Best online sources for mid 19C US newspaper archives

February 17, 2010 10:42 PM

Historical Newspaper Archives: I am trying to locate the best online sources for mid 19C newspaper archives for some of the 'second tier' US cities. For instance: the Louisville Democrat and the Louisville Journal from 1851.

For the more major US and UK papers (eg. NYTimes, Times of London) there is Historical Newspapers (sub req), Proquest Historical Newspapers (sub req) and begining in the 1870s there is the Library of Congress' Chronicling America, but I am having trouble finding much that would put me outside of the very major US cities circa 1850.

posted by refractal to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

I have had some decent luck either searching the state library website to see if you can find local specific stuff, or the Making of America sites [1, 2] which cover the years 1850 - 1877. Looks like Kentucky has a lot of this done via their historical society for example. When I'm looking I go to State Library websites, historical societies and sometimes the largest university in the state. I don't know a good source to search many at once from various places except MOA and what you've listed.
posted by jessamyn at 11:24 PM on February 17, 2010

My library subscribes to Newspaper Archive. They have lots of smaller newspapers, but their mid-1800s coverage is spotty- they do have some papers in those dates, but their coverage mainly focuses on the early to mid 1900s. So depending on the paper you're looking for, you may luck out there. It costs money, but the subscription is pretty reasonably priced.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 5:40 AM on February 18, 2010

America's Historical Newspapers is another big subscription-required resource; here's their title list (does have Louisville titles with somewhat spotty date coverage). Again, a pay library resource, so perhaps less helpful than jessamyn's web suggestions.

America's Historical Newspapers also has sub-collections that Your Local Library may subscribe to (rather than the big whole list above); find those here.
posted by lillygog at 9:31 AM on February 18, 2010

Depending on where you are, your public library may have a subscription to Proquest that you can access for free online with your library card. That's definitely the case in San Francisco, anyway.
posted by vickyverky at 11:27 AM on February 18, 2010