LibGuides: Religious Studies 435 / History 486: Revivalism and Evangelicalism in America: Newspapers

Finding Newspapers in the Library

The UIUC Library has an extensive collection of newspapers, both current and retrospective, in a variety of formats, including hard copy, microfilm, and digital reproductions. Not all of them are included in the online catalog, but if you are looking for a particular newspaper title, try searching it first in the online catalog. Look for more than one record for each newspaper, as our holdings may consist of a combination of hard copy and microfilm, for example, and there may be a separate catalog record for each format. Most of these will be located in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library, but in some cases, the material will be found in another part of the UIUC Library

Another resource for identifying newspapers at the University of Illinois Library is the:

University of Illinois Library Newspaper Database
A catalog of newspapers at the University of Illinois Library. Lists newspapers in all formats--print, microfilm, and digitized. You can search for newspapers by title, or identify newspapers by place of publication, date of publication, or by the newspaper's subject or intended audience. Only includes newspapers that are either the original print publication, or else facsimile reproductions of the original print publication.

Historical Newspapers

For the most complete and up-to-date information on finding historical newspapers, please visit our Historical Newspapers page. For general information on finding newspapers, regardless of age, format, or place of publication, please visit our Find Newspapers Guide.

Only a handful of post-1922 newspapers have been digitized (excluding current newspapers). If your topic leads you past 1922, then you will probably have to use at least some microfilm.

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new window
9 major African American newspapers of the 19th Century, including Freedom's Journal (the first African American newspaper ever published), the Christian Recorder, the Colored American, Douglass' Monthly, Frederick Douglass' Paper, the National Era, the North Star, the Provincial Freeman, and the Weekly Advocate.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of titles, with especially strong coverage of the earliest American newspapers, but also strong coverage of the early 20th century. Includes the following sub-collections: Early American Newspapers, Series I through VII (1690-1922); 20th Century American Newspapers (1923-1993); Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980); African American Newspapers, Series I-II (1827-1998); Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection (1799-1977); and Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876). Part of the Archive of Americana.

Chronicling America
American newspapers published during 1836-1960. Also includes the U.S. Newspaper Directory with information about American newspapers from 1690 to the present.

Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window
Mostly scattered issues of over 300 Hispanic-American newspapers. Purports to be largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project" collection at the the University of Houston. Part of America's Historical Newspapers and the Archive of Americana.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of titles.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Dozens of major metropolitan newspapers, like the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, major African American newspapers like the Chicago Defender, and more. Especially strong coverage of the 20th century.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th century. Every issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format. The full collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers contains over 30 million digitized pages.

ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers
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The major black newspapers of the twentieth century. Click here to see a complete list. Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Guide to Digitized Historical Newspapers
The most up-to-date listing of digitized newspapers, including over 20 different collections from across the U.S.