About British Library Newspapers

British Library Newspapers

The most comprehensive range of regional and local newspapers printed in Britain from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.

Sourced from the holdings of the British Library, the collection is made up of daily and weekly publications and reflects Britain’s growing role as a superpower in the 19th century world. It includes newspapers from the new industrial powerhouses of the Midlands, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and allows you to see monumental historic events, such as the total defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, to daily news, such as the opening of the first electric tube railway or the construction of the English Channel. Genealogists will also be able to access material previously only available in London-based reading rooms!

British Library Newspapers

British Library Newspapers

Find influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of British society.

With more than 240 newspaper titles, this collection encompasses approximately 6.4 million pages of historic content, from articles to advertisements. British Library Newspapers illuminates diverse and distinct regional attitudes, cultures, and vernaculars, providing an alternative viewpoint to the London-centric national press over a period of more than 200 years.

  • Part I: 1800-1900 Ranges from tabloids like the Illustrated Police News to radical papers like the Chartist Northern Star;
  • Part II: 1800-1900 Expands the amount of regional newspapers. Towns and regions include: Bradford, Sheffield, York and North Wales. The addition of two major newspapers, The Standard and The Morning Post, helps capture the more conservative opinions of the nineteenth century;
  • Part III: 1741-1950 Encompasses powerful news journals like the Leeds Intelligencer, local interest publications such as the Northampton Mercury, and specialist titles such as the Poor Law Union's Gazette;
  • Part IV: 1732-1950 Includes what is possibly the oldest magazine in the World, The Scots Magazine, as well as regional perspectives from cities as diverse as Aberdeen, Bath, Belfast and Liverpool;
  • Part V: 1746-1950  Concentrates on the newspapers from the northern part of the United Kingdom especially Scotland and the Midlands. Scottish localities include Fife, Elgin, Inverness and Paisley.
  • Part VI: Ireland 1783-1950 A significant number of these are national publications but many are more regional from cities such as Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as more rural towns like Waterford, Tuam, Ballinasloe, and Birr.
  • Part VII: Southeast Asia, 1806-1977 36 rare English language newspapers and periodicals published in present-day Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand over a period of more than 170 years that extends from the early 1800s to the late 1970s.

You can also search this resource through Gale Primary Sources which allows you to simultaneously search several other historical newspapers at the same time including 19th Century UK Periodicals.

Gale Primary Sources

Search a selection of newspaper and magazine archives, monographs all cross-searchable.

The British Newspaper Archive

Offering online access to millions of pages of British and Irish newspapers from 1703-2003. In library use only.

British Library Newspapers

Find influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of British society.

The Guardian (1821-2003) and the Observer (1791-2003)

News coverage from the past two centuries from The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003).
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