It has been said that newspapers represent the first draft of history. As such, Early American Newspapers provides a fascinating glimpse into the nation’s past.

Authoritative bibliographic control, superior print holdings
This collection began with Clarence Brigham’s "History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820." The core of the collection is formed by Isaiah Thomas' own collection of colonial and early national period newspapers and supplemented by nearly two million issues added by Thomas' successors at the American Antiquarian Society. Numerous other institutions and historical societies have contributed to the collection including: the Boston Athenaeum; the Connecticut Historical Society; the Connecticut State Library; the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Library of Congress; the libraries of universities such as Brown and Harvard; and private collections. This joint effort led to the creation of an historical archive of momentous breadth and depth—over one million pages from more than 650 historical American newspapers.

Available on microfilm and the Web
Early American Newspapers on 35mm Silver Halide microfilm is available by title. Also, a digital series of Early American Newspapers is part of Readex’s Web-based Archive of Americana.