Olde Time New York Periodicals Online?
August 2, 2011 4:04 PM Subscribe
Online searchable archives of early 20th century NYC newspapers that are *not* the New York Times?
From time to time I enjoy doing some research on family members who were newsworthy in New York City from 1910 through 1930 or so. The New York Times archives have been a great resource of information. But I know they weren't the only game in town. Any thoughts on how I might search for articles in other local newspapers or periodicals of the time? I know there were several major papers, like the NY Herald, that have since gone out of business or reconstituted in some new form, but I haven't been able to find any way to search for their articles from that time period.
Oh, and I live in Seattle, so assume I can't physically get back to the east coast to do the research. I would gladly pay for access to an archive if the fees were not astronomical. At one point I looked into some sort of remote access to the NYPL system but met roadblocks. Thanks for any ideas!
From time to time I enjoy doing some research on family members who were newsworthy in New York City from 1910 through 1930 or so. The New York Times archives have been a great resource of information. But I know they weren't the only game in town. Any thoughts on how I might search for articles in other local newspapers or periodicals of the time? I know there were several major papers, like the NY Herald, that have since gone out of business or reconstituted in some new form, but I haven't been able to find any way to search for their articles from that time period.
Oh, and I live in Seattle, so assume I can't physically get back to the east coast to do the research. I would gladly pay for access to an archive if the fees were not astronomical. At one point I looked into some sort of remote access to the NYPL system but met roadblocks. Thanks for any ideas!
I can't get in to see what all it covers, but the King County Library System (not Seattle Public) has access to a database called Historical Newspapers (see their Magazines & Newspaper Articles list). Anyone who lives in Seattle can get a card there.
UW also has a bunch of newspaper databases that you could use if you visit the campus.
posted by kbuxton at 4:26 PM on August 2, 2011
UW also has a bunch of newspaper databases that you could use if you visit the campus.
posted by kbuxton at 4:26 PM on August 2, 2011
You can also hunt around in Newspaper Archive, but you'll need to subscribe to see the results.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:37 PM on August 2, 2011
posted by thomas j wise at 4:37 PM on August 2, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks, folks! I will check all of these out. Much appreciated.
posted by bepe at 9:18 PM on August 2, 2011
posted by bepe at 9:18 PM on August 2, 2011
People interested in NY State local history or genealogy should look at fultonhistory.com. It has free archives of old newspapers from across NY State, including (I see from a quick glance at the index) a number from the NYC area. I don't know about that exact range of years, but have a look.
The interface is insane and the OCR work is a bit iffy, but if you're patient and you use boolean and fuzzy searches to get around erroneous OCR, you will probably find what you need. You can download (slowly but free) your finding in PDF files, generally one scanned newspaper page per file, and read the PDF image of the page visually to manually correct for any wacky OCR tricks.
posted by pracowity at 3:36 AM on August 3, 2011
The interface is insane and the OCR work is a bit iffy, but if you're patient and you use boolean and fuzzy searches to get around erroneous OCR, you will probably find what you need. You can download (slowly but free) your finding in PDF files, generally one scanned newspaper page per file, and read the PDF image of the page visually to manually correct for any wacky OCR tricks.
posted by pracowity at 3:36 AM on August 3, 2011
The Brooklyn Public Library has archived the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
posted by cowboy_sally at 9:30 AM on August 3, 2011
posted by cowboy_sally at 9:30 AM on August 3, 2011
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posted by plastic_animals at 4:26 PM on August 2, 2011