For information on historical Long Island newspapers, see Long Island Newspapers.
How do you find articles on specific topics within a newspaper? It can be a difficlut process, but these indexes can help.
PRINT INDEXES (Located in the Central Reading Room, unless otherwise noted.)
Listen to a selection of historical newspaper articles read aloud on LibriVox.
Listen to the Federalist Papers.
or to the Antifederalist Papers.
Links on this site may require that you log in with your Stony Brook NetID.
What's in the SBU library collection?
Available Online
1827-1998. Full-text. Online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles. Beginning with Freedom's Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this resource include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L'Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman's Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.
This historical file of Newsday articles extends back to 1985.
New York Times - Historical file
The Library has online access to pdf images of the New York Times back to 1851. You can search for a topic in this database of historical NYT issues, or you can search for a specific article if you have the citation.
Washington Post Archive (1877-1994)
Use SEARCH to find an old newspaper
Search Journal section of SEARCH (the library catalog) by title if you know it.
Example: New York Herald
We have a Series of papers on microprint & microfilm called Early American Newspapers.
To see the individual titles in the series search by Title: Early American Newspapers
Also see Early American Newspapers, 1704-1820
Useful Subject headings in STARS:
AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS -- NEW YORK
NEW YORK (N.Y.) -- NEWSPAPERS
JOURNALISM -- UNITED STATES -- HISTORY
JOURNALISM -- UNITED STATES -- HISTORY -- 18TH CENTURY
JOURNALISM -- UNITED STATES -- HISTORY -- 19TH CENTURY
New York Historical Newspapers on the Web
Northern New York Historical Newspapers is a newspaper digitization project of the Northern New York Library Network.
Partial access available on the Web
Garrison's The Liberator at the Primary Research project (a project on local Boston history, provided by high school students)
The Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress provides an excellent webpage with links to some online resources, as well as leads for finding good print-only resources. Remember to check STARS when trying to determine if SBU libraries have a copy of an item.
Library of Congress Chronicling America project
News Archives on the Web: A service of the Special Library Association's News Division
United States | Canadian | Asian | International
See also the Newspaper Archives on the Internet box below.
For early American magazines see:
Fulltext. 1741-1930. Over 1,100 American magazines spanning 200 years and covering nearly every aspect of American culture, especially its history, science, literature, music, legal structures, agriculture, theater, and politics. Titles range from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine (first published in 1741) and America's first scientific journals, Medical Repository, as well as Scientific American, to literary and professional journals, specialized titles, and such well-known popular magazines as Vanity Fair, Ladies' Home Journal and The Dial.
Major Historical Sets
Index to Underground Newspaper Collection: Microforms Library Z6944.U5 B4 [1963-1985]
Alternative press. A guide to the microform collection Z6944.U5 B4 [1986-present]
Other Major Papers
Major Foreign Newspapers
African-American Newspapers
Special Collections
Have historic newspapers for Long Island. Original newsprint copies and microfilm. Most but not all titles are in the catalog. Consult with Kristen Nyitray, Head, Special Collections and University Archives at (631) 632-7119.
Library Administration: 631.632.7100
Except where otherwise noted, this work by SBU Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
