Newspapers as Historical Sources

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Newspapers as Historical Sources
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Historians value

• Provide current information
• Show how events in the past were reported at the
  time the events occurred
• Newspapers
• Record local historical record
• Report on topics that may not be discussed in
  magazines or journals

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Using Newspapers

• Limited to modern history
• Most newspapers date only from the 18th century
  when literacy rates climbed
• May be difficult to use
• Most are not indexed
• Many articles will be short and may not provide
  in-depth coverage of a topic
• In the UW Libraries
• Most on microfilm

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Finding Newspaper Articles
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Major digitized newspapers

• Chicago Defender 1905-1975
• Los Angeles Times, 1881-1985
• New York Times, 1851-2003
• Times of London, 1728-1985
• Wall Street Journal, 1889-1989

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Microfilm Newspapers

• Browse useful if you are focused on an event
• Use an index if available
• Follow footnotes used in a secondary source

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Major microfilmed newspapers

• Washington Post, 1877 present
• San Francisco Chronicle, 1865 present
• Seattle Times, 1895 present
• Seattle Post Intelligencer, 1888 present

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Other newspapers

• Local papers
• Ballard News 1931-1963
• Olympic Tribune 1918-1962
• School papers
• Daily 1891-1976
• Camp papers
• Manzanar Free Press 1942-1945

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Finding newspapers in the library

• To locate a microfilmed newspaper
• Use the UW Libraries Catalog
• Choose the journal subset
• Do a title search for the title of the newspaper.
  
• Use the card index in the Newspaper section