Whether you are a researcher for a university, media or theatre company, a Teacher looking for historical coverage as it was written or even just looking for a specific article or picture Historic Newspapers has been created to offer public access to the largest private archive of British newspapers in the world.
These are sourced from the world’s largest private archive of over 7 million editions from all over the world. To date UK titles have been catalogued as far back as 1800 by date and title, there are also lots of US and regional issues, as well as many from the Victorian era. Some of these are extremely rare and cover such news events as Trafalgar, Waterloo, the gruesome coverage of Jack the Ripper, famous battles, and more recently Lunar Landings and 9/11.
The archive has been built over many years from various sources: initially from the newspaper group’s original archives as they moved out of Fleet Street in the 80s, and continues today, as virtually all the national Scottish and English newspaper titles send in their daily editions. Papers are also continually being sourced from libraries and other collections from all over the world.
Original copies of historic newspapers can be bought through the website and they very kindly sent History and the Sock Merchant a couple of samples for review, an edition of The Times dated December 17 1861 and a wonderfully illustrated Daily Mirror from October 10, 1912 -adorned with photographic correspondence from the fighting in Serbia and Bulgaria.
Historic Newspapers has also been sweet enough to offer the readers of History and the Sock Merchant this exclusive discount code for online purchases:
Code: 15TODAY
As a historian always trying to understand contemporary opinion these newspapers were a treasure trove, but above all, it makes you realise that our present day outlook has not changed all that much from our ancestors 200 years ago. We still revel in demonstrating and waxing-lyric on how far our world has come technologically, socially and intellectually. I'm sure one hundred years from now someone will purchase a contemporary newspaper from October 2012, see an advert for the iPhone 5 and laugh.