Home - Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th – 21st centuries

Newspaper (n.)

Newspaper (n.)

“A printed publication, now usually issued daily or weekly, consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, freq. with the addition of advertisements, photographs, articles, and correspondence”
OED Online. Oxford University Press, accessed online 3/8/17

First mentioned in 1667 by the Earl of Arlington "I must refer you to our News Papers for a further account of the Proceedings of the Parliament." Let. to W. Temple 18 Oct. (1701) 187, OED, accessed online 3/8/17

Classes and workshops

12 Nov 2024 @ 2-3.30pm iSkills: Newspapers and other online news sources from the 17th-21st centuries (Booking to open in October) Newspapers are a valuable resource for researching not only news but also many other aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life. In this online session we will introduce key online sources of news and how to make best use of them. The focus will be on historical and contemporary newspapers from the 17th century across most countries of the world. After the session participants will understand: the value of newspapers in research the difficulties of using newspapers in research and effective search techniques, and be able to use a range of sources for searching and reading: historical newspapers contemporary newspapers historical audio-visual news sources
Newspapers & other online resources 17th - 20th centuries - Powerpoint presentation (pdf)
Slides from iSKills session May 2024

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Why and how to use newspapers

The value of newspapers
Understanding the context of your newspaper

Newspapers are generally aimed at the general public or particular groups of the general public.

They are useful to find out about key events, people and places.
They include opinion pieces, of either writers, editors or members of the public in form of Letters to the Editor. T
hey are also a wonderful source for all sorts of ephemera (weather, court circulars, advertising, etc.).
Larger newspapers will also provide battle or war reports, law or court reports and parliamentary reports, incl. occasional reproductions of full text speeches.

The use of newspapers depends on what you intend to do but examples of what you can do include:

Search for specific person, place, event across or in individual newspaper for political, social, economic, cultural history (incl. literature, etc.)
Understand better what life was like in particular place, region, country or period
Research newspaper as form of communication (incl. linguistic aspects, history of journalism)
Research specific content types (ads, editorials, obituaries)

To use newspapers as a source responsibly, you really need to understand the context of each newspaper. For instance, newspapers were often used for propaganda purposes (owner, country, religion, etc.). You need to consider:

the intended audience
where in the newspaper your article appears (e.g. front page, length of article). For instance, there is a gender agenda if placed on social events section? This could be a problem if a newspaper database doesn’t show you the layout of newspaper and where the article was actually published (see Common problems)
ownership and editors

Using newspapers without that understanding can lead one to be misinformed about the time period being researched: bias, wrong facts, propaganda. It is advised to use other sources to corroborate & provide different perspective.

Tools to help you learn more about your newspaper:

The Waterloo Directories include historical information on ownership, circulation, prices, political & religious affiliation, etc. Please note the Waterloo Directories don't work well with Internet Explorer (IE).

Top resources

English newspapers: Current subscriptions
British Library Newspapers, Parts I-V. (1732-1950) Online access to two million fully searchable pages in 48 national and regional titles chosen by leading experts and academics from the holdings of the British Library. From the Glasgow Herald to the Graphic, from the Illustrated Police News to the Preston Chronicle, the collection greatly enhances research into the history, society and culture of the UK from 1800 to 1900. The website also offers contextual essays regarding the role of newspapers in the Victorian age, bibliographic head-notes and a chronological overview. Oxford has parts I & II which cover the 19th century. Parts III & IV are not held in Oxford but you can use it as a private subscriber of British Newspaper Archive or go to the British Library
Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2016 The Daily Mail is a well-known British daily tabloid newspaper, whose circulation figures have consistently been among the highest in Britain since its publication. This resource provides access to more than 100 years of this publication. The archive is an invaluable source for all manner of projects on British and world history, politics, society, culture, publishing, and much more. In its aim to represent the working middle-class and actively campaign for particular causes, it provides an important vocal alternative perspective to other newspapers. The resource also includes fully scanned and digitised copies of the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, which were edited and produced on the White Star and Cunard liners between Southampton and New York between 1923 and 1931. Because there were no legal deposit requirements for these unique off-shore editions of the newspaper, which differ in many ways from that days printed Daily Mail, they are not held in any Legal Deposit library. The resource can be viewed in full digital facsimile form, with copious advertisements, news stories and images that capture 20th century culture and society. This resource was acquired in February 2018 thanks to a generous donation by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
Europeana Newspapers A resource giving access to 18 million historic newspaper pages, freely accessible in the public domain. Aims to convert 10 million newspaper pages to full text. You can search or browse in various ways (title, date, language, library).
Factiva Largely for contemporary newspapers (1980s-). Provides essential news for America and Europe with a collection of more than 10,000 authoritative sources includes thousands of current newspapers. Excellent for national but also local, regional newspapers and specialist or professional news. Much overlap with Nexis UK. If you can't find a newspapers in Factiva, then try also Nexis UK.
Guardian (1821-2003) / Observer (1791-2003) Founded in 1821 as the Manchester Guardian, becoming The Guardian in 1959 (and moving to London in 1964), The Guardian is an important British newspaper which gives readers online access to facts, firsthand accounts, and opinions of the day about the most significant and fascinating political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events from the past 200 years.
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Originally the voice of Manchester’s liberal industrial middle classes, in the past fifty years its readership has included an increasing proportion of public sector workers, and the newspaper has a reputation for following a liberal/ social democratic political stance. Ownership of the newspaper passed to a trust in 1936.

Although it’s a national newspaper, you can see that reports from the provinces are included.

Advertising likewise provide a fascinating insight into daily life and economic history as well as business histories.

Post-2003 issues can be found in Nexis UK or Factiva.
New York Times. 1851-2019 Major US newspaper and useful for tracking events, people, incidents, etc. Fully digitised and available online from 1851-2012 via Databases A-Z. Also available online 1980- via Nexis and Factiva.
Nexis UK Vast database that provides access to over 20,000 news sources from all over the world. Particularly excellent for UK, North American and much of Europe. Its coverage is largely current and recent, but does go back 20 years in some cases. For UK newspapers, generally covers broadsheets from 1980s and tabloids and local/ regional newspapers from more recently. Also include BBC Monitoring Service. Note: Daily Telegraph starts in 2000. FT is embargoed for 30 days. Much overlap with Factiva. If you can't find a newspaper in Nexis UK, then try also Factiva.
Times Digital Archive, The (1785-2019) Arguable the most important British national paper. The subscription doesn’t include Sunday Times and supplements. Supplementary research tools are useful, helping you for instance with old currency. You can find much information on cultural affairs, such as a plays and operas, Law reports and court circulars, etc.
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Post-2011 issues can be found in Nexis UK or Factiva.
Washington Post. 1877-1998 Particularly strong for 20th century history. Also available online 1977- via Nexis and 1984- via Factiva.

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