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Historical Newspapers

Resources to help you locate historical newspapers from the 17th through the 21st century online and in other formats. Includes newspapers from The United States, Britain, India, Mexico, Latin America, and more.
newspapersUVM has a vast collection of historical newspapers from around the world covering years from the 17th century to the very recent past. This guide will point you towards papers in the UVM collections and beyond. Most of the papers highlighted in this guide are online but there is also information about finding papers in print or microfilm.   

Use the tabs above to start exploring newspapers by region.
Need more help? Contact me using the email or scheduling link to the right.

Using Historical Newspapers

General Recommendations:

  • Use multiple papers - different regions may report the same events differently and will have differing perspectives in opinion pieces
  • Use newspapers produced by, and targeted at, under represented groups in order to include different perspectives

Strategies for Exploring

When using online historical newspapers, you have two main strategies:

Browsing:

Browsing is the act of looking through a paper or book and scanning the content. Browsing enables you to discover things you didn't know you wanted to find, see articles in their full context, and experience the newspaper in a way that us is more similar to that of the original reader. Tips for success:

  • If using a multi-title newspaper database start by exploring by title and then drill in to a dates or dates to explore.

  • If using a single-title newspaper collection, start with a simple search for a date and then choose to see articles on the front page. Once you have run this initial search open one of the resulting articles and then switch over to "Browse this issue."

Searching:

The most obvious way to explore digital newspapers is by searching for keywords. I recommend it when you need to find a broad range of coverage for an event or you have to find a needle-in-a-haystack. Tips for success:

  • Select keywords that reflect the language in use at the time you are researching

  • Search for people, places, and details about events rather than currently known names for events

  • Run multiple searches uses different words to describe what you're looking for

  • Take advantage of options to search for specific types of content  (news article, editorial, ad, cartoon, etc.)

  • Limit the date for your results to a single date or a date range

Newspaper image used under CC licensing. By Jon S on Flickr.com.