible to use the online resources for which the BPL has subscriptions. You can log in with your BPL card number, or if you don't have a library card, you can sign up for a BPL eCard and use it right away.
America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1922) This collection includes "Early American Newspapers, Series I, II & III" and features cover-to-cover fully text-searchable facsimile images of over 1,000 historical newspapers from all 50 states, enabling researchers to explore virtually every aspect of America during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
Proquest Massachusetts Newsstand
The Tech (1882- )
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1902) Developed by the Brooklyn Public Library.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This site allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection
Cornell Daily Sun (1880- ) Cornell University's student newspaper.
Freedom’s Journal The first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States, published weekly in New York City, 1827-1829.
Georgia Historic Newspapers From the Digital Library of Georgia. Includes the Cherokee Phoenix, the Dublin Post, and the Colored Tribune.
Harvard Crimson Online Archives (1873- )
Hawaiian Newspapers (mid-19th-early 20th c.) In the Hawaiian language.
Historic Missouri Newspaper Archive
Historical Newspapers in Washington
Northern New York Historical Newspapers
Occident and American Jewish Advocate COVERS: 1843 to 1850. The earliest American-Jewish newspaper in the United States.
Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers (1847-1871)
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project Currently includes The Jewish Criterion (1902-1962).
Quincy Historical Newspaper Archive (1835-1891) Includes Quincy Daily Herald,Quincy Daily, and Illinois Bounty Land Register.
Richmond Daily Dispatch (1860-1865)
Utah Digital Newspapers From the University of Utah.
Valley of the Shadow (1859-1870) Civil War-period Virginia newspapers.
Winona (Minn.) Newspaper Project
Alberta Newspaper Collection (Canada) Digitized microfilm of Canadian newspapers from 1885-2001. Not searchable, but can limit by city and date ranges.
Australian Periodical Publications 1845-1850 Digitized newspapers and magazines browseable by title and date or keyword searchable in the table of contents for journals. One title, the Colonial Literary Journal and Weekly Miscellany of Useful Information (6/1844-3/1845) has been fully digitized.
Hemeroteca Digital (Spain, 1772-1933) This database "consists of 143 titles which comprise 500.000 pages representing a wide variety of Spanish press of all types: political, satirical, technical, literary, sports, religious, etc., ranging from 1772 to 1933.
Niupepa: Maori Newspapers (English version) Digitized images or text of newspapers written for a Maori (New Zealand) audience from 1842-1932.
Papers Past (New Zealand) 19th Century New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. There is no search capability, but click on "Browse Publications" to see titles available and date ranges. When you click on a title, a calendar of available dates appears, click on the desired date to view articles available. Requires download of specific software to view the pages.
Tiden: Nordic Newspaper Digital Library Full text images of newspapers from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland from 18th through 20th centuries. Follow the 'Newspaper Archives' to links for each national collection. Note the Norwegian collection is NOT available in English and the Swedish collection requires an ID (user) and password (user).
With a Boston Library Consortium card, available at the front desks of MIT Libraries locations, you can visit and use, on-site, the online resources of other member libraries. Many of the BLC libraries in the area subscribe to online newspaper databases.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers [Brandeis] A collection of digital facsimile images from numerous newspapers encompassing the entire 19th century from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the United States; features full-page layout as well as single articles, and includes advertisements and illustrations.
Accessible Archives [Brandeis] A collection of databases containing primary newspaper records, including Godey's Ladys Book 1830-1880, The Pennsylvania Gazette 1728-1800, "The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective," and "African American Newspapers: The 19th Century."
African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century [Boston College, Brandeis] Complete full texts of major 19th century African-American newspapers.
American Periodicals Series [Boston College, Tufts] More than 1,100 historic American magazines, journals, and newspapers, 1740-early twentieth century
Chicago Defender (1910-1975) [Boston College, Wellesley] An influential African American newspaper with national readership.
Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective [Brandeis, Wellesley] Articles from New York Herald, Charleston Mercury & Richmond Enquirer (1860-1865) let you compare Union and Confederate views of the American Civil War.
Ethnic NewsWatch: A History (1960-1989) [Boston College, Brandeis, Tufts] A backfile that complements Ethnic NewsWatch (1990-present), which is held by MIT.
Irish Newspaper Archives [Boston College] Online archive of fourteen Irish national and regional newspapers. Coverage across titles is from 1763 to the present.
Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800) [Brandeis, Tufts] Published in Philadelphia from 1728 through 1800, the Pennsylvania Gazette is considered The New York Times of the 18th century.
Times (of London) Digital Archive (1785-1985) [Boston College, Tufts, Wellesley] Two hundred years of "the world's newspaper of record," the Times of London, is offered in searchable full text, including news articles, editorials, obituaries, and advertising. Either individual articles or entire pages can be viewed as facsimile images.
The Boston globe. Dewey Library - Microforms | No Call # | MFILM v.185 (1964)-v.226 (2005)
Financial Times (London), 1965-2005 Dewey Library - Microforms | No Call # | MFILM
New York Times v.1 (1851)-v.142:no.49197 (1992:Dec.31) Library Storage Annex - Microforms | No Call # | MFILM v.143:no.49198 (1993:Jan.01)- Hayden Library - Humanities Microforms | No Call # | MFILM v.109:no.37232 (1960:Jan. 1)-v.146:no.50658 (1996:Dec.31) Dewey Library - Microforms | No Call # | MFILM
Village Voice, v.22 (1977)- Hayden Library - Humanities Microforms | AP.V713 | MFILM
Wall Street Journal v.153:no.32 (1959:Feb.16)-2005:Dec.31 Dewey Library - Microforms | No Call # | MFILM
Boston Public Library: Newspapers on Microfilm The Boston Public Library Central Library in Copley Square has an extensive collection of newspapers on microfilm, including many from Boston and the rest of Massachusetts, newspapers from across the U.S., international papers, and American ethnic newspapers.
Historical Newspapers at the State Library of Massachusetts The State Library of Massachusetts has a large collection of Massachusetts newspapers on microfilm and in print.
Widener Collection of Newspapers on Microfilm Search this database of Harvard's wide-ranging international collection of newspapers. NOTE: MIT faculty, researchers, and graduate students can access the Harvard Libraries with an HCL Special Borrower Card. Other MIT affiliates are eligible for 6 days of library access in a 12-month period, with a letter from an MIT librarian, and ONLY if the resources are not available elsewhere.
This guide draws from others produced at the Brown University Libraries, Cal State San Marcos Library, and University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
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