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Search Historical Washington Post and hundreds of other newspapers
Two new database acquisitions greatly expand researchers’ access to historical U.S. newspapers. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers Digital Archive is a brand-new Thomson Gale product that provides digital content for about 200 newspapers across America. The archive features a spectrum of publications from the political party newspapers that flourished at the beginning of the 1800s to the big-city dailies that were coming to shape the nation by the century’s close. The papers represent many geographic nooks and crannies of the country, from the vanished Illinois town of Kaskaskia to Yankton, the onetime capital of Dakota Territory, where George Custer and his wife spent three weeks on their way west to the Black Hills. Major papers are included alongside smaller papers published by African Americans, Native Americans, women’s rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other select groups.
History professor Henry Binford calls the acquisition “a quantum leap forward” for Northwestern researchers because “it brings not only the ability to access particular articles for which one has a citation, but also the ability to search a huge database of information in dozens of newspapers to find articles on particular subjects, events, or people.”
In addition, the Historical Washington Post has now been added to the Library’s growing suite of ProQuest historical newspapers, which already includes the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. “The addition of the Post archives is important not just because it provides historical coverage of the growth of that city into a major international center of power,” says bibliographer Harriet Lightman, “but also because it enhances the result when researchers search the whole suite of papers simultaneously. You can really take a major or minor historical event and compare perceptions and coverage of that event from coast to coast.”
African American studies librarian Kathleen Bethel notes that the Historical Washington Post will also be a great boon to researchers in that field. “From its beginning, the District of Columbia has had a large African American presence,” she says. “The Washington Post offers witness of the city as a magnet for the Talented Tenth, a center of activity during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, and as a site for the Civil Rights movements and the Million Man March. The newspaper’s coverage of African American business, civic, cultural, education, historical, political, and social life is a tremendous resource for Northwestern scholars.”
Questions or comments about using the Historical Washington Post or 19th Century U.S. Newspapers Digital Archive should be directed to bibliographer Harriet Lightman, h-lightman@northwestern.edu or x1-2920.