Genealogy: Newspapers

Use the library catalog to search the library’s collection, which contains current and historical newspapers.  For a complete listing, see our Newspapers

page. Genealogists may be especially interested in the following titles available online:

• Access World News: full text access to over 2000 newspapers, including 880 US titles and 140 California titles
• African American Newspapers: 1827-1902
• African Newspapers: 1800-1922
• Archive of Americana   Includes a number of early American newspapers.
• Chicago Defender/Daily Defender: 1910-1975
• Chicago Tribune: 1849-1987
• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
• A joint project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, this site contains almost 4 million pages from over 500 scanned newspapers from 1836-1922.
• It also includes a directory of all U.S. newspapers from 1690 to the present.
• Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective: 1860-1865
• Early American Newspapers: 1690-1876
• Godey's Ladys Book:1830-1880
• Google News Archive
• Scanned full text from newspapers around the world.
• Note that the amount of material and dates of coverage vary wildly from one newspaper to another.
• HarpWeek: 1857 to 1912
• The Internet Public Library Online Newspapers from around the world
• Los Angeles Times:
  • current (1985-present)
  • historical (1881-1984)
• New York Times:
  • current (1999-present)
  • historical (1857-1998)
• Newslink (This is a collection of links to the websites of newspapers around America and the world. They vary widely in how much content is available, and how much is free versus how much requires a subscription or one-time purchase.)
• 19th Century U.S. Newspapers
• Pennsylvania Newspaper Record: Delaware County: 1819-1870
• Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue: Chester County: 1809-1870
• San Francisco Chronicle: historical (1865-1922)
• 17th and  18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
• Over one million scanned pages
• The largest collection of 17th and 18th centuryEnglish news media available from the British Library.
• Times (London): 1785-1870
• Wall Street Journal:
  • current (1986-present)
  • historical (1889-1985)
• Washington Post: 1877-1994
• World-Newspapers.com - World Newspapers, Magazines, and News Sites in English

Non-English Language Newspapers

• Kikuzo Visual II (1879 to present)  One of the largest online newspaper databases in Japan: articles from the Asahi Shimbun (1945 to present), Aera Weekly (May 1988 to present), Shukan Asahi (April 2000 to present), and an "Historical Photo Archive" (1930-45)
• People's Daily (Ren Min Ri Bao) (1946 to present)   The most influential and authoritative newspaper in China. It is the official voice of the central government of the People's Republic of China. Publishes daily issues that provide a single location where the central government and the Communist Party of China announce their respective policies and disseminate governmental, political, and economic messages to the public and the world.
• Pravda Digital Archive - (1912 to present) Founded in 1912 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Pravda originated as an underground, daily workers’ newspaper, and soon became the main newspaper of the revolutionary wing of the Russian socialist movement.
• Shen Bao (Shanghai News) (1872-1949) the most influential and longest lasting commercial newspaper of pre-1949 China. An important primary source for late imperial and modern China.

UCSB, Faculty Staff, and Students:

Before searching, log into the proxy server and return here.

Items marked are available only to UCSB students, faculty, and staff from off campus.

Library Visitors:

You will need to use a public computer in the library to access these databases.