HISTORY/JOURN 560: History of U.S. Media - Archives Intro (Fall 2024) : Newspapers

Below is a list of databases with American newspapers from the 19th-20th centuries. Browsing in each source to see what newspapers are available can help you find ideas or narrow down your research project.

Newspaper Collections

• 19th Century U.S. Newspapers

  Provides 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, 1827-1998 (American Historical Newspapers database)
  Full text searchable newspaper covergage of approximately 270 U.S newspapers documenting the African American experience in America from the early 19th century to the end of the 20th century.

• America's Historical Newspapers
  A combined search/browse option for all four databases by the same company: Early American Newspapers Series 1 - 7, 1690-1922; African American Newspapers, 1827-1998; Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971; and Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980. Useful limiting tabs include ‘Eras in American history’ and 'U.S. Presidential Eras'. Contains some regionally important titles such as the New Orleans' Times-Picayune, Detroit Plain Dealer, and the Portland Oregonian.
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• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

  Search and view American newspaper pages from 1836-1922. Website also includes useful “Topics” section with info & articles pulled together on a subject by the Library of Congress. Great idea-finding option is ‘search available newspapers’ to see what can be viewed online.

• Ethnic News Watch: A History

  Provides coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press for 1960-1989.

• Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 (American Historical Newspapers database)
  This collection of Spanish and English language newspapers stems from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project at the University of Houston. It contains 350 titles dating from the 19th and 20th centuries and stemming from throughout the United States. Although heavily focused on the Mexican-American community, it will also include newspapers documenting other ethnic groups, primarily Puerto Ricans and Cubans in the U.S.

• NewspaperARCHIVE.com - Wisconsin 
  Wisconsin historical newspapers archive from the 1800s - 2000s containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers from around Wisconsin.

Individual Newspaper Titles

• Chicago Tribune, 1849-1987 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

• Los Angeles Times, 1881-1987 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

• New York Times, 1851-2007 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

• Atlanta Daily World,1931-2003 (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

• Chicago Defender, 1910-1975 (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

• Los Angeles Sentinel, 1934-2005 (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

• New York Amsterdam News, 1922-1993 (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

• Pittsburgh Courier 1911-2002 (ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers)

While the impact of a daily, printed newspaper has changed drastically, newspapers have long been a main pillar of information for a very wide audience. Find here several suggestions of newspaper collections and databases to support your research.

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 Library Catalog.  Also see Library Catalog Search on this page.

More information about the Newspaper Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.