It seems frequently that when someone has a question about some obscure news event which occured in, say, 1923, samclem pops in with a detailed response from the precisely correct article to address that issue, which might be from the New York Times or perhaps from the North Haverbrook Times-Picayune-Bee.
What newspaper search tool is being applied here? It’s very cool…
In about 1993 I was using Lexis-Nexis for an internship and I don’t recall it having coverage much beyond a few years earlier. Of course in technology years that was forever ago…
My money’s on Newspaper Archive, which goes wayyyyy back. I’m thinking of ponying up for a year’s membership myself, because of a blog I’m working on combined with general curiosity.
That looks like a great site, but I can’t find any info on that page that tells what newspapers they archive, or what years, or any useful information at all, not even in the FAQs.
To answer Exapno’s question about the list of newspapers at Newspaperarchive, go to the home page, click on “Browse Available Papers” which is on their black toolbar across the top of their page, and you’ll get a map of the US. Below the map it says “browse by date.” NOTE: the default dates are 2006 to 2006. CHANGE the first date to whatever makes you happy. Try 1900.
You should then get a list of papers that are available during that period.
BUT, in no case is the entire issue of that paper available. In many cases, only a few days/weeks/months are. In other cases, years are.
BUT, the overall information is excellent. And their search engine isn’t too bad. You just have to learn how to tweak it a bit.
The other database I pay to access is ProQuest Historical Newspapers, the version available through SABR. This costs $60. US/yr. and is the bargain of the century. The list of papers available by joining them is
Thanks, sam. I thought it was a site you had mentioned in the past. I’m always bothered, though, by commercial operations who make it difficult to see ahead of time what you’re paying for. When a business starts out that way how can you trust it later on?
I should say that many local libraries and Universities in the US have access to ProQuest Historical newspapers, but quite often in versions that only pick up one or two titles. And quite often, the licensing by ProQuest only allows them to be used in that library, not remotely accessed. But some ARE accessible remotely. I’m sure that you can also get Newspaperarchive and Ancestry.com in many public libraries, but you have to use them there.
I think spending about $150/yr. is worth it to me to have this access from home 24/7. But I use it quite a bit for looking for word/phrase origins in conjunction with other interests such as the American Dialect Society Mailing List, and various word sites.
When they started, the info was very easy to find. Their website was more easily navigated, and you could call up the papers and dates rather fast. Like other things in life, they get more complicated as they grow.
Before paying for your own subscription, you might want to see if your library has a subscription. I can access the ProQuest New York Times (1851-2002) entry from my home computer via the library network, for example.
I’d like to second that, and add that I also subscribe to PaperOfRecord.com. They have mostly candian newspapers, but also the complete run of The Sporting News (1886-2003).