LibGuides: History: News sources

Historical Newspapers and periodicals collection

LGBT magazine archive
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. Some publications may contain explicit content.

Spare Rib magazine
Spare Rib was an active part of the emerging Women’s Liberation Movement in the late 20th century. Running from 1972-93, this now iconic magazine challenged the stereotyping and exploitation of women, while supporting collective, realistic solutions to the hurdles women faced.

Visitors to this site can explore selected highlights from the magazine; and examine how the magazine was run, why it was started and the issues it dealt with. The full run of Spare Rib magazines can be accessed here.

British Newspapers 1600-1950 (via NewsVault)
The most comprehensive digital historic newspaper archive.
Gale News Vault
Cross-searches SHU's collection of Gale historical newspapers, comprising Newspapers from British Library from 1757 to 1950 and The Times, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Economist, TLS Historical Archives. With the power to search millions of digitized facsimile pages, Gale NewsVault provides an unparalleled window to the past.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
A collection of historic newspapers including The Guardian (1821-2003); Observer (1791-2003); New York Times (1851-2010); Times of India (1838-2004). News, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, photos and advertisements in downloadable pdf format.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA)
UK and US music, film and entertainment magazines from the twentieth century. Includes titles such as Variety, NME, Melody Maker, Billboard and The Stage.
17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
Digitised resource, based on the collection of Rev. Charles Burney (1757-1817), which contains approximately 1,270 titles. It includes newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides and some general periodicals, such as The Tatler and The Spectator.
19th Century British Newspapers
A collection of 178 national and regional newspapers chosen by the British Library to represent 19th Century Britain. The emphasis is on newspapers which helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism and Home Rule. Every front page, editorial, birth and death notice, advertisement and classified ad is accessible.
19th Century UK Periodicals, Series 1 - New readerships: Women and children, sports and leisure, humour and satire
New Readerships comprises 92 Victorian periodicals in a searchable and browseable digital format. The focus is on the growth of publishing in the 19th Century. Covers children, humour, leisure & sport, politics, religion, and women. Includes Punch (1841-1900). Complements British Periodicals.
British Periodicals
Full text facsimiles of archives and magazines from the late 17th to the early 20th century.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers: All Digitized Newspapers 1836-1922
A really useful collection of American historical newspapers available FREE thanks to the Library of Congress and the National Endowment of the Humanities. It can be searched as a collection or browsed individually. There is a useful Advanced Search option, as well as a link to All Digitized papers 1836-1922 (1,367). I found that once I had chosen a newspaper and opened a thumbnail image, that the All Issues link worked effectively as a Calendar, in helping to home in on a specific newspaper issue. You can download the list of newspapers, which includes hyperlinks to additional historical information.

UK Newspapers

Times Digital Archive 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page.
The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Contains scanned image and PDF of articles from the Times newspaper.
Can search for specific date or keyword search.
Includes Google search for related images in a keyword search and has link to Merrian-Webster Collegiate Dictionary during search session.
Sunday Times Digital Archive 1822-2006 This link opens in a new window
Since 1822, The Sunday Times has provided thoughtful analysis and commentary on the week's news and society at large, including Murder, theatre, sport and politics. With more than 800,000 pages, The Sunday Times Digital Archive is a gateway to the greatest crimes, careers and culture of the last 180 years.
Guardian, The (1821-2003) and Observer, The (1791-2003) This link opens in a new window
The Guardian and The Observer, provide facts, first-hand accounts, and opinions on political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events for the past 200 years. Full text with article images in PDF format.
Daily Mail Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2004) comprises 6.7 million + articles in a fully searchable and browseable digital format, with advertisements, news stories and images.
Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Economist Historical Archive delivers a complete searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2010. Full-colour images, multiple search indexes, and the facility to browse each and every issue - all combine to offer a unique primary source covering the 19th and 20th centuries.
Terms of use.Advanced search allows searching of entire document or limiting to words in title, author, keyword, issue or document. Searches can also be limited to date range and/or section. You can also browse whole issues by date.
British Newspapers 1600-1950 (via NewsVault) This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive digital historic newspaper archive.
Includes 17-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers Includes 19th Century British Library Newspapers 3 million pages of historic newspapers, newsbooks & ephemera National & Regional papers from British Isles
British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains almost 154,000 individual cartoons comprising British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons/images from 1790-2011, supported by large collections of comic strips, photos, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines, plus biographical data. Artwork available online mostly dates from 1904 to now.
It has work by 350 leading cartoonists, including Strube, Low, Vicky and Giles. Images (e.g. of Prime Ministers from Pitt the younger to David Cameron) can be downloaded and used for educational purposes, including high resolution images. Registered users can create teaching packs: web groups of cartoons (light boxes) which can be used as teaching aids, projects, or online exhibitions. For publication purposes, digital images with copyright details can be ordered through the feedback section.

International newspapers

Nexis This link opens in a new window
Nexis is a major full text database for global news and business information. It gives access to over 35,000 sources, with more than 12,000 international news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals.

Alternative link - please note that, the first time you use this link, you will be asked to enter your first name and last name in order to access Nexis.
Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.
New York Times, The (1851-2010) with Index (1851-1993 ) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times provides coverage of politics, society & events from 1851 to 2010. The Index (up to 1993) uses subject terms & topics in combination with full text, full page & article-level images from the New York Times archive.
Washington Post, The (1877-1997) This link opens in a new window
The Washington Post is the leading source of political and governmental coverage in the U.S.A.
Wall Street Journal, The (1889-1996) This link opens in a new window
An important newspaper for business and financial news, economic analysis, market & company evaluations. Focuses not only on the stock market, but on all aspects of global business, economics, consumer affairs, trends and issues. Full text Includes charts, stock tables, graphics, and illustrations.
Times of India, The (1838-2004) This link opens in a new window
The Times of India provides coverage of the politics, society and events from 1838 to 2004, ranging from British rule, the Indian mutiny, Post-Colonial development, Kashmir, Pakistan, Gandhi, Bhopal, the Indian film industry and sport
Keesing's World News Archive This link opens in a new window
Keesing's World News Archive is a web-based database comprising more than 95,000 articles, first from 1931-87 as Keesing's Contemporary Archives, and then as Keesing's Record of World Events from 1987 to the present. SHU has full access to the last 12 months.

Photo credit: Brushing up by Jenn Vargas (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Broadcast news sources

Alexander Street Media Plus This link opens in a new window
This service contains more than 100,000 videos, images, and sound recordings.The collections include: a selection of historic newsreel from British Paramount News, Channel 4 and 5 News, Gaumont British News and Gaumont Graphic Newsreel, ITN, ITV, Reuters, Roving Report and Visnews.8,000 clips from Getty (moving images) and c.12,000 images from Getty (still images),The University of Brighton Design Archives.Wellcome Film with c. 450 titles from 1912 onwards.
It is important to check terms of use before using any of resources as copyright will vary from collection to collection. It is important to check terms of use before using any of resources as copyright will vary from collection to collection.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) This link opens in a new window
Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports, 1974-1996 provide a window on the world from non-USA sources, offering international perspectives on local, national and regional events as they unfolded, through translations and transcriptions of foreign media reports.
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports is an important record of political open source intelligence. The original mission was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Many of these materials are first-hand reports of events as they occurred. They provide a fascinating insight into the second half of the 20th century. Translated as needed, these English language materials constitute an indispensable tool for all serious students of political science, world history and more. This fully searchable edition of FBIS Daily Reports published between 1974 and 1996 comprises 8 parts: (1) Middle East, Africa, Near East and South Asia; (2) Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia, (3) China, (4) Asia, Pacific and East Asia, (5) Latin America, (6) Eastern Europe, (7) Soviet Union and Central Eurasia, and (8) Western Europe.

British Pathe
British Pathé is one of the oldest media companies in the world. Their roots lie in 1890s Paris where their founder, Charles Pathé, pioneered the development of the moving image. They were established in London in 1902, and by 1910 were producing their famous bi-weekly newsreel the Pathé Gazette. After the First World War they started producing various Cinemagazines as well. By 1930 they were producing the Gazette, the Pathetone Weekly, the Pathé Pictorial and Eve's Film Review, covering entertainment, culture and womens' issues.
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British Pathé (1896-1976) started in Paris and was established in London in 1902. When Pathé stopped producing cinema newsreel in 1970 it had accumulated 3,500 hours of filmed history (90,000 videos) which has been used around the world in TV programmes, home videos, adverts, corporate work and web publishing. Users can view/buy the films, but clips can't be used for educational purposes (for which use JISC MediaHub). Whereas all professional usages still require a licence fee we are delighted to be able to offer free "preview" facilities on this site. You can view and buy films and still photographs from the archive of 90,000 videos covering newsreel, sports footage, social history documentaries, entertainment and music stories from 1896 to 1976.
BUFVC: News on Screen
'News on Screen' is a part of the British Universities Film & Video Council website. It contains information on newsreels with links to British Pathe, Movietone and JISC MediaHub.
BBC Home Service Nine P.M. News Transcripts 1939-1945
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A reproduction of the newsreaders' typescripts for the nightly radio news broadcast of the BBC throughout World War 2. The broadcasts provide information on domestic affairs as well as the war, and reflect the development of the vigorous, reliable news reporting for which the BBC became renowned. In some cases missing pages have been replaced by another bulletin for that day. Sometimes there are no extant bulletins, so an explanatory caption is reproduced.
The BBC Home Service nine o'clock news, 1939-1945 [MICROFICHE]
A reproduction of the newsreaders' typescripts for the nightly radio news broadcast of the BBC throughout the second World War. The broadcasts also provide information on domestic affairs.