Building on rich holdings of digital newspapers, the Stanford Libraries have added a number of historical newspapers:
The Guardian/Observer (ProQuest)
The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003) are the first British newspapers to appear in ProQuest's Historical Newspapers line, of which Stanford owns a number of U.S. titles (including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle, among others). N.B.: The Observer is the National Sunday sister paper of The Guardian.
The collection offers a full text, full-image archive of both the Guardian and Observer. As with other newspapers in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers line, the Guardian and Observer can be cross-searched using a federated search feature. (Importantly, this also includes American Periodicals Series I and II.)
The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) (ProQuest)
Next to the Chicago Defender (which Stanford already owns), The Baltimore Afro-American is arguably the most important newspaper available digitally in ProQuest's new African American newspapers series, a part of their Historical Newspapers line. It is a full-text, full-image database that is keyword searchable. The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) was the most widely circulated black newspaper on the Atlantic coast and has been highly influential throughout the nation. It was the first black newspaper to have correspondents reporting on World War II, foreign correspondents, and female sports correspondents. The paper's contributors have included writer Langston Hughes, intellectual J. Sunders Redding, artist Romare Beardon, and sports editor Sam Lacy.
African-American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (Readex)
Containing 270 newspapers published in 36 states-including rare and historically significant 19th-century titles, African-American Newspapers, 1827-1998 provides access to significant and extremely scarce Africa-American newspapers. The content in African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 is drawn from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the United States-those of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Kansas State Historical Society and the Library of Congress. Selections were guided by James Danky, editor of African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography (Harvard University Press, 1998). 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 across the U.S.
The second collection in a new American Ethnic Newspapers series, African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 can be cross-searched with all other Archive of Americana collections, including Early American Newspapers and Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980. (Stanford currently owns Series I-V of Early American Newspapers and Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980).
Currently, selections from three titles are available in the database: The Savannah Tribune (1875-1922), The New Orleans Daily Creole (1856) and Frederick Douglass' Paper (includes The North Star; 1847-1860). Many more will be added throughout the coming year.
The Christian Recorder (1877-1902) (Accessible Archives)
The Christian Recorder, in African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives), was (and remains) the official newspaper of the African-American Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.
The Christian Recorder embodied secular as well as religious material, and included good coverage of the black regiments together with the major incidents of the Civil War. The four-page weekly contained such departments as Religious Intelligence, Domestic News, General Items, Foreign News, Obituaries, Marriages, Notices and Advertisements. It also included the normal complement of prose and poetry found in the newspapers of the day.
Stanford already owns earlier issues of the The Christian Recorder, as a part of the Accessible Archives collection African American Newspapers: The 19th Century. These newly acquired years of The Christian Recorder detail the challenges faced by African-Americans in the South after the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction through the early 20th century. The Accessible Archives interface allows for full-text searching. (Text has been re-keyed, as well as available through facsimile images.) Advanced users may use field, proximity and boosting searches, along with the standard Boolean, wildcard, truncation and parenthesis searches.
