Historic newspapers are the bomb-diggity!

Longtime readers may be tired of hearing me say this (for example here and here), but there's nothing like reading a historic newspaper to get a glimpse into the past.

Sure newspapers reflect the biases of their times and their editors, who chose what to cover based on what they thought their subscribers (and political bosses) wanted to read. Case in point: When I was researching the book I wrote about weddings, I looked in vain for articles in towns that had huge immigrant communities (Lewistown and Roundup, among others) for articles announcing immigrant weddings (and describing the festivities). I finally figured out that Croatians, Germans, and other non-English speakers didn't subscribe to English language newspapers, so there was no incentive to the editor to cover their events! Finding balanced historical coverage about Montana Indians is also next to impossible. And yet...

Newspapers are great for glimpsing the details of daily life--to discover the available food and technology, learn what people did for fun, explore fashion or types of work, and investigate coverage of local, national, and world events.

All of which to say, hurrah for my colleagues in the Newspaper Digitization Project, who have put over 950,000 pages of newspapers online for you to search and browse on the websites MONTANA NEWSPAPERS and CHRONICLING AMERICA. The newest additions include more issues of the Grass Range Review (now available from 1912-1932 on Montana Newspapers) and  these titles on Chronicling America:

• The Bozeman Courier (1920-1927)
• The Fort Peck Press (1934-1937)
• The Glasgow Courier (1942-1945)
• The Kevin Courier (5/5/1922-8/23/1922)
• The Montana Courier (8/30/1922-9/20/1922)
• The Kevin Review (9/27/1922-12/25/1924)
• Laurel Outlook (1944-1950)
• The Wolf Point Herald (1920-1932)

Happy surfing!


P.S. 950,000 pages seems like a lot, and it is! But there even more newspapers aren't available digitally than are so don't be surprised if you don't find your town or specific dates you are looking for (know too additional papers are available from other sites but that they, unlike Montana Newspapers and Chronicling America, charge a subscription fee.).

P.P.S. Do you use historic newspapers with your students? If so, tell me how!