History Primary Sources
- Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowFull-text archives of six national papers of record and five historically Black papers.
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new windowCollections of 19th century newspapers, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life, among other subjects.
- African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowProvide access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new windowPrimarily American newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries, including important African-American newspapers. Includes the Pennsylvania Gazette, Frank Leslie's Weekly, suffragist materials, Civil War articles, and Godey's Lady's Book.
- American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new windowDigitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.
- New York Times Historical Newspaper & Index This link opens in a new windowFull-text (with illustrations and graphics) since 1851, with additional years added as they are digitized.
- Early American Newspapers [Gift of Edwin S. Snead III, Class of 1951] This link opens in a new windowNewspaper articles on history, culture, religion, commerce, education, politics, and more from the Colonial Period through the Reconstruction Period. [more information about this gift]
- Times Digital Archive, 1785-2014 This link opens in a new windowComplete archive in facsimile of the Times of London newspaper covering general news, culture, fine arts, politics, history, and more.
- 19th Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new windowPeriodicals published in Great Britain giving insight into many aspects of the 19th century lifeliterature and culture, empire, feminism, the history of the book, the creative and performing arts, sport and leisure, science and medicine, the professions.
- Wall Street Journal - ProquestAccess to the full text of the WSJ from 1889-1993.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800) This link opens in a new windowBooks on history, culture, religion, commerce, education, literature, poetry, music, politics, travel etc. from the Colonial period through the early 19th century. Includes the supplemental material from the the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) This link opens in a new windowBooks from 1801-1819 published in America on the topics of history, culture, religion, commerce, education, literature, poetry, music, politics, travel, etc. Includes the supplemental material from the the Library Company of Philadelphia.
Searching for Historical Crime Journalism
Begin by thinking like a historian, then shift to thinking like a literary critic.
Ask yourself: Who made wrote this? Where did the information come from?
Contextualize: Imagine the setting surrounding this source: What was the society for which it was produced?
Corroborate: What do other sources say about the information in this document? Do they agree or disagree with what this document says?
Analyze the text: What does the document say? What is the tone? What is implied by the diction?
Considerations when using historical news sources:
- Scanned articles are sometimes misread by the scanner. Be alert for words that don’t make sense.
- Remember than any of a variety of related terms may have been used in the article and that the search mechanism cannot do “fuzzy’ searching.
- Look for names of newspapers, persons, and places, and for dates to help establish whether you are looking at the same case in different sources.
- Remember that the location of the newspaper is not always the same as the location of the murder.
Search features to look for in different databases:
Advanced Search
Dropdown box to choose field
Date restriction
Way to view transcript and original in context of page
Way to download a pdf
Way to email a link or a citation.
Sources of General Articles
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary resource containing a large number of peer-reviewed journals.
- Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new windowBroadest resource of scholarly research on human cultural, social, environmental and political behaviors
- Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new windowIndexes journals in the general humanities.
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowComprehensive database of journal articles and book reviews for United States and Canada history.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowJournal articles and other research literature in psychology and related disciplines
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new windowResource covering national & international newspapers
- Access World News (Historical and Current) This link opens in a new windowCurrent and archived full-text articles from thousands of U.S. and global news sources and news video clips.
- OneSearchA discovery tool that searches most of the University Libraries' collections, including books, journal articles, newspapers, dissertations, music, and video recordings. OneSearch's breadth of searching makes it a good starting point for your research.
