Research Guides: JOUR 49203 and AAST 49203 History of the Black Press: Historical Newspapers

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Historical Newspapers - Research Strategies

There are two different strategies for working with historical newspapers:

Locating articles on specific topics

For this technique you will need:

a digital version of a paper
see these lists of historical newspapers available to campus or freely available to all
an index to a specific paper
the patience to browse through a paper in a specific time period.

Locating entire papers from specific places or time periods

For this technique you will need:

to search OneSearch for a place and keyword "newspaper" together
example: chicago newspapers
to consult directories or catalogs of papers.
Once you identify papers of interest, you can look them up under journal title in OneSearch or request them on Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad), You can then browse them for local news and events.

Historical Newspapers Online - UofA Only

The following resources are listed in roughly chronological order, from oldest to most recent.

19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A fully-searchable, facsimile archive of hundreds of U.S. papers, including the Arkansas Gazette (1819-1898), Arkansas Democrat (1846-1899), the Arkansas State Gazette (1836-1865), and the Morning Republican (Little Rock, 1867-1875)
African American Newspapers (Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1827-1909, Includes the full text of titles such as Freedom's Journal, Frederick Douglass' Paper, and the Freedman's Record.
African American Newspapers: Series 1, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 270 African American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Created in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress, African American Newspapers chronicles a century and a half of the African American experience. Includes issues from the Arkansas Freeman (1869), the Arkansas Mansion (1883-1884), the Arkansas State Press (1941- 1959), and Homeland (Forrest City, 1991-1999).
African American Newspapers: Series 2, 1835-1956 This link opens in a new window
Offers full text newspapers from locations such as Helena, AR, Wichita, KS, Springfield, MO, Nashville and Seattle. Because of the scarcity of surviving copies, may papers are represented by only a few issues or even one day. A companion to African American Newspapers Series I.
America's News This link opens in a new window
New! Offers page images for current issues of many papers.
Covers: varies by title but mostly 1990s-. Offers full text of local, regional, and national U.S. news sources, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Includes both printed and online newspapers, blogs, journals, newswires, broadcast transcripts and videos. Browse by place of publication or search for keywords in stories.
Chicago Defender 1910-1975 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Includes the full image of articles published in the Chicago Defender from 1910 to 1975. The Chicago Defender was the most influential African-American newspaper of the 20th century. With the majority of its readership outside the Chicago region, it served as the de facto national black newspaper in the U.S. You can browse individual issues by clicking Publications at the top of the screen, or search by keyword(s), author(s), article title, date ranges, and more. Includes illustrations and advertisements.
Civil War Collection This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1860-1865. Offers newspaper articles, memoirs, pamphlets, and regimental histories. Includes some pre-war abolitionist materials.
Early American Newspapers, Series 1: From Colonies to Nation This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1690-1876. Offers the full text and pages images of American newspapers the 18th and early 19th centuries, this online collection is based on Clarence S. Brigham’s “History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820”
Frank Leslie's Weekly This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1855-1922. The full text and page images of the American illustrated literary and news publication.
Indigenous Newspapers in North America This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1828-2016. Aims to present a diverse and robust collection of print journalism from Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada Includes papers from Talaquah, Atoka, Pawhuska, and Lawton Oklahoma.
Liberator This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1831-1865. Offers the full text of William Lloyd Garrison's weekly abolitionist newspaper.
NewspaperArchive.com This link opens in a new window
Provides a searchable archive of Southeastern papers, included those from Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Includes Arkansas newspapers from Fayetteville, Blytheville, Benton, Camden, Harrison, Hope, and Gentry.
New York Times, 1851-2019 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Provides the full archive of the New York Times, from the first date of issue. View retrieved articles as PDFs or view the entire newspaper page for context. The detailed indexes, which cover 1851-1993, allow one to search by named person, company name, place, or type of article (editorial, obituary, review, etc.)
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Covers: varies; most newspapers are 1990s-; legal materials extend back to the 19th century. Offers news, legal, and business information from both English language and international sources, including newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services, broadcast transcripts as well as directories, corporate profiles, SEC Filings, business, industry and market news, federal and state case law, codes and regulations, law reviews and much more.
Pennsylvania Gazette This link opens in a new window
Covers 1728-1800. Full-text articles from the most widely-read colonial and early national American newspaper.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1893-1988 . Offers cover-to-cover index and full text from the widely-distributed African American paper.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1881-1995 . Provides the full archive of the Los Angeles Times. View retrieved articles as PDFs or view the entire newspaper page for context.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Amsterdam News This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1922-1993. Provides cover-to-cover indexing and full text page scans of the influential African-American paper.
Service Newspapers of World War Two This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1939-1945. Offers page images and full text from more than 300 military newspapers, including titles from Poland, East Africa, Nepal, and Rhodesia in addition to the Allied and Axis major powers.
South Carolina Newspapers, 1732-1780 This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1732 - 1780. Offers the full text of colonial-era newspapers, including The South Carolina Gazette (1732–1775), The South Carolina & American General Gazette (1764–1775), The South Carolina Gazette & Country Journal (1765–1775), and The Gazette of the State of South-Carolina (1777–1780).
Times Digital Archive, 1785-Onwards This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1785-[5 years ago]. Provides a fully searchable archive of this major world newspaper back to the 18th century, including both page images and search text transcription.
Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780 This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1736-1780. The first colonial newspaper published in the South.
Wall Street Journal 1889-2012 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1889 - 2012. Offers the fully searchable text and page images from the newspaper.
Women's Suffrage Collection This link opens in a new window
Covers 1812-1923. Offers U.S. periodicals, newspapers, and books promoting women's suffrage as well as some anti-suffrage publications.
World Newspaper Archive: African Newspapers Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1800-1922. Provides access to more than 40 fully searchable African newspapers. Features titles from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Languages include English, German, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sotho, and others.

Other Resources

Freedman's Journal
Call Number: Periodicals-Microfilm E185.2 .F857
Publication Date: 1855-1866

Ethnic Newswatch
Covers 1990-. Includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. It includes unique community publications as well as scholarly journals on ethnicity and ethnic studies. The publications offer both national and regional coverage. Nearly a quarter of the articles are in Spanish.

Historical Newspapers Online - Free to All

African American Newspapers Online
This Research Guide from Marist College lists dozens of online papers; most are freely available.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1841‐1902
Important urban paper for the late 19th century
Chronicling America, 1770-1963
This project at the Library of Congress offers digitized papers from all states and provides a directory of papers published since 1960. Search by keyword, browse by date or place, or limit to dates or ethnic groups.
Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection, 1858‐1929
Offers at least some years from most counties
Georgia Historic Newspapers, c. 1800-1900
Offers several 19th century newspapers, including the Cherokee Phoenix (1828-1824)
Guardian Index, 1791-2004
A searchable index of the Manchester Guardian and Observer. The Libraries have the Guardian on microfilm at Library Annex Cabinets DA690.M4 M2 for 1821-1950; other years can be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).
Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press Collection
This collection from the University of Arizona Libraries documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.
ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers
This database from the Center for Research Llbraries is the most comprehensive source of information about significant newspaper collections in print, digital and micro formats. Search by title, keyword, place, or years of publication.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1960s - 1980s. "An Open Access Collection of the Alternative Press." that chronicles the transformative decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s through the lens of an independent alternative press. Provides more than 1,000 titles from the special collections of dozens of libraries, including the University of Arkansas. Includes the powerful voices of feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, gays, lesbians and more.

Missouri Digital Heritage: Historical Newspapers, 1836-
A project to digitize papers from every county.
NewspaperCat: Catalog of Digital Historic Newspapers
Search more than 1,000 U.S. and Caribbean newspapers by title, place, or keyword.
U.S. Historical Newspapers
Although it has not been updated since 2019, this comprehensive guide from Bowling Green State University provides links by state.
Utah Digital Newspapers, c.1850s‐1930s
Especially useful for the territorial period

Arkansas Newspaper Search

Looking for Arkansas news from a particular place or time?

Use our Arkansas Newspaper Search to identify papers by county, city, or time period.

Note that not all location / decade combinations may be available.

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Please note that while we make every effort to include new electronic holdings, not all new electronic papers may be included. Ask us if you have questions about a specific locale or paper.