Periodical & Newspaper Databases
Periodical and newspaper articles written during the period being studied are considered primary sources. Many of these are available online through BU library databases. Some of the articles in these databases are available full-text and others have only citations to articles. The library has on microfilm or in print many of the journals cited in various databases and they can be found by searching the journal title in the library catalog.
Newspaper and periodical databases with historical coverage include:
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Fully searchable digital images of newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries. Date coverage: 1690 -1876.
- Boston Globe (1872-1988) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1872 - 1988. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the newspaper The Boston Globe and its title variants. NOTE: For 1988+ use
- Chicago Tribune (1849-1996) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1849-1996. Full-page and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Chicago Tribune and all its title variants. NOTE: For 1997+ use Nexis Uni.
- Los Angeles Times (1881- 1995) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1881 - 1995). Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Los Angeles Times under all its title variants. NOTE: For 1996+ use Nexis Uni.
- New York Times (1851- 2016) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1851-2016. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text of the New York Times back issues. Additions each year keep it within 3 years of the current year. NOTE: For 2016+ use Nexis Uni.
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019 (London) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1785 - 2019. An online archive of every headline, article, editorial, announcement, image and advertisement published in The Times (London) to 2019. Full page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text. NOTE: For 2019+ use Nexis Uni.
- Washington Post (1877- 2002) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window Date coverage: 1877-2002. Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the Washington Post under all its title variants. NOTE: For 2003+ use Nexis Uni.
- 17th-18th century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window Searchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817), the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. Date coverage: 1604-1804.
- American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals This link opens in a new window Digitized images of American magazines published between 1684 and 1912. Covers history of slavery, literature, women's and religious issues, politics, culture, the arts and foreign language journals published in the U.S. Rights for use by Boston University community supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by ethnic, minority and native presses in the U.S. Includes both historic publications, starting in 1959, as well as current ones.
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Eyewitness accounts of historical events, ads and genealogical records published in popular 19th century newspapers including African-American publications.
- African Newspapers from the World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window This full-text, searchable collection of 19th and early 20th century African newspapers includes titles from the following countries: Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Date coverage: 1831 to 1923.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to the back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Book reviews are included as well as journal articles. Abstracts are available for some of the articles. Date coverage: earliest issues of each journal up to the most current five years for most publications and to the present for some.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of British periodicals from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. It includes millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Subject areas covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences.
- Humanities Full Text / Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window These combined databases provide access to journal articles, book reviews, performance reviews, interviews, bibliographies and more from a broad range of humanities and social sciences journals. Date coverage: 1907 - present.
- Readers' Guide / Reader's Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window Readers' Guide indexes hundreds of general interest and specialized magazines dating from the late19th century to the present with full text of articles for more recent publications. Date coverage: Indexing - 1890 - present; full text - 1994 - present.
- Harper's Weekly Available from 1857-1912
- Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.
- American Jewish Newspapers This link opens in a new window American Jewish Newspapers provides scanned, searchable articles from four 19th and 20th century newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922); The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990); The American Israelite (1854-2000); and Jewish Exponent (1887-1990). Rights for use by Boston University community supported by the Ted Kyrios Memorial Book Fund.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new window This database contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window A full text archive of millions of articles published in more 700 magazines, and journals in the humanities and social sciences, in English and other Western European languages. Date coverage: 1802 to 2001. (Varies by publication)
