Old News: Historical Newspapers and Periodicals

Source types include print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos. Offers coverage at local, regional, national and international levels.  Covers a range of disciplines, including political science, journalism, English, history, environmental studies, sociology, economics, education, business, health, and social sciences. Enables researchers to track subjects geographically and over time, analyze trends and statistics.  

Some titles lasted a short time, or few extant issues have been found, so that the database may contain as little as a single issue from a source. Other newspapers had longer lives, and long runs of issues are available.

African American Newspapers, Series 1, 1827-1998:
Beginning with Freedom’s Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this resource include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York
Age, L’Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, and The Appeal (MN).

African American Newspapers, Series 2, 1835-1956:
Key titles include Frederick Douglass’s New National Era (Washington, DC), Washington Tribune (Washington, DC), Chicago Bee (Chicago, IL), The Louisianian (New Orleans, LA), The Pine and Palm (Boston, MA), National Anti-Slavery Standard (New York, NY), New York Age (New York, NY), Harlem Liberator (New York, NY), North Carolina Republican and Civil Rights Advocate (Weldon, NC), and Southern News (Richmond, VA).

Based on a collection of rare newspapers held by the American Antiquarian Society, with contributions from the Boston Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Library of Congress, the libraries of universities such as Brown and Harvard, and private collections. Fully text-searchable; browseable by newspaper title.

Collections included: African American Newspapers, Series 1 ; African American Newspapers, Series 2 ;  Caribbean Newspapers ; Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection ; Hispanic American Newspapers ; Early American Newspapers, Series 1-7, 11-12, and 17-19.

The bulk of the titles were founded in the 1970s, documenting the proliferation of Indigenous journalism that grew out of the occupation of Wounded Knee, meeting the demand for objective reporting from within Indian Country. Subjects covered include: self-determination era and American Indian Movement (AIM), education, environmentalism, land rights and cultural representation from an Indigenous perspective.

The newspaper's two goals were to spread the principles of Reform Judaism, and to keep American Jews in touch with Jewish affairs and their religious identity.

The Flash Press covered the seamier aspects of urban life in the mid-19th century. Topics included prostitution, gambling, urban gangs, illicit sporting activities, and sensational crimes. To many of their readers, the Flash Press also conveyed an implicit threat of blackmail, which often led to very ephemeral print runs.

Collections include:
European Bureaus Collection: From Vienna, its chief listening post, and also from Prague and Warsaw, the Associated Press (AP) covered Eastern Europe during World War II and the Cold War. This collection is composed almost entirely of rare wire copy, recording the declining influence of the Soviet Union, the last days of the Iron Curtain, and the political and economic restructuring of the former Soviet satellites.

Middle Eastern Bureaus Collection: offers access to records from some of the Associated Press’s (AP) most active international bureaus – Jerusalem, Ankara, and Beirut, as well as their surrounding areas – delivering the exclusive stories behind the headlines from 1967 to 2005.

News Features & Internal Communications: This collection provides access to internal Associated Press publications dating from the turn of the twentieth century, offering insight into the AP, its staff, and the history of news coverage.

U.S. City Bureaus Collection: The U.S. City Bureaus Collection offers access to records from the AP's domestic bureaus, dating from 1931 to 2004.

Washington Bureau Collection, Part I: This collection provides access to Associated Press (AP) records documenting the administrations of eleven US presidents (1938-2009), including an extensive assortment of wire copy covering press conferences, travel, speeches, campaigns, and messages to Congress.

Washington Bureau Collection, Part II: This collection covers significant news reporting on the key issues, individuals, and events in the history of World War I and the post-war period in America and abroad.

Explore the paper’s perspective on local events of major international significance, from post-Civil War Reconstruction, to the first taste of Coca-Cola in 1886, to the Race Riots of 1907, the Civil Rights sit-ins of the 1960s, and the election of the first black mayor in 1973.

The Atlanta Daily World had the first Black White House correspondent and was the first Black daily newspaper in the nation in the 20th century.

Includes news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more.

This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text from the Chicago Daily Defender (1966-1973 : Big Weekend Ed.), Chicago Daily Defender (1960-1973 : Daily Ed.), Chicago Defender (1909-1966 : Big Weekend Ed.), Chicago Defender (1973-1975 : Big Weekend Ed.), Chicago Defender (1973-1975 : Daily Ed.), Chicago Defender (1921-1967 : National ed) ; Weekend Chicago Defender (1980-2008) ; Chicago Daily Defender (1973-2010 : Daily Ed.)

The Chicago Tribune (1849-1996) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.

Additional access options:

• Access to the Chicago Tribune from 2008 - recent (coverage extends to within days of the current issue). This is a digitized microfilm of the Chicago Tribune.
• The IUB Library holds the physical microfilm for the Tribune as well. The microfilm copy is especially important given that some articles are not available in the ProQuest resource because of the Supreme Court's Tasini ruling concerning the copyright rights of independent journalists and writers. ProQuest entries carry a note referring one to the microfilm copy.

Produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages.

When The Cincinnati Enquirer printed its first issue 1841, Cincinnati was the nation’s 6th largest city and was known as “The Queen of the West.” This resource covers a range of studies, including history, political science, economics and genealogy, with reports on world affairs, national events and a record of regional topics related to agriculture, manufacturing, government and people from the dynamic viewpoint of a quintessential western boomtown.

Includes such notable contributors as writer Richard Wright, folk singer Woody Guthrie, and political cartoonist Robert Minor. These publications were not only used by Party members to share news and exchange ideas. A large number of subscribers in the late 1950s-1960s were CIA agents or front companies linked to the CIA.

During the 1920s, The Washington Post estimated the Klan’s membership as high as 9,000,000 and in the Midwest, a particular strong point of Klan support, one in three white protestant males in the state of Indiana were dues-paying members of the Klan.  The collection is currently available only to funding institutions, but will eventually be made open access.

Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile) is a database covering source material dating from 1106 until 1960 (varies by source). 8C aggregates indexes, catalogs, collections, and other finding aids, and includes citations to 9,000 periodicals in 30+ languages. 8C provides access to articles, newspapers, books, U.S. patents, government documents, and images. Links to open access and subscription full-text sources are included where available.

The Collection of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, which merged with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, offers searchable, full text coverage of over 130 searchable full text newspapers from 25 states and in ten languages. The ethnic groups most represented are the Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Polish, and Slovak communities.

Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) features newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. With titles dating from 1990, ENW presents a comprehensive, full-text collection of nearly 1.6 million articles from more than 280 publications offering both national and regional coverage. While the content may mirror mainstream media coverage, the viewpoints are decidedly unique.
Ethnic NewsWatch delivers hundreds of ethnocentric publications. The voices of the Asian American, Jewish, African American, Native American, Arab American, Eastern European, and multi-ethnic communities can be heard. Titles include New York Amsterdam News, Asian Week, Jewish Exponent, Seminole Tribune, and many more. A majority of this content is exclusive to ENW and not available in any other database.

Covers mostly the West and Southwest, but also Illinois, Indiana, and New York. Topics covered range from literature to politics, to labor and social movements. Based on the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project.

These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

The Indianapolis Star is the largest paper in Indiana. It has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize three times — once for meritorious public service and twice for investigative reporting. In 1975, the Star was honored for its 1974 series on corruption within the Indianapolis Police Department. It was cited again in 1991 for its 1990 series on medical malpractice.

The Indianapolis Star is the largest paper in Indiana. It has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize three times — once for meritorious public service and twice for investigative reporting. In 1975, the Star was honored for its 1974 series on corruption within the Indianapolis Police Department. It was cited again in 1991 for its 1990 series on medical malpractice.

Additional access options:

Access to the Indianapolis Star 1903-Present (via Indiana Collection). Note there may be a lag time of approximately 5 days for new issues to be added.

The IUB Library holds the physical microfilm for the Indianapolis Star, 1907-present, located on the second floor of the East Tower, call number AN2 .I3S7.

Daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, aimed at international English-speaking readers.

The Jewish Exponent garnered honors each year from the American Jewish Press Association for excellence in Jewish journalism for its news, features, reviews and commentary.

Keesing’s World News Archive contains articles detailing world events and international developments. The archive begins in 1931 as Keesing’s Contemporary Archives (1931-1987) and continues as Keesing’s Record of World Events from 1987 to the present. Events covered include government changes, war, treaties, appointments, diplomatic initiatives, international agreements, security, legislation, budgets, natural disasters, environmental issues, and scientific discoveries.

The oldest and largest Black newspaper in the western United States and the largest African American owned newspaper in the U.S.

The full text of the Los Angeles Times, with images of pages and articles; users can search and limit by date and article type.

Founded when Miami’s population was less than 5,500, The Miami Herald evolved with the south Florida city, offering detailed coverage of the development of Bayfront Park and the East Coast Railway to the Keys, as well as the Everglades Reclamation Project and the rise of the aviation industry. The Herald staff has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes; the first was awarded in 1951 for its coverage of U.S. Senate hearings on Miami’s gambling parlors. The paper’s most notable columnists have included political commentator Leonard Pitts, Jr., journalist Mirta Ojito, humorist Dave Barry and novelist Carl Hiassen.

Includes digitized copies and content of the follwing local Indiana Newspapers: Bloomington Evening World (1907-1923), Indiana Daily Student (1867-1923), Madison Herald, Indianapolis State Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,Terre Haute Star and Indianapolis Sun.

Includes access to newspapers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom & Ireland, Australia, and Panama.

Provides selected full text for 25 national (U.S.) including the Bloomington Herald Times, and international newspapers. The database also contains full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers. Includes cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for articles in the following major newspapers beginning in January 1, 1995:

• NEW YORK TIMES
• WALL STREET JOURNAL (Eastern and Western editions)
• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
• USA TODAY
• WASHINGTON POST

Coverage includes everything except obituaries (exclusive of famous people), sports tables, ads/classifieds, stock prices, and weather.

This collection includes AP Financial News, AP Top News, AP WorldStream, AP U.S. Politics & Government, AP 50 State Reports, UPI Security Industry, UPI Emerging Threats, UPI Business, UPI Entertainment, UPI Sports, UPI Top News, Arabia 2000, and more. The index to the full text content in EBSCO Newswires is held for a rolling 30-day archive by EBSCO.

Feature full text of more than 70 years of articles, photos, advertisements, obituaries and more from the New York Amsterdam News, one of the United States' leading Black newspapers.

Additional access options:

• Access to the New York Times Online (newyorktimes.com and via apps)
• Access to the New York Times from 1851 - 2013 (plus access to the Times Index from 1851 - 1993)

Note: The IUB Library holds the physical microfilm for the NYT as well. The microfilm copy is especially important given that some articles are not available in the ProQuest resource because of the Supreme Court's Tasini ruling concerning the copyright rights of independent journalists and writers. ProQuest entries carry a note referring one to the microfilm copy.

Smartphone and tablet apps can be downloaded for free by visiting: https://www.nytimes.com/services/mobile/index.html (Please note e-reader apps are excluded from our Academic Group Pass.)

New IUB Affiliated Users - One-Time Activation of NYTimes.com IUB Group Pass
1. Go to http://go.iu.edu/registerNYT
2. Create a NYTimes.com account using your IU email address. (Note: If you already have a NYTimes.com account using your IU email address, you may log in with those credentials)
3. When you see START YOUR ACCESS, the expiration time and date of your pass will appear
4. Go to NYTimes.com and enjoy your full access from any location

Returning IUB Affilated Users 
Once you have activated your IUB Group Pass account, it should allow you full access until your expiration date with no further action on your part. However, if for any reason while on NYTimes.com you are served the message that you are reaching the limit of free articles on the site, please do the following: Make sure you are logged in to the NYTimes.com account with which you activated your Group Pass. If you log out of your account or visit NYTimes.com on a device where you are not logged in, you can simply log in to your account to continue enjoying access.

If your Group Pass has expired: Visit http://go.iu.edu/registerNYT to activate a new pass. Make sure you are logged in to the NYTimes.com account with which you activated your IUB Group Pass.

Unaffilated users may access up to 10 free articles (including blog posts, slide shows and other multimedia features) each month on NYTimes.com. This free, limited access resets at the beginning of each calendar month.

Content Availability:
1851-1922: unlimited article availability
1923-1980: up to five articles per day per user
1981-present: unlimited article availability

Additional access options for the New York Times:
Access to the New York Times from 2008 to the present (with a lag time of about three months)

Digitized microfilm of the NYT with a 3-month embargo. Note: The IUB Library holds the physical microfilm for the NYT as well. The microfilm copy is especially important given that some articles are not available in the ProQuest resource because of the Supreme Court's Tasini ruling concerning the copyright rights of independent journalists and writers. ProQuest entries carry a note referring one to the microfilm copy.

Access to the New York Times from 1851 - 2013 (plus access to the Times Index from 1851 - 1993)

Additional access options:

• Access to the New York Times Online (nytimes.com and via apps)
• Access to the New York Times from 2008 to the present (with a lag time of about three months)
  Digitized microfilm of the NYT with a 3-month embargo. Note: The IUB Library holds the physical microfilm for the NYT as well. The microfilm copy is especially important given that some articles are not available in the ProQuest resource because of the Supreme Court's Tasini ruling concerning the copyright rights of independent journalists and writers. ProQuest entries carry a note referring one to the microfilm copy.

Search Tips

Using Advanced search, the Index feature allow you to search terms in the NYT index by:
Subject
Company/Org
Person
Location

The full text of the New York Times from its first issue in 1851-2013. Images of the actual texts of articles and of the full page on which the articles appear are presented. Supplements, including the Magazine and the Book Review, are present. Searches can be limited to a supplement or a section only with this command

section(magazine) -OR- section(business)

Comprehensive coverage of news and current events, government, business, medical, and legal topics, as well as general reference information is included. Formats found in Nexis Uni are: international and domestic newspapers, magazines and trade journals, broadcast transcripts (NPR, ABC News, CBS News, and CNN), company financial information, industry and market news, federal and state case law, law reviews, medical news and abstracts, and state and country profiles. Includes business information on over 80 million U.S. and international companies and 75 million executives. Non-English language news sources are available in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Dutch. Campus news from some 400 college/university papers and over 50 wire services are also available.

To access Nexis Dossier select "Business" (near the bottom of the Nexis Uni homepage). Then select "Create a Company List" in the Company Dossier box.

This resource is a digital archive of nearly 250 American historical newspapers from the 19th century, many complete with images.   Contents include digitized collections of holdings from the Library of Congress, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the South Carolinian Library, the Scholarly Resources Archive, the Maryland State Archive, and the Boston Public Library, among others.  Coverage includes major papers, minority publications, publications of social activist groups, and illustrated papers. Newspapers included are: New York Herald (NY), Lynchburg Virginian (VA), Pacific Commercial Advertiser (HI), Rocky Mountain News (CO), Southern Illustrated News (VA), Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), Milwaukee Sentinel (WI), The Bee (OH), The Mountaineer (SC).

This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text from the Courier (1950-1954 : City ed.), New Pittsburgh courier (1969-1981 : City ed.), New Pittsburgh courier (1981-2010), Pittsburgh courier (1911-1950 : City ed.), and Pittsburgh courier (1955-1965 : City ed.). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format. (OCLC)

Includes access to three modules: Political Extremism & Radicalism, 20th Century Part 1: Far-Right and Left in US, Europe, and Australia; Political Extremism & Radicalism in the 20th Century- Part 2: Far-Right in America; and Political Extremism and Radicalism, Part 3: Communist and Socialist Movements.

Published between January 8, 1868 and February, 1872, The Revolution was edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury. The paper’s motto, printed on the masthead of the first edition’s front page, was, “Principle, not policy; Justice, not favors.” Beginning with the second edition, the following was added: “Men, their rights and nothing more; Women, their rights and nothing less.” Later editions had this motto: “The True Republic–Men, their rights and nothing more; Women, their rights and nothing less.”

In addition to acting as a mouthpiece for the troops, service newspapers brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas. Titles from all the key theaters are featured, including some non-English material in German, Czech, Hindi, Russian, French, Italian, Afrikaans, Swahili, and other African dialects. Includes access to modules 1 and 2.

Also includes a collections of local and regional newspapers, cross-searchable on the ProQuest platform.

From 1877 - 2000, every backfile issue of The Washington Post has been digitized from cover to cover, including news stories, editorials, photos, graphics, and advertisements. You can search using basic keyword, guided, publication-specific searches, and relevancy search techniques to locate information. You may also browse through issues page by page, as one would browse a printed edition.

World Newspaper Archive is a fully-searchable collection of historical newspapers from around the globe. It was created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries- one of the world's largest and most important newspaper repositories.