Hundreds of historical newspapers are now available in digital format. Some are embedded inside larger digital collections, and many are still only available on microfilm. Use this page as a guide to getting started. Search the UIUC Library Newspaper Database for access to titles in all formats.
Try-It Illinois Trial: Several new databases of historical newspapers are now on trial until Nov. 30. More Info.
(ProQuest titles can be cross-searched.)
Chicago Tribune (1849–1985)
Los Angeles Times (1881–1986)
New York Times (1851–2006)
Wall Street Journal (1889–1990)
Washington Post (1877–1991)
(ProQuest titles can be cross-searched.)
Atlanta Daily World (1931–2003)
Chicago Defender (1905–1975)
Los Angeles Sentinel (1934–2005)
New York Amsterdam News (1922–1993)
Pittsburgh Courier (1911–2002)
London Gazette (London, England) (1900–1997)
Mercurio (Santiago, Chile) (1914–1922)
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland) (1817–1950)
Times (London, England) (1785–1985)
- Browse a list of international digital newspaper titles.
(Maintained by the Center for Research Libraries)
- Many more titles are embedded in the collections listed below.
Barrington Review (1914–1930)
Chicago Defender (1905–1975)
Chicago Examiner (1908–1918)
Chicago Tribune (1849–1985)
Daily Illini (1916–1945)
Dziennik Zwiazkowy (1908–1917)
Flora Journal-Record (1920–1929)
Huntley Farmside (1960–2000)
Hyde Park Herald (1926–2008)
Illinois Bounty Land Register (1835–1836)
Prairie Farmer (1841–1923)
Quincy Daily Herald (1853–1897)
Quincy Daily Journal (1883–1919)
Quincy Daily Whig (1835–1915)
Southern Illinois Journal (1907–1920)
Urbana Daily Courier (1903–1935)
*Daily Illini, 1916-1945 (Univ. of Illinois)
*Eagle, 1925-1996 (American University)
Brown Daily Herald, 1891-1987 incomplete (Brown Univ.)
Cornell Daily Sun, 1880-1979 (Cornell University)
*College Reporter, 1964-1987 (Franklin and Marshall College)
*Hoya, 1959-1980 (Georgetown)
*Gettysburgian, 1897-2004 (Gettysburg College)
*Ithacan, 1926-2002 (Ithaca College)
*Lincolnian, 1925-2003 (Lincoln University of PA)
Oregon Daily Emerald, 2007-2008 (Univ. of Oregon)
Daily Collegian, 1887-1987 (Penn State University)
Collegian, 1914-2006 (Univ. of Richmond)
Yale Daily News, 1878-1981 (Yale University)
* Cross-search these titles in the Collegiate Chronicle, student newspaper repository.
These themed digital collections offer full-text keyword searching and broad geographical coverage.
| Title | Description | Online Access |
| 19th Century U.S. Newspapers | A full-text searchable, facsimile-image database providing access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source U.S. newspaper content from the 19th century | UIUC Only |
| African American Newspapers: The 19th Century | A collection of African-American newspapers contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s | UIUC Only |
| America's Historical Newspapers Series 1 | Includes searchable American newspapers in digital format. Available: Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876. | UIUC Only |
| American Periodicals Series Online | APS Online spans over 1,500 titles and 7 million pages of content, from the first American magazines published in 1741, to the World War II period | UIUC Only |
| British Newspapers 1600-1900 | Cross-searchable database of British Library content from the 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers database and the 19th Century British Library Newspapers database. | UIUC Only |
| Chronicling America (Library of Congress) | View newspaper pages from 1880 to 1910 from the following states: California, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. (More states will be added.) | Freely Available |
| Google News Archive Search | Google News Archive Search searches across a large collection of historical archives including major newspapers/magazines, news archives and legal archives. Search results include both content that is accessible to all users (such as BBC News, Time Magazine and Guardian) and content that requires a fee (such as Washington Post Archives, Newspaper Archive, and New York Times Archives). A complete title list is not currently available. | Freely Available |
| Hispanic American Newspapers 1808-1980 | Searchable digital archive of Hispanic American Newspapers published between 1808-1980. (Readex Archive of Americana) | UIUC Only |
| Latin American Newspapers | Latin American Newspapers, a sub-collection of the World Newspaper Archive, will include approximately 35 fully searchable newspapers printed throughout this region in the 19th and 20th centuries. | UIUC Only |
| ProQuest Historical Newspapers | Cross-search the historical archives of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and more. | UIUC Only |
| World Newspaper Archive | The World Newspaper Archive is a collaborative effort of CRL member institutions and Readex to preserve and provide persistent access to historical newspapers from around the globe. This preliminary release provides more than 60,000 pages of El Mercurio (Santiago, Chile) as part of the Latin American Newspapers sub-collection. | UIUC Only |
Major collections of digitized U.S. newspapers are listed here. Browse/Search the UIUC Library Newspaper Database for access to hundreds of newspaper titles. Use drop down boxes to limit by state.
| Title | Description | Online Access |
| Barnstable Patriot Newspaper Archive | From Barnstable County, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This archive covers issues from the paper's first century, 1830-1930. | Freely Available |
| Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online | Digitized pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York. | Freely Available |
| Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey | Published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Work Projects Administration of Illinois, this collection's purpose was to translate into English and classify selected news articles appearing in the Chicago area foreign language press from 1861 to 1938. The project consists of a file of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities in Chicago. UIUC Library has digitized this collection. Microfilm is also available in HPNL (FILM 070.484 C43CH). | Freely Available |
| Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection | Includes 86 newspapers published in Colorado from 1859 to 1928. | Freely Available |
| Farm, Field and Fireside | The Farm, Field and Fireside collection contains historically significant U.S. farm weeklies published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is a locally developed project of the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library at the University of Illinois. | Freely Available |
| Florida Digital Newspaper Library | The Florida Digital Newspaper Library includes historic Florida newspapers and current papers digitized instead of being microfilmed. | Freely Available |
| Freedom's Journal | Freedom's Journal was the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the US from 1827 to 1829. All 103 issues have been digitized. | Freely Available |
| Friend of Man at Cornell University Library | A near-comprehensive collection of The Friend of Man, an early reform era and abolitionist paper published in Central New York State. The archive includes 281 issues, from 1836-1842. | Freely Available |
| Georgia Historic Newspapers (GALILEO) | A collection of digitized historical newspapers published in Georgia. Currently contains the Cherokee Phoenix (1828-1833), the Colored Tribune (1876), and the Dublin Post (1878-1887). More papers are forthcoming. | Freely Available |
| Hawaiian Language Newspapers | University of Hawaii's online archive of several Hawaiian language newspapers. | Freely Available |
| Historic Missouri Newspaper Project | Online archive of historic newspapers from St. Louis and other locations throughout the state of Missouri. Some issues go back to the late 1800s. | Freely Available |
| Huntley Farmside (Huntley, Illinois) | Online archive of historic newspapers from Huntley, Illinois published between June 30, 1960 through December 28, 2000. | Freely Available |
| Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection | Digital facsimiles of historic Illinois newspapers, freely available over the web. This is a locally developed project of UIUC Library | Freely Available |
| Kentuckiana Digital Library | Digital collection of historic Kentucky newspapers. | Freely Available |
| Northern New York Historical Newspapers | Northern New York Historical Newspapers provides indexed access to selected historical newspapers from Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence counties in New York state. | Freely Available |
| Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers | Online archive of select PA newspapers published during or around the time of the American Civil War. | Freely Available |
| Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project | The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project is composed of The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present). | Freely Available |
| Quincy Historical Newspaper Archive | Digital archive of the Quincy Daily Whig and Quincy Daily Herald from Qunicy, Illinois. | Freely Available |
| Stars and Stripes | The American Soldiers' newspaper of World War I. Includes the complete seventy-one-week run of the newspaper's World War I edition. | Freely Available |
| Suffolk Historic Newspapers | Suffolk Historic Newspapers is a centralized, searchable collection of historic newspapers published in Suffolk County, New York. | Freely Available |
| Utah Digital Newspapers | Digitized historic newspapers published in Utah during the late 1800's into the 1900's. | Freely Available |
| Winona Newspaper Project | A digital archive of three newspapers from Winona County, Minnesota: the Argus, the Daily Republican, and the Republican Herald. Contents span the late 19th and early 20th centuries. | Freely Available |
| Wyoming Newspaper Project | Discover the stories that formed Wyoming, through the Wyoming Newspaper Project. Currently provides access to newspapers printed in Wyoming between 1849 and 1922, in an easily searchable format. | Freely Available |
Major collections of digitized newspapers from around the world are listed here. Browse/Search the UIUC Library Newspaper Database for access to hundreds of titles. Use drop down boxes to limit by country. Also browse a list of international digital newspaper projects (Maintained by the Center for Research Libraries).
| Title | Description | Online Access |
| Afghanistan Digital Library | Contains select issues of periodicals and newspapers, including Shams al-nahar, the first newspaper published in Afghanistan, Anis (Apr. 27, 1931-Apr. 25 1932), and Mu'arrif-i ma'arif. Page images only. | Freely Available |
| ANNO: Austrian Newspaper Online | Includes archives of historical Austrian Newspapers, in German | Freely Available |
| Australian Newspapers (National Library of Australia) | Historic Australian Newspapers from 1803 to 1954. Ongoing project of the National Library of Australia. | Freely Available |
| Australian Periodical Publications 1840-1845 | The Australian Periodical Publications 1840-1845 component of the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project (ACDP) provides web access to digital copies of Australian serials first published between 1840 and 1845. The digitised copies were produced from microfilm. In most cases, new microfilm was produced so that a suitable digital image could be produced. | Freely Available |
| Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Bavarian State Library, includes archives of Coburger Zeitung, in German | Freely Available |
| Belgian Press Collection | A small digital collection of Belgian Newspapers dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. | Freely Available |
| Biblioteca Nacional de Espana | A large digital collection of Spanish newspapers from the National Library of Spain. | Freely Available |
| British Library Online Newspaper Archive | Access to selected, searchable facsimile issues of London's Daily News, The News of the World and The Weekly Dispatch, and The Manchester Guardian | Freely Available |
| British Periodicals I & II | British Periodicals traces the development and growth of the periodical press in Britain from its origins in the seventeenth century through to the Victorian 'age of periodicals' and beyond. | UIUC Only |
| Compact Memory | Compact Memory: Internetarchiv Jüdischer Periodika. Archive of Jewish periodicals from 1806 to 1938, in German | Freely Available |
| Early Alberta Newspaper Collection | The Alberta Newspaper Collection contains Alberta, Canada newspaperss from 1880 to 1950. | Freely Available |
| Early Hebrew Newspapers | Archive of major titles of the early Hebrew press (19th and early 20th century). | Freely Available |
| Gallica – National Library of France (BNF) | Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothéque nationale de France, hosts numerous newspaper titles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable titles currently include Le Figaro (1826-1942), Le Temps (1861-1937), La Croix (1880-1944), L'Humanité (1904-1944), La Presse (1836-1922), and Le Journal des débats (1814-1944), among others. More titles forthcoming. | Freely Available |
| German-Language Exile Journals 1933-1945 | In this project, the Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933 - 1945 of Die Deutsche Bibliothek digitalised select exile newspapers and journals held by it, and supplemented by the Sammlung Exil-Literatur 1933 - 1945 of the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig and other libraries. | Freely Available |
| La Presse Quotidien | Online archive of historic French newspapers from the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, reflecting political, economic, literary, artistic and scientific thought of the times. | Freely Available |
| Luxemburgensia Online | Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg: Luxemburgensia Online. National Library of Luxeumbourg, in French | Freely Available |
| Manitobia: Life and Time | A rich archive of newspapers, images, and other primary source material chronicling the history of Manitobia Canada. | Freely Available |
| Multicultural Canada | A collection of audio files, published text such as books and newspapers, and unpublished text which document the multicultural influences that have contributed to Canada’s history. | Freely Available |
| National Library of Greece: e-fimeris | Online archive of several Greek historical newspapers. Links to English site. | Freely Available |
| National Library of Latvia | Online archive of several Latvian titles. Links to English site. | Freely Available |
| Papers Past (New Zealand) | Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1932 and includes 52 publications from all regions of New Zealand. | Freely Available |
| Prince George Newspapers Project | Daily newspaper covering Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Includes every edition from their first year, 1916, through 1961. | Freely Available |
| Sächsische Landesbibliothek | Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden - Historische Zeitungen und Zeitschriften contains digitized images of newspapers from the region of Saxony. Contains Leipziger Zeitungen (1740), Sachsenzeitung (1830-1834), and others. | Freely Available |
| Special Editions of Canadian Newspapers | From the National Library of Canada, this collection consists of special color supplements to historical newspapers published in Canada. | Freely Available |
| Thai Newspaper Collection (World War II) | Digital Collection of three Newspapers published in Thailand during the World War II. This collection includes some issues which are hard to find in Thailand. All three agencies are not in existence at present. | Freely Available |
| Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg - Zeitschriften und Zeitungen | A small collection of German language 19th and early-to-mid 20th century newspapers from the University of Heidelberg. | Freely Available |
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