- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Research Guides
- Newspapers
- Alternative/Ethnic
Newspapers : Alternative/Ethnic
Find It
Locate a newspaper title or article when you have a citation using Citation Search.
Library Catalog
Alternative News Sites
Bibliographies/Lists
- African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: a National Bibliography byCall Number: PN4882.5 A47 1998, Memorial Library Reference Stacks, 2 South (non-circulating)
- Ethnic Newspapers: Guide to the Holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library (1975). byCall Number: Z6945 E75, Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
Newspapers at Other Institutions
Search these sources for newspapers at other institutions. Use Interlibrary Loan to request newspapers held by these institutions. Newspapers will likely be on microfilm.
- WorldCatSearch for newspapers (and other materials) at libraries around the world. Select Title Phrase from the drop down menu to search for a particular newspaper. Also search for newspapers published in or covering a a particular geographic area.
Ask a Librarian
Alternative/Ethnic News Databases
- Alt-Press Watch1970 to date
Full text database of newspapers and periodicals from the alternative and independent press focusing on politics, government, art, the environment, labor, and religion. Includes The Isthmus from 2005. Title list - Alternative Press Index1991 to date
Indexes approximately 300 alternative, radical, and left publications that report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change. Click Publications to see all titles included. - Ethnic Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799–1971This is the third collection in Readex's American Ethnic Newspaper series following the African-American and Hispanic modules. Based on titles from the Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies, it includes more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in ten languages from across the country. This resource assists greatly with the documentation of immigrant ethnic groups, primarily focused on Czechs, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Polish, and Slovak communities.
- Ethnic NewsWatch and Ethnic NewsWatch: A HistoryEthnic NewsWatch provides coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press for 1990–present. Ethnic NewsWatch: A History provides coverage for 1960–1989.
- Nexis UniFormerly LexisNexis Academic. Dates vary. International and U.S. newspapers, ethnic and regional news sources, magazines, wire services, newsletters, trade journals, company and industry analyst reports, and broadcast transcripts. Ads, obituaries, graphics typically not included. To access the source directory, click the main "Sources" tab from any page, or click the "More Sources" link from a Search form. The Wisconsin State Journal, 1992–to date; and The Capital Times, 1992–to date.
Current Newspapers in Print
Current issues of U.S., Canadian, and international newspapers are available in the Current Periodicals and Newspaper Room, Memorial Library, Room 240 (Where is it?). Issues of U.S. and Canadian newspapers are generally kept for only one week, and issues of international newspapers are generally kept for only 3 months.
Current Periodicals and Newspapers Room staff maintains several paper lists of journals and newspapers to help users of the room locate what they need. Some of those lists are:
- Alphabetical list of journals and newspapers
- Journals and newspapers by country of publication
- Journals and newspapers by primary language
Please note that these lists are only updated once a semester so while they can be helpful, the most up to date information will always be found in the Library Catalog.
Current and historical newspapers are also available at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.
Historical Black Newspapers Online
For the newspapers available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers collections listed below, digital reproductions of every page and every article from every issue are fully searchable and available in downloadable PDF files. The digitized newspapers include news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
Historical Ethnic News Collections Online
- African American Newspapers (1827–1998)Full text searchable newspaper covergage of approximately 270 U.S newspapers documenting the African American experience in Americafrom the early 19th century to the end of the 20th century.
- African American Newspapers (1827–1902) (Accessible Archives)This original source material—written by African-Americans for African-Americans—contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and is rich with first-hand reports. It is a searchable full text collection of newspapers with the following titles available: The Christian Recorder; The Colored American/Weekly Advocate; Frederick Douglass’ Paper; Freedom’s Journal; The National Era; The North Star; the Provincial Freeman, Freedman's Record and the Negro Business League Herald.
- Ethnic Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799–1971This is the third collection in Readex's American Ethnic Newspaper series following the African-American and Hispanic modules. Based on titles from the Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies, it includes more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in ten languages from across the country. This resource assists greatly with the documentation of immigrant ethnic groups, primarily focused on Czechs, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Polish, and Slovak communities.
- Ethnic NewsWatch and Ethnic NewsWatch: A HistoryEthnic NewsWatch provides coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press for 1990–present. Ethnic NewsWatch: A History provides coverage for 1960–1989.
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily ReportsIts original mission was centered on radio and press agency monitoring and translation. But in 1967, FBIS' mission was expanded to include foreign mass media whether it was conveyed by radio, television, or print.
- Gale NewsVaultOnline newspaper portal that cross-searches using a single interface Gale newspapers archives currently licensed for UW-Madison: 17th–18th C. Burney Collection, 19th C. British Library Newspapers Pt. I, 19th C. U.S. Newspapers, Economist Historical Archive, Illustrated London News, Times (of London) Digital Archive, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
- Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808–1980Spanish and English language newspapers from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project at the University of Houston. 350 titles dating from the 19th and 20th centuries from throughout the United States.
Wisconsin Historical Society Library Newspapers Collections
The Society Library owns 11,740 bound volumes, 100,000 reels of microfilm, and 17,000 sheets of microprint spanning three centuries of American newspaper history. Particular strengths include Wisconsin newspapers, colonial and early American newspapers west of the Appalachians, and the largest collection of labor and trade union papers in the nation.
The Library's holdings of 1960s "underground" or alternative newspapers are also extensive. Other areas of the collection that have attained national importance are Native American and African-American newspapers. Among rarities in the newspaper collection are the first African-American and Native American newspapers and the first Bohemian, Dutch, Norwegian, and Spanish language newspapers published in the United States.
To discover if the library owns a particular title, search the Library Catalog. Also see the Library Catalog box on this page.
More information about the Newspaper Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.
On this Page
This page provides links to licensed databases with full text of alternate and ethnic news sources.
Also on this page is a link to the Web site, Alternet.
In addition, there are links to historical newspapers and newspaper collections.
Also included is information about the Wisconsin Historical Society's newspapers collections.
To search for newspaper titles in the libraries' collections, use Find It or the Library Catalog box on this page.
Current Periodicals & Newspaper Room
The Current Periodicals and Newspaper Room is Room 240 of Memorial Library (Where is it?).
Current issues of U.S. and Canadian newspapers and international newspapers are available there. Issues of U.S. and Canadian newspapers are generally kept for only one week, and issues of international newspapers are generally kept for only 3 months.
Staff are available to provide assistance during Memorial Library hours.