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History 498B: Political Movements in U.S. History

Researching Newspapers

Newspapers offer rich insight into the social and political contexts in which historical events occurred. Newspapers also provide researchers the opportunity to witness how events were reported on in real-time and how reports and perspectives unfolded and evolved over time (days, weeks, months, or years!).

Newspapers are available in three primary formats: original print, microfilm, and digital. The Illinois Library has newspapers in each of these formats. 

Challenges with Newspaper Research

In libraries, newspapers are treated differently than periodicals (even though newspapers fit the definition of "periodicals" in most respects). The main reason for this difference is that the methods of acquiring, describing, organizing, displaying, preserving, and providing ongoing access to newspapers are very different than the methods used for journals and magazines. Even when newspapers have been digitized, the methods of digitization are very different than the methods of digitizing other periodicals, and digitized newspapers are usually found in specially designed collections with interfaces intended to support the unique demands of searching digitized newspapers.

From the researcher's point of view, a major difference between newspapers and other periodicals is that most newspapers were never indexed, and only one American newspaper (New York Times) was indexed in its entirety. What this meant for researchers was that the only method of discovering articles was by browsing newspapers, issue by issue, page by page, article by article.

Evolution of Newspaper Preservation and Challenges

Unless you know the specific newspaper and issue in which an article is published, finding relevant information to your research with print newspapers might require several visits to the Library for onsite viewing. Plus, handling print newspapers can pose a risk to their physical condition. Due to their fragile nature, many historical newspapers at the Library need to be assessed for condition prior to handling. In many cases, newspapers at libraries have been microfilmed for preservation and research purposes.

The advent of microfilmed newspapers made conducting newspaper research easier (and limited the handling of print newspapers). However, like print newspapers, browsing microfilmed newspapers can also be daunting. Researching with microfilm might require careful study of several reels of microfilm in order to find relevant information about your topic. If you're hesitant about operating a microfilm reader, HPNL staff can teach you how to use the readers to zoom in and out of issues and move quickly though a microfilm reel. 

Although digitization has transformed the ease with which researchers can search through newspaper content, digitized newspapers have their own unique challenges. It is important to remember that digital newspaper collections are not comprehensive. Remember, if you do not get any results for a keyword search, this doesn't necessarily mean that articles containing the keyword do not exist. A lack of results might indicate:

  • the content hasn't been digitized
  • the content is not within the scope of a specific collection
  • the text characters weren't accurately recognized by the computer during the digitization process

Performing keyword searches in newspaper databases relies on the accuracy of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the process of generating printed text into a language read by computers. OCR is created during the digitization process. Sometimes the OCR process is quite accurate and copies the newspaper content exactly as is, however, sometimes the computer cannot accurately read the text of the newspaper (due to a number of reasons, such as faded text or heavy ink bleed) and will incorrectly encode the characters or transform them into a nonsensical language. When researching digitized newspapers, it's best to perform several searches of different keywords and also browse specific titles and dates.

Using historical language 

When researching digitized historical newspapers, you must use keywords that reflect the language of the time of publication. For example, if you were researching labor during World War I, you would want to search "labor" AND "Great War," as the war was not referred to as World War I until much later. Another example is the Haymarket riot of 1886. Although we today refer to this historical event as the Haymarket Affair, at the time it was being reported on, newspapers published language such as "anarchist uprising," "anarchist scheme," and later, "anarchist trial." 

When conducting historical research, it's also important to remember the evolution of language. You may need to search for outdated terms that can be uncomfortable to research. For example, if you want to research African Americans, you will need to use search terms like "Negro," as the term African American wasn't popularized until the 1970s.  

Language changes quickly, and to retrieve newspapers in digitized newspaper collections, you must use the language that was current during the time period you ar researching. For example, in nineteenth century newspapers, strikes were often called "turnouts". Immigrants from China were often called "celestials". If searching for names, bear in mind that first and middle initials were often used in lieu of first names. A married woman was often referenced by her husband's name, e.g. "Mrs. Henry Smith". People could be referenced by their legal first names (e.g. Donald), or by a shortened form (Don, Donny, Donnie), or even by a nickname. You would need to use all forms of the name to make sure you retrieve all relevant articles.

Thinking about historical language and using appropriate keywords in your searches will get better search results.

Finding Newspapers

The University of Illinois has a large collection of newspapers including print newspapers, microfilmed newspapers, and digitized newspapers. Print and microfilmed newspapers are primarily available for research at the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library located at Main Library Room 246. Digital newspaper collections are either freely-available for anyone, anywhere to access or are proprietary collections subscribed to by the Library and accessible with your University credentials. 

Use the following directories to find newspapers for your research:

You can read more about finding newspapers in our Find Newspapers LibGuide.

Onsite Resources

Use the University of Illinois Library Newspaper Database to find whether a specific title is available in original print, microfilm, or digital format. You can find newspapers by searching or browsing this database. Newspapers are searchable by title, publication location (city, state, or county), publication dates, subject, language, Library holding location, or format. You can browse newspapers in the Library's holdings by title.

Most original print and microfilmed newspapers are available for use in the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL), located in the Main Library Room 246. Newspapers on microfilm are located on the first floor of the HPNL stacks. Some print newspapers require advanced notice. If you find a newspaper in the catalog with an advance notice note, please contact the HPNL staff.

HPNL print or microfilmed newspapers of potential relevance by topic:

Digital Collections

There was a push in the early 2000s to digitize library materials for better accessibility and to extend the physical life of library materials. Newspapers are digitized to preserve their contents (the physical handling of historical newspapers can be detrimental to its materiality and contents) and to provide greater access to remote users (browsing microfilmed newspapers is no easy feat!).

Digitization has greatly improved newspaper use and research, however, we should remember that cultural heritage institutions can only digitized what has been preserved. When conducting historical newspaper research, it is important to remember that newspaper collections are not comprehensive. Many historical newspapers have no existing copies. For newspapers that have been preserved, digitization can be expensive, forcing libraries to make decisions about which titles to prioritize during digitization projects.

Digital newspaper collections can either be freely-accessible, meaning they are available as open access, or they can be part of a collection created by a proprietary company or institution and licensed out to libraries for patron use. Most licensed digital newspaper collections center provide access to selected titles that fit within specific scope, such as publication location, historical time period, or intellectual theme.

Open Access Newspaper Collections

Open access newspaper collections are available for anyone, anywhere to use. You do not need an account to access these newspapers. Newspaper content is searchable, browsable, and downloadable. Two open access platforms are:

Note: Like the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC), some states manage their own freely-available digital newspaper collections:

*aggregate page

Databases Accessible with University Credentials

Digitized newspapers of potential relevance

In the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections:

See also the succeeding title, The Illinois Standard, which has 21 issues published between September 1948 and January 1948 are available for research.

See also the succeeding abolitionist titles, The Genius of Liberty, which has 52 issues published between December 1840 and April 1842 available for research, and the Western Citizen, which has 518 issues published between July 1842 and October 1853 available for research.

See also the succeeding titles, The Zion Herald, which has 145 issues published between May 1907 and June 1910 available for research, and the Zion City Independent, which has 342 issues published between June 1910 and June 1917 available for research.

Chronicling America: Topical Research Guides

Chronicling America is a freely available digital newspaper collection maintained by the Library of Congress. It includes newspapers published in all 50 states and some US territories published between 1736 and 1963. Newspapers in this collection were digitized as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program.