Guides: American Studies Research Guide: Primary Sources: Newspapers

Historical Newspapers

New York Times Historical Content This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the complete paper version of the newspaper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format going back to 1851.
Dates Covered: 1851-2017.
Extent: Multidisciplinary

Chicago Tribune-Historical Edition
Contains full text and page images of the entire contents of the Chicago Tribune, including classified ads, advertisements, obituaries, and comics.
Dates Covered: 1849-1990

African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and full-text coverage of newspapers from the 1800s and early 1900s. Includes information on black history and culture, including first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
Chicago Defender - Historical Edition This link opens in a new window
Provides full page and article images with searchable full text of this historically important African American newspaper from 2010 back to the first issue.
Dates Covered: 1910-2010.

Chicago Eagle
1889-[1920?]
Illinois Civil War Newspapers
Created as part of an ambitious effort to digitize a wide range of documents related to the Civil War in Illinois, this site offers access to over 1,900 documents including commentaries from Senator Stephen Douglas, letters from soldiers back home, the draft, and much more. The site also has a search engine that gives visitors the ability to perform a full-text search across all of the articles. Accounts of well known battles in places such as Richmond and Gettysburg can be read through the lenses of small town newspapers in Illinois. Finally, the site also has links to the rest of the digitization projects at Northern Illinois University.
Hyde Park Herald
Access all known copies of the paper from 1882-present. Searchable by date or subject.

HarpWeek This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text archives of Harper's Weekly covering the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
Pennsylvania Gazette, The This link opens in a new window
Published in Philadelphia from 1728 through 1815, The Pennsylvania Gazette is considered The New York Times of the 18th century. It provides the reader with a first hand view of colonial America, the American Revolution and the New Republic, and offers important social, political and cultural perspectives of each of the periods.
Dates Covered: 1728-1815.
Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to full-page images of every issue of The Times (London) from 1785 to 1985.
Dates Covered: 1785-1985. Useful for transnational American Studies inquiries!

Alternative News Sources

Try these sources for news from alternative political or social perspectives.

Alternative Press Index & Archive This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from international alternative, radical, and left periodicals.
Dates Covered: 1969 - Present

Black Panther (via Black Thought and Culture)
Provides full text access to a digital replica of the Black Panther from 1967-1980.
Chicago Defender - Current Issues
Historically important African American newspaper. Back issues available on microfilm.

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Indexes US ethnic and minority publications; with full text.
Dates Covered: 1960-present.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Access note: Freely available to the public.

Center for Research Libraries

The Center for Research Libraries maintains an extensive collection of U.S. and international newspapers. Center materials can be obtained for extended loan periods (3 months, with the ability to renew) and at no cost by by DePaul users.

To identify materials Search for Newspapers at CRL.

Materials must be requested through our Interlibrary Loan service.