Research Guides: British History: Articles Published 17th through 20th Centuries

Full-Text Resources

Resources marked with this symbol are restricted to Columbia affiliates.

British Library newspapers
Searchable full text of full runs of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth-century Britain. This collection includes national and regional newspapers, as well as newspapers from: established country or university towns; the new industrial powerhouses of the manufacturing Midlands; and Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Special attention was paid to include newspapers that helped lead particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule. Penny papers aimed at the working and clerical classes are also included.
British periodicals
Provides full-text and full-image access to hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, the social sciences, music, archaeology and architecture.
For most thorough results, search simultaneously with Periodicals Archive Online Icon. Click on the "Change Databases" link near top of the British Periodicals search screen and choose Periodicals Archive Online from a menu. This will add the second database to your search.
Church Missionary Society periodicals.
"From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter."
Gale primary sources. The Economist historical archive, 1843-
The Economist Historical Archive delivers a complete searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to .... New full-colour images, multiple search indexes, exportable financial tables and a gallery of front covers highlighting a key topic of each week - all combine to offer a primary source of research covering the 19th and 20th centuries. The Economist Historical Archive complements the Times Digital Archive also available from Gale/Cengage Learning.
Eighteenth century journals : a portal to newspapers and periodicals, c1685-1835.
Portal to newspapers and periodicals c1685-1835 offers integrated access to the Hope Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Eighteenth Century Journals I), the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center University of Texas (Eighteenth Century Journals II) and the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, London and the Cambridge University Library (Eighteenth Century Journals III), Chetham's Library, Manchester and Brotherton Library, University of Leeds (Eighteenth Century Journals IV), as well as Birmingham Central Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library, and Liverpool John Moores University Library (Eighteens Century Journals V). It brings together rare journals printed between c1685 and 1835, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics include: the writings of Sir Isaac Newton; the French and American Revolutions; colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, reviews of literature, the theater, and fashion throughout Europe; the origins and rise of Romanticism; political debates; gender, religion, influence of the press, and coffee house gossip and discussion.
Financial times historical archive 1888-2010
The Financial Times Historical Archive delivers the complete searchable run of the world's most authoritative daily business newspaper. Every item ever printed in the paper, from 1888-2010, can be searched and browsed article by article and page by page. Founded to serve the immediate needs of the City of London, the Financial Times quickly broadened its coverage, recognizing that global financial and economic issues were to become the predominant forces of the twentieth century. Incorporating its rival the Financial News in 1945, the Financial Times expanded in the post-war years, reporting on topics such as industry, energy and international politics in full for the first time. In the final decades of the twentieth century, coverage of management, personal finance and the arts was added, to make the paper what it is now-- a complete general newspaper for the businessman.

Gale Newsvault ⇔ CROSS-SEARCHABLE PLATFORM ⇔ (Gale Cengage Learning)
Users can simultaneously search or browse across multiple databases of historical newspaper and/or periodical literature. These include: 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers; 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Part I; 19th Century UK Periodicals; 19th Century U.S. Newspapers; Illustrated London News Historical Archive; Times Digital Archive; and Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.

Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs
"In the late 1800's, Dutch physician and feminist Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. By the time their successors finished their work in 1945, the Gerritsen Collection was the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world, with more than 4,700 books, pamphlets and journals spanning four centuries and 15 languages"--Publisher's description (ProQuest, 23 August 2022).Covers years 1543-1945, bulk is 1880-1920, with monographs and serials from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe. The collection is especially rich in women's journals, scholarly medical and sociological studies, and housekeeping and advice manuals.
Illustrated London News historical archive, 1842-2003
"The Illustrated London News Historical Archive gives students and researchers unprecedented online access to the entire run of the ILN from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003. Each page has been digitally reproduced in full colour and every article and caption is full-text searchable with hit-term highlighting and links to corresponding illustrations."

Internet Library of Early Journals: A Digital Library of 18^th and 19^th Century Journals
Focus: British, 18th and 19th centuries
Provides digitized page images covering at least twenty consecutive years for six journals: Gentleman's Magazine, The Annual Register, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Notes and Queries, The Builder, and Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Search options vary by title, ranging from browse only, to searching by subject headings, to searching full text.
Ireland collection (JSTOR)
"The Ireland Collection, developed in cooperation with Queen's University Belfast, is an interdisciplinary collection of journals and other materials. It will contain a minimum of 107 journals, including journals with moving walls between 1 and 5 years and ceased journals from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Over 200 monographs and 2,500 manuscript pages will also be included."

Irish newspaper archives
A keyword searchable online archive of Irish newspaper titles.
JSTOR.
Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added on an ongoing basis.
19th century UK periodicals
Provides full-text and full-page-image access to periodicals in the following subject areas: Women's, Children's, Leisure and Sport, and Humor. The current contents constitute Series 1 of a projected five-series set. Series 2 through 5 will cover additional subject areas and will be added as they are published--between now and 2011.
Periodicals archive online
Archive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
ProQuest historical newspapers
Includes:
The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003)
The Irish Times (1859-2011) and The Weekly Irish Times (1876-1958)
The Scotsman (1817-1950)
The Times of India (1838-2003)
Service newspapers of World War Two
Collection of newspapers produced by and/or for service members during and immediately after World War II (1939-1948), featuring titles from the major theatres, for both Allied and Axis forces.
Seventeenth and eighteenth century Burney newspapers collection
Searchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)--the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. More than twelve hundred titles and almost one million pages are included.
Times digital archive.
Online, full-text facsimile of the Times (London) and its predecessors, The Daily universal register (1785-1787) and the Times, or, Daily universal register (1788). The archive supports research across multiple disciplines and areas of interest, including business, humanities, political science, philosophy, and numerous other subjects with coverage of all major international historical events.
TLS historical archive.
The TLS historical archive provides searchable access to the full text of the Times Literary Supplement from 1902. It includes more than 300,000 reviews, letters, poems, and articles.

Indexes

Resources marked with this symbol are restricted to Columbia affiliates.

Online Indexes

Eight centuries
Includes several 19th-century periodical indexes, as well as indexing of the New York Daily Tribune (1875-1906) and The New York Times (1863-1905).Eight Centuries is a vast scholarly database for finding published material, with the scope of the bulk of searchable material extending from the 12th century through 1960. Some records from before and after these dates do exist, depending on the particular source being searched. Through enhancement and implementation of dozens of historically significant scholarly indexes, it offers multidisciplinary coverage of primary materials in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, History of Science, Law, Economics, Religion, Psychology, Government Documents, Visual Arts, Music, and the Physical Sciences.

Historical Newspapers Online
Focus: American and British, beginning 1790
Electronic form of the indexes to the London Times and the New York Times. Currently covers the London Times beginning 1790 and the New York Times beginning 1851.

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson)
"Readers' guide retrospective, produced by The H.W. Wilson Company, is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. The complete database covers the years 1890 through 1982. This Phase One coverage includes the years 1969 through 1982."
Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals, 1824-1900
The vast majority of articles written for Victorian periodicals were published anonymously, or under pseudonyms. The Wellesley Index identifies the authors of articles within major Victorian periodicals, and provides a bibliography for each contributor. 45 important monthly and quarterly titles are included, covering the period from the beginning of the Westminster Review in 1824 to the end of the century. The exception to this is the Edinburgh Review, which is indexed from first issue, in 1802. Wellesley does not index poetry.

To Identify Additional Relevant Indexes

For a fuller listing and discussion of periodical guides and/or indexes, see:

Balay, Robert. Early periodical indexes : bibliographies and indexes of literature published in periodicals before 1900. (Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2000)
Butler Reference R016.05 B18

Additional Resources About Periodicals and Newspapers

Resources marked with this symbol are restricted to Columbia affiliates.

Bibliographies, Directories and Histories

Bibliographies, directories, and histories can provide you with varying types and degrees of information about specific periodicals or newspapers and/or about the periodical press as a whole in a given time period. A major example of such a work would be:

The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800-1900
A subject-inclusive, language-inclusive annotated bibliography of 50,000 periodical publications. Searchable by title, by names of persons or of issuing bodies involved with these publications, by subject, and by place of publication.

Using CLIO to Identify Additional Resources

Books and other information resources about periodicals and newspapers can be searched in CLIO under the appropriate subject headings.

In the “Basic Search” screen of CLIO, select "Subject Heading" from the “In:” box menu.
Enter searches using subject headings as appropriate, for example:

english periodicals
or
english newspapers

british periodicals
or
british newspapers

Note: Use "british" for books about periodicals or newspapers of the British Isles or Great Britain, not limited to periodicals from one area. Books limiting their focus to periodicals or newspapers from one area are entered under the specific heading for that area: for example, English periodicals; Scottish periodicals; Irish newspapers, etc.

Once you have done your subject search in CLIO:

Look at the overall list of entries to see how the subject is broken down. If you are interested in finding more of the types of resources listed on this page, you should be attentive to subheadings such as those below:

english periodicals--bibliography
english periodicals--directories
english periodicals--history
english periodicals--indexes

Click "More Info" next to the "English Periodicals" subject heading to see more specialized subject headings that you may wish to use, for example:

children’s periodicals, english
women’s periodicals, english