Introduction and Major US Full Text Sources

This guide is currently being revised

Introduction

This guide is intended to help Harvard students and faculty find newspapers and newspaper articles. 

Guide Contents

  1. Do you want articles on a topic?
  1. Major databases: United States or Foreign, if nothing then
  2. Lists of digitized newspapers
  3. Check list of miscellaneous databases and resources

 

  1. Do you want a newspaper published at a particular place and time?
  1. Find out what papers were published in a city/town, US or foreign by year
  2. Go to A, 1,2,3 to see if it is digitized, if not:
  3. Do we have it on microfilm, if not:
  4. Interlibrary loan

 

  1. Do you want newspapers for a particular audience (African-American, American Indian, labor, collegiate, etc)?
  1. Find out what papers were published for your audience:  Check: Guides/Bibliographies  and  Chronicling America Newspaper Directory
  2. Is there a topical digital collection?
  3. Is there a microfilm collection?
  4. Do we have the paper?
  5. Interlibrary loan

The Kennedy School offers a guide aimed more at sources for current news: News & Media Studies

HOLLIS

To find articles in HOLLIS, choose Everything, search your terms and choose Resource Type: Newspaper articles under Refine my results on the right.  HOLLIS Everything searches many but not all of Harvard's databases.  Also, the individual databases, listed below and elsewhere in this guide, offer search features not available in HOLLIS.

Harvard's New York Times subscription

The University of Illinois Library Newspaper Database

The University of Illinois Library Newspaper Database includes titles and location of newspapers in major microfilm and online collections.  You can search by title, by Collection, by Subject (for example, Native American), Year, and by State or City.  You will be directed to the proper microfilm or online collection. Worldwide coverage.

Online Collections
--Includes: America’s Historical Newspapers, American Indian Newspapers, Chronicling America  Independent Voices, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, World Newspaper Archive and several others
--Not Ethnic NewsWatch, Indigenous Peoples: North America, NewspaperArchive, Newspapers.com, many others

Microfilm Collections
--Includes all 4 major Native American collections, several Underground Press collections, and several others

It doesn’t work perfectly. It missed the Seattle Daily Times in America’s Historical Newspapers. Possibly the Seattle Daily Times (1923-1984) is a recent addition to AHN, added since the last loading of titles into the Newspaper Database

NewsFinder (Penn State) searches for online and microfilm newspapers worldwide. Not exhaustive.  Microfilm holdings refer to Penn State University Library holdings.

Major Online Full Text Sources for US Newspapers

Sources for many more online papers are listed by state on the  Additional Sources for Digitized Newspapers page.

We have special digital access to just a few papers (use your Harvard email to register)

More information

U.S. Newsstream (largely 1990- ; a few back to 1953) includes newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc. 

NexisUni (1980s- ) is the usual first choice for finding recent newspaper articles, with full text (pictures omitted) coverage of numerous U.S. and overseas newspapers.

  • Select News at the top.
  • Explore (enter choices)
  • Enter Search
  • Limit on left

To get international publications or to narrow by US state, limit by "Source Location".

Factiva (1980s- ) offers full text (pictures omitted) of over 6,000 newspapers, magazines, wire services and trade journals. To limit to a particular newspaper enter, e.g., sn=wall street journal and "search term". Includes the Wall Street Journal full text, 1984- (abstracts, 6/13/1979-1983) and the Boston Globe (1987- ). Search Guide: Factiva User Guide: Browsing & Searching (Boston College guide)

Note that the default Date is In the last 3 months.

Limit to articles about a certain region by opening Region: All Regions, then driving down to your country.  Limit to articles emanating from a particular country by opening Source: All Sources, then Select Sources Category: By Region.

Articles for which the copyright resides with the author rather than the newspaper will not generally be available in NexisUni or Factiva, although Factiva sometimes provides citations. Use newspaper indexes to find articles omitted from the full text sources.

Ethnic NewsWatch (1959- ) offers full-text of 90 newspapers and other periodicals (1990- ) and of 30 African American, Hispanic American, and Native American newspapers and other periodicals (1959-1989). Includes book/film/television reviews. Lists of periodicals. Includes African American, Arab American, Asian American, European American, Hispanic/Latino/Chicano, Jewish, Native American newspapers. For more newspapers by ethnicity, see: U.S. Ethnic Newspaper Sources

ProQuest Historical Newspapers (mostly 19th-20th century) include illustrations, editorials, and advertising. Available papers are listed below.

Search all ProQuest news sources using: Proquest News & Newspapers.  Search across all newspapers, or select a custom group of titles to search across, rather than searching just one title.

Chronicling America, enhancing access to historic American newspapers (1836-1963) (Library of Congress) offers searchable full text.  For a list of digitized newspapers for each state, choose All Digitized Newspapers 1836-1963. Also includes the valuable U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present, in which searches for newspapers can be limited by language and ethnicity.

Newspapers.com. World collection (early 1700s-early 2000s). Includes papers from US, Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Panama and Wales.  If you choose Browse at the top, you get a convenient breakdown of the available papers. If you hit Add more info in the search box, you can add place and date.

NewspaperARCHIVE offers numerous newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries.  Contains many small-city newspapers.

America’s Historical Newspapers (1690-1993)  (Readex) offers full text of over a thousand U.S. newspapers. Includes all papers listed in the standard History and bibliography of American newspapers, 1690-1820, by Clarence S. Brigham. Although a very rich resource, many important newspapers, especially for the later years, are not included.  Now includes several post-1922 papers:

  • Mobile Register: Mobile, AL, 1833-10-22 - 1992-12-31
  • Evening Star:  Washington, DC, 1852-12-16 - 1981-08-07
  • Augusta Chronicle: Augusta, GA, 1792-01-07 - 1993-12-31
  • Times-Picayune: New Orleans, LA, 1837-01-25 - 1988-12-31
  • Springfield Republican: Springfield, MA, 1877-01-01 - 1946-09-26
  • Springfield Union: Springfield, MA, 1864-01-04 - 1988-12-25
  • Trenton Evening Times: Trenton, NJ, 1883-01-07 - 1993-03-15
  • Plain Dealer: Cleveland, OH, 1845-04-07 - 1991-05-31
  • Oregonian: Portland, OR, 1861-02-04 - 1987-12-31
  • Dallas Morning News: Dallas, TX, 1885-10-01 - 1984-12-31
  • Seattle Daily Times: Seattle, WA, 1923-01-01 - 1984-12-31

19th Century U.S. Newspapers offers full text of about 500 newspapers.

Civil War-era

Civil War: a newspaper perspective (Accessible Archives) includes full text of over 11,000 articles (including over 700 graphic images), Nov. 1, 1860 - Apr. 30, 1865. Drawn from the New York herald, the Charleston mercury, and the Richmond enquirer. Also on CD-ROM.
LOCATION: Documents (Lamont): CD-ROM Doc E468.C578 1994x

Civil War newspaper maps: a cartobibliography of the Northern daily press.
LOCATION: Map Coll (Pusey): MAP-LC GA405.5.Z99 B67 1993x

Illustrated Civil War newspapers and magazines. Full text. Includes campaign newspapers.

ProQuest Civil War Era (1840-1865) includes complete runs of: Richmond Dispatch, Charleston Mercury, New Orleans Times Picayune, Boston Herald, New York Herald, Columbus State Journal (Ohio), The Kentucky Daily Journal, and Memphis Daily Appeal.

Accessible Archives includes:

  • The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective
  • The Civil War: A Midwestern Perspective
  • The Liberator (1831-1865)
  • National Anti-Slavery Standard (1840-1870)
  • The Pennsylvania Newspaper Record (1830-1871)
More about Accessible Archives content.

Accessible Archives includes:​

  • The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800)
  • South Carolina Newspapers (1732-1780)
  • The Virginia Gazette (1738-1780)
More about Accessible Archives content.

Indexes:

Birth of America: the year in review, 1763-1783; a chronological guide and index to the contemporary colonial press.
LOCATION: Widener: RR 3621. 13
Internet Archive Full Text

Debating the issues in colonial newspapers: primary documents on events of the period.
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC E187.C78 2000

Index of references to American women in colonial newspapers through 1800. Covers only the New Hampshire Gazette, 1756-1770 (v. 1) and 1771-1785 (v. 2).
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC CS61.Z99 E92 x Library has: v. 1-2

The performing arts in colonial American newspapers, 1690 -1783, text database and index
HOLLIS Record: Library has: CD ROM + User's guide