Don't know if your hometown had a newspaper for a certain year? Search the Newspaper Directory from the Library of Congress to find what newspapers were in print for specific times and places. The directory allows you to search for counties and cities within a state.
What were people in the past reading?
Studying the media that people encountered in the past is a great way to consider what people were thinking and talking about in the past. Publications include a wide range of formats, including books, pamphlets, newspapers, and most recently, websites and social media.
When analyzing a publication, consider the following?
Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans. The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable. Contains over 36,000 imprints and more than 2.5 million images.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801–1819 provides a comprehensive set of American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century. It is based on the noted “American Bibliography, 1801–1819” by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. With more than four million pages from over 36,000 items—including 1,000 catalogued new items unavailable in previous microform editions—this digital edition from Readex is an essential complement to Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639–1800, the definitive resource for researching 17th- and 18th-century America.
History Commons provides diverse primary sources from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, reflecting broad views across American history and culture, including African American life, Women’s Suffrage, American County Histories, Colonial America, the Civil War, America in World War I, and much more. The databases allow access to the rich store of materials—eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, and commerce as seen through advertisements—from over 200 years of leading books, newspapers, and periodicals then current.
Abbreviation: aacarc
Vendor: Coherent Digital
Subjects: African-American Studies, History, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Newspapers and Newswires
Searchable digital facsimiles of thousands of newspaper titles from all 50 states. With eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries and much more, this collection chronicles the evolution of American culture and daily life from the colonial era to the early twentieth century, with especially good coverage of the nineteenth century. Note: FSU has access to African American Newspapers, Series 1; Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1; Early American Newspapers, Series 1: From Colonies to Nation; Series 2: The New Republic; Series 3: From Farm to City; Series 4: The Rise of Industry; Series 5: An Emerging World Power; Series 12: The Specialized Press.
Abbreviation: eana
Vendor: NewsBank
Coverage: 1690–1922
Subjects: Communication, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
Indigenous Newspapers in North America aims to present a diverse and robust collection of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada over more than 9,000 individual editions from 1828–2016.
Abbreviation: aminews
Vendor: Adam Matthew Digital Ltd
Coverage: 1828–2016
Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
This resource reveals the story of war as told by the newspapers that brought information, entertainment and camaraderie to the forces at home and overseas. Explore over 200 titles from key nations across the globe that took part in the world-changing conflict. The collection consists of newspapers published during the war years and the immediate aftermath (1939–1948). Titles from all the key theatres are featured, including some non-English material in German, Czech, Hindi, Russian, French, Italian, Afrikaans, Swahili, and other African dialects.
Abbreviation: snww2
Vendor: Adam Matthew Digital Ltd
Coverage: 1939–1948
Subjects: History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
Additional databases that cover a single newspaper title:
Asahi Shimbun Cross-Search from the Asahi Shimbun Company is the largest newspaper article database in Japan. It includes 15 million articles and advertisements from more than 135 years of the newspaper, from its first edition in 1879 Meiji 12) to today. The database also contains articles from the magazines 'AERA' and 'Shukan Asahi', a Historical Photo Archive database of approximately 10 thousand photographic records mostly taken in Asia during the World War II period, an English-language News Database, Asahi Graph, Who's Who database, Image Database of Regional pages, and contemporary Dictionary Chiezo.
Abbreviation: kikuzo
Vendor: Asahi Shimbun Company
Coverage: 1879–Current
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
People's Daily is the most influential and authoritative newspaper in China. It is the official voice of the central government of the People's Republic of China. For the last 70 years, the People's Daily has published daily issues that provide the single location where the central government and the Communist Party of China announce their respective policies and disseminate governmental, political, and economic messages to the public and the world. Most importantly, since its inception the newspaper has been the true barometer of the political climate of Chinese society on a daily basis. Access limited to 2 users.
Abbreviation: renmin
Vendor: Ori Probe Information Service
Coverage: 1946–Current
Subjects: Asian Studies, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires
For a more complete listing of newspapers available at FSU, visit the main Newspapers guide.
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