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United States History: U.S. Historical Newspapers

Finding Historical Newspapers

Here are a number of historical United States newspapers the library has online and/or in microfilm. The links in this section lead either directly to digital newspapers and collections, or to library catalog records for individual newspapers on microfilm. Under the tab for this page

  • Newspaper Collections points to databases that allow you to search several or even hundreds of newspapers at one time, and also to search or browse those individual papers.

  • Individual Newspapers points to specific historical U.S. papers for which we have either online access or microfilm.

Online newspapers can be viewed from any library or UCSD computer. For UCSD students and staff they can also be viewed from off campus if you set your computer for remote access; see instructions at https://library.ucsd.edu/help/computing/remote-access.html.  Microfilm can be viewed on reader/printers in the Current Periodicals, Newspapers and Microform area in the West Wing of Geisel Library.

Why use microfilm? Many of the historical newspaper databases include full images of every page. But for more recent years, most newspapers are available only in the form of text, not including photos, graphics, advertising, or the look and feel of an actual newspaper. Microfilm, whether using microfilm readers or viewed on computers, includes an image of every page.