# Free for November: Scientific American archives 1845-1909 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964 "2011-11-05T16:46:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/1 "2011-11-05T16:46:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Now through November 30, 2011, you and your patrons will enjoy complimentary access to more than 75,000 articles from classic issues featured in the Scientific American 1845-1909 archive collection. This collection is a treasure trove that includes 65 years of scientific history, breakthroughs, inventions, and triumphs. > **[Institutional Access | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/institutional-access/)** > > Scientific American subscriptions for libraries and univeristies. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/2 "2011-11-05T19:21:39Z")
Thanks for the alert. Yay, SA OA! It looks like this was meant to be for _Nature_ subscribers, but they have inadvertently left it open for everyone. (Or am I misunderstanding?) ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/3 "2011-11-06T01:41:07Z")
I assumed that Sci Am is simply owned by Nature, and it’s meant for everybody. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/4 "2011-11-06T04:50:52Z")
You seem to be right that _Scientific American_ is owned by _Nature_ now, but I can see no sign of this access on the [_Scientific American_ home page](http://www.scientificamerican.com/), or their [archive page](http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammag/issues.cfm) (which only seems to go back to 2001, and only gives ‘teaser’ access to non-subscribers, even for those years). That phrase “you and your patrons” makes me think this access is intended for subscribing libraries (who deserve something, after totally paying through the nose for their _Nature_ subscriptions). However, perhaps I should shut up before someone at the _Nature_ web site notices this thread and closes down access. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/5 "2011-11-06T15:23:32Z")
I wouldn’t worry about that, I don’t recall exactly where I heard about it from but it was some kind of public thing like an RSS feed, likely with much more readers than the SDMB. The cat’s out of the bag. ---
**Author:** ![gracebaynes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed8c4c/32.png) [@gracebaynes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracebaynes)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/6 "2011-11-07T16:04:52Z")
Hi from Nature Publishing Group, _Scientific American_ _is_ part of Nature Publishing Group (who also publish _Nature_). The _Scientific American_ archive is available on [nature.com](http://nature.com), as that is where we provide access to subscribing libraries to \*Scientific American \*and its archives. It isn’t currently available on [scientificamerican.com](http://scientificamerican.com). You’re quite right that usually subscribing libraries need to pay for access to the _Scientific American_ archive. But to celebrate completing the digitization of the archive back to 1845, we’ve made the 1845-1909 collection free to everyone from 1-30 November 2011. You don’t have to be a subscriber, or at a subscribing institution. We hope you find it interesting, and enjoy the articles from this historic collection. Happy to answer any further questions, Grace Baynes Nature Publishing Group ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/7 "2011-11-18T22:27:23Z")
It’s worth noting that _Scientific American_ up to 1869 is permanently available for free through Cornell University’s [Making of America](http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/s/scia/index.html) archive. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/8 "2011-11-20T06:54:44Z")
Shouldn’t everything up to the 1920s or so be in the public domain by now? By making it free for a little while, anyone can now copy it and host a copy, right? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-for-november-scientific-american-archives-1845-1909/601964/9 "2011-11-20T07:04:01Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Shouldn’t everything up to the 1920s or so be in the public domain by now? By making it free for a little while, anyone can now copy it and host a copy, right? Yep. Of course, people who have access to it through libraries and other subscriptions could also have done that previously. Making it free just expands the number of people with access. ETA: Although, if you wanted to do that with all issues from 1870 through 1909, you’d need a fair amount of server space and bandwidth. Each edition appears to be about 10MB, give or take a bit, meaning that 40 years’ worth at about 50 issues a year would take up over 20GB of hard drive space.