Primary Sources for Humanities and Social Sciences : Newspapers
Guide to locating primary sources, with an emphasis on online sources, in the UW-Madison Libraries' collections for research in the humanities and social sciences.
- What are Primary Sources?
- Finding and Using Primary Sources
- Online Primary Sources
- Books
- Journals and Magazines
- Newspapers
- Government Documents
- Archival Sources
- Multimedia Sources
Library Catalog
Newspapers on Microfilm
Memorial Library has back issues of the New York Times, 1966-1992, and some international newspapers on microfilm. Microfilm is located in the Mircroforms/Media Collection (MMC) Reading Room (262 D/E in Memorial Library).
The Wisconsin Historical Society Library has the complete holdings of the New York Times on microfilm as well as other US newspapers on microfilm.
Wisconsin Historical Society Library Newspapers Collections
The Wisconsin Historical 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.
Overview
Newspapers are available online, in print, and on microfilm. This page focuses on historical editions of U.S. and international newspapers. Depending on the time period of interest, you may need to use other databases or sources which you can find in the Newspapers research guide.
Historical Newspapers Collections Online
- 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection NewspapersNewspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757–1817) represent the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. Almost 1 million pages, approximately 1,270 titles.
- 19th Century British Library NewspapersSearchable archive of 50 newspapers originating in England, Scotland and Ireland selected by an editorial board from the British Library. Most comprehensive digital collection of national and regional newspapers in Victorian Britain ever made available.
- 19th Century U.S. NewspapersProvides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from more than 200 newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.
- 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.
- 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 Newspapers (1800s–1900s)40 searchable African newspapers covering the period from 1800 to 1922. Coverage is largely of English-language papers but a few in African languages are also included.
- America's Historical Newspapers (1690–1922)Series 1-7 offers more than 300 significant 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century newspapers from all 50 present states. Early American Newspapers, Early American Newspapers Series 10, 11, and 12 added in 2016 provide full publication text coverage of selected American newspapers from the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.
- ANNO: Austrian Newspapers OnlineAustrian Newspapers Online, is a digitization initiative of the Austrian National Library making available online historical Austrian (German language) newspapers and magazines.
- Associated Press Collections Online (1848–2009)The Associated Press Online Archive is a collection of news stories, in various stage of production, covering major local, regional, and national stories from 1848 to 2009. This fully-searchable database include news stories, correspondence, internal communications, and photography documenting 19th and 20th century American history. The modules include those from the AP Washington D.C. Bureau, AP U.S. Cities Bureaus, and news features and internal communications.
- Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library (CNDL)CNDL provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials on newsprint currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
- Caribbean Newspapers (1718–1876)This collection provides easy access to more than 150 years of Caribbean and Atlantic history, cultures and daily life. Features more than 140 newspapers from 22 islands and chronicles two centuries with eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative information, letters, poetry, advertisements, obituaries and other news items. An important resource for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region.
- Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersThis site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1836–1922 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).
- Eighteenth Century Journals: A Portal to Newspapers and Periodicals, c1685–1815Selected digitized English-language scholarly journals and newspapers from the years 1699–1812 including 76 journals at Oxford U.'s Bodleian Library and 70 journals and newspapers at the U. of Texas, Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.
- 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.
- Gallica bibliothèque numérique de la Bibliothèque nationale de FranceIncludes about two dozen archived French newspapers including Le Figaro (1826–1942) and Le Temps (1861–1942).
- Hemeroteca DigitalThis database includes fully searchable newspapers and periodicals from Spain and Latin America, spanning the 17th to 20th centuries. The newspapers and periodicals come from a variety of presses including policy, satirical, scientific, religious, illustrated, sports, artistic, and literary. (Updates ongoing)
- 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.
- Historical Jewish PressFrom the the National Library of Israel, Tel Aviv University, and the David and Fela Shapell Family Digitization Project, the aim of this site is to provide open access to images of the major titles of the early Hebrew press (19th and early 20th century). The site itself is entirely in Hebrew. These newspapers contain a wealth of primary material on Diaspora and Land of Israel history of the period.
- Historic Mexican & Mexican American PressThe Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.
- Irish Newspaper ArchivesIrish newspapers from 1763 to the present, in a fully-searchable format that includes images of the actual newspaper.
- Latin American Newspapers (1805–1922) (Readex)Historical newspapers from Latin America
- NewspaperARCHIVE.com - WisconsinWisconsin historical newspapers archive from the 1800s–2000s containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers from around Wisconsin. (Updates vary)
- Newspapers.com Library Edition World CollectionFull-text of local newspapers from the United States, including Wisconsin, dating from the 1700s to the 2000s. Limited additional coverage of local newspapers from other countries.
- ProQuest Civil War EraNewspaper and pamphlet sources for access to research on Civil War era American history.
- Trove: Digitized Newspapers from the National Library of AustraliaProvides searchable and browsable access to full text of Australian newspapers and magazines (1802+). Title list available at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/about
Historical 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.
- Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896–2004)The Daily Mail is part of Gale NewsVault’s growing ‘middle class/middle market’ collection of newspapers and periodicals which reflect 20th century popular culture and tastes. It serves as the perfect complement to The Times Digital Archive. Described by the New Yorker as “the newspaper that rules Britain”, the Daily Mail has been at the heart of British journalism since 1896, regularly changing the course of government policy and setting the national debate. It currently boasts a circulation of over 2 million, and its website is the most visited news site in the world. As well as the regular edition of the newspaper, the Daily Mail Historical Archive also includes the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, which was published on board the cruise ships that sailed between New York and Southampton between 1923 and 1931.
- Financial Times Historical Archive (1888–2010)The Financial Times Historical Archive delivers the complete run of the London edition of this internationally known daily paper, from its first issue through 2010. Every article, advertisement and market listing is included — shown both individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day. It began as a City of London news sheet and grew to become one of the best-known and most-respected newspapers in the world. (Not updated.)
- Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842–2003Digital access to the entire run of the Illustrated London News from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003. Each page has been digitally reproduced in full colour and every article and caption is full-text searchable with hit-term highlighting and links to corresponding illustrations.
- Palmer's Full Text OnlineProvides an index to the London Times. Indexing exists for October 1790 to December 1905, the full-text component spans only the years from 1800 to 1870.
- Times (London) Digital Archive, The, 1785–1985Page facsimiles of all the issues of the London Times. Search by keyword and date and limit search to sections such as: Advertising, Pictures, People, News, Editorials. Sundays are not included.
- Wall Street Journal, 1889–2000 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Full text, fully searchable, of all issues of the Wall Street Journal, 1889–2000.