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Early American Newspapers

1690-1922

An essential record of America across three centuries —available by series, era or decade
Summary
Learn what makes these products unique
  • The single most comprehensive online resource for searching and browsing early American newspapers
  • Thousands of fully searchable historical newspapers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
  • Flexible ways to meet collection needs: by series, by place of publication, by era or by decade

As the first draft of history, American newspapers have preserved essential records and detailed accounts of the people, issues and events that shaped the nation for hundreds of years. In the 1800s, American newspapers were often published by small-town printers and reflected the interests and values of the communities they served. But as the country grew and changed, so too did its newspapers. In the 19th century, the number of titles published rose dramatically, and newspapers were transformed by an increasing emphasis on society, industry, scientific advances, investigative journalism and human-interest stories. By the early 20th century, nearly every town in the United States had its own newspaper.

An essential digital record of American history, culture and daily life
This expanding digital collection of early American newspapers is the most extensive resource of its kind. Currently featuring more than 6,000 titles from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Early American Newspapers provides an unparalleled record of daily life in hundreds of diverse American communities. Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, legislative updates, letters, poetry, advertisements, election returns, matrimony and death notices, maps, cartoons, illustrations and more, these historical newspapers offer researchers essential local and national perspectives on American history, culture and daily life across three centuries.  Advanced capabilities allow users to search or browse by date or era, by language, by place of publication or individual title. Users can easily view, magnify, print and save digital images of whole issues, pages and individual articles.

More than 90 sources and superior bibliographic control
Early American Newspapers has been created through partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, the Library of Congress, the Wisconsin Historical Society and more than 90 other institutions. This joint effort has led to the creation of a historical newspaper collection of unparalleled breadth and depth. A distinguished academic advisory board guides the title selection process.

Flexible ways to acquire Early American Newspapers
Long available by series, Early American Newspapers is now also available by both era and decade. Use these new options to meet specific teaching or research needs, or create a complete collection by selecting one or more time periods at a time. In addition, Early American Newspapers can be acquired by U.S. region and/or state through Early American Newspapers: By Place of Publication.

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Reviews & Accolades

Readex, a division of NewsBank, has been publishing primary research materials for over 60 years and has partnered with the American Antiquarian Society for almost that long. The latest collaborative effort has resulted in the release of Series 10, 1730-1900 and Series 11, 1803-1899 in its Early American Newspapers collection...Series 10 adds more than 440 new titles, including Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette and many major political organs of their time, such as the National Intelligencer and The Chicago RepublicanSeries 11 adds 130 titles, including those such as the New York Herald, New York World, Cherokee Advocate, and the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin....

"Readex's expanding collection of historical US newspapers offers excellent breadth and depth—an unparalleled resource for all who pursue historical research in a great range of academic disciplines, as well as journalists, teachers, and genealogists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic audiences; professionals/practitioners; general readers."
— J. A. Knapp, Penn State University, reviewing Early American Newspapers, Series 10 and 11, in Choice (Dec. 2015)

 

“The Early American Newspapers collection contains over 2,000 newspapers of historical importance, both at the national and the local level, including the Pennsylvania Gazette, New York Herald, Boston Herald and Times-Picayune. Each series in the collection covers a different time span, and series can be selected individually or in combination to build a collection best suited to the needs of each institution’s users….Early American Newspapers uses the America’s Historical Newspapers interface, which makes it simple to search or browse….The simple search interface should make this database user-friendly for undergraduate researchers, while the thoughtful filtering options, as well as the sheer scope of the collection, will be a boon for more advanced researchers, such as graduate students and faculty.”
— Lindley Homol, Reference and Instruction Librarian, University of Maryland University College Library, in Reference Reviews (Vol. 29, No. 2, 2015)

 

“Readex publishes respected subscription databases of full-text historical newspapers. Its America's Historical Newspapers collects and digitizes American newspapers; offerings include Early American Newspapers, which has recently released four additional series—series 6 (1741-1922), series 7 (1773-1922), series 8 (1844-1922), and series 9 (1832-1922). This collective addition adds 290 newspaper titles and over 4,300,000 pages to Early American Newspapers (series 1, CH, Apr'06, 43-4401; series 4 and 5, CH, Dec'12, 50-1798), bringing the complete collection to a substantial compilation of 2,000-plus newspaper titles from all 50 states, published between 1690 and 1922. Titles include valuable sources such as some 8,000 additional issues from New Orleans's Times-Picayune and some 15,000 issues from The Oregonian, now Oregon's largest newspaper. Other remarkable titles are Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and New York's The Daily Graphic--both heavily illustrated with hand-drawn graphics, making them a researcher's treasure. The complete list of additions is rich with titles of national and local importance.

“Libraries may purchase the entire collection or choose series, decades, or eras, in order to reflect a library's research needs. Readex's newspaper searching has a number of features that encourage precision and better results. The single search line can be expanded into a multiple-line search engine to better focus a complex research topic. Users may also narrow results by date, article type, language, state, and individual newspaper titles. The results present a small window of select information, with search terms in boldface for quick reading. Though other newspaper databases are available, the America's Historical Newspapers project is unique in the numbers of newspaper titles included, the number of individual issues included, and the inclusion of small local newspapers. Early American Newspapers is a real research gem for historians, all levels of college students, and genealogists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.”
— C. W. Bruns, California State University-Fullerton, reviewing Early American Newspapers, Series 6-9, in Choice (July 2014)

 

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