Here are a number of historical United States newspapers the library has online and/or in microfilm. The links in this guide lead either directly to digital newspapers and collections, or to library catalog records for individual newspapers on microfilm.
Online newspapers can be viewed from any library or UCSD computer. For UCSD students and staff they can also be viewed from off campus if you set your computer for remote access. Microfilm can be viewed on reader/printers in the Current Periodicals, Newspapers and Microform area in the West Wing of Geisel Library.
Why use microfilm? Many of the historical newspaper databases include full images of every page. But for more recent years, most newspapers are available only in the form of text, not including photos, graphics, advertising, or the look and feel of an actual newspaper. Microfilm, whether using microfilm readers or viewed on computers, includes an image of every page.
Most of these collections were build on microfilm preserved in historical archives. Coverage of newspapers can range from complete runs of many decades to scattered holdings of a few years or less. From within these larger collections, you can search across many newspapers or search and browse within individual newspapers. Listing below can also be found on the Library's Databases A-Z list.
For individual newspapers, also go to the next section.
We have purchased these from commercial database publishers. Access is freely available to anyone in the library, but remote access is limited to UCSD students, faculty and staff. See the page on Remote Access.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers
Full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century.
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1876
Collection of 700 English-language papers from cities in the 24 states east of the Mississippi. Most of them are before 1860. Also includes Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980, and California Historical Newspapers, 1752-1922. Coverage varies from a few issues to many years. Based on the earlier microfilm series, Early American Newspapers.
Access World News
Includes 650 newspapers from the United States, as well as many more from around the world. Most cover only recent years, but some go back as far at the mid-1980s.
African American Newspapers, 1822-1998
Newspapers in the 19th and early-mid 20th centuries; some later. Many titles include only a few years; others much longer. When complete will have 270 papers from 35 states. Can be searched with America's Historical Newspapers, Hispanic American Newspapers.
California's Historical Newspapers, 1850-1922
Digital archive of 30 California newspapers (10 of them forthcoming), 1850-1900. One newspaper until 1922. Some include brief runs of 1-3 years, others cover much longer spans.
California Digital Newspaper Collection, 1845-1911
200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-191l: the Alta California, 1849-1891; the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910; the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911; the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911; the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890; and the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
Nearly 300 Spanish-language newspapers from 13 states (including California) published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Search, browse and view article and page images.
Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers, 1942-1945.
Online collection of 25 newspapers published in the Relocation Camps in several U.S. states during World War II.
Proquest Historical Newspapers
Cover to cover article text & page images of the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1989), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), Los Angeles Times (1881-1989), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), The New York Times (1851-2009), New York Tribune (1841-1922), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), The Times of India (1838-2003), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1995), The Washington Post (1877-1996), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1991). De-select the modern papers (e.g., Boston Globe) in the Databases menu if you only want Historical Newspapers.
Proquest Black Historical Newspapers
Cover-to-cover article and page images of Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993). Select only the above titles in the Databases menu to search only black historical newspapers.
Ethnic Newswatch (1960-present; the majority starting 1980s and later)
Full text U.S. ethnic community newspapers, newsletters, magazines. Includes African-American, Arab/Middle Eastern, Asian-Pacific, European-American, Hispanic, Jewish, Native-American. Use Publications tab to browse/search individual papers.
Accessible Archives:
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century: Freedom's Journal (1827-30); Colored American (1837-1841); North Star (1847-51); National Era (1847-50); Provincial Freeman (1854-55); Frederick Douglass Paper (1851-52). Some years incomplete.
Civil War: a Newspaper Perspective (1860-1865): major articles from over 2,500 issues of The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Enquirer, published between November 1, 1860 and April 15, 1865.
The results of digitizing projects around the United States, these are freely available to anyone in the world.
Metro Atlanta Historical Newspaper Archive: The Archive spans the years 1842-2021 and includes newspapers from 6 counties surrounding the city of Atlanta; dates of coverage vary. Other newspapers are available through the Digital Library of Georgia.
California Digital Newspaper Collection
200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-1911: the Alta California, 1849-1891; the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910; the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911; the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911; the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890; and the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search and browse more than 150 papers from 14 states (including California) and the District of Columbia. Most cover only a few years in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, but some are more extensive. You can also search a directory (including library microfilm holdings) for almost every known U.S. newspapers published from 1690-present.
Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection
Search or browse 86 newspapers published in Colorado from 1859 to 1928. Coverage varies. Newspapers come from 46 cities and 34 counties throughout the state. Works best in Internet Explorer.
Kentucky Digital Newspapers
Search or browse by title, county or date. As of 2010, included 34 newspapers between 1890 and 1910. Dates of coverage vary.
Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) Historical Newspapers
Five newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries: Lancaster Examiner & Herald (1834-1872), Columbia Spy (1830-1889), Intelligencer Journal (1848-1871), New Holland Clarion (1873-1950), Lancaster Farmer (1875-1884). From the Lancaster County Historical Society.
Utah Digital Newspapers
Historical digitized newspapers from Utah, mostly late 1800s to the early 1900s, with more than 130,000 pages of text. Browse or search and view images of articles. From the University of Utah's Marriott Library.
Early American Newspaper Series, 1740-1820
This is a collection of newspapers issued in the United States Between 1704 and 1820. Almost 700 separate newspapers listed in the catalog, some with links to the Americas Historical Newspapers database
