Skip to Main Content

Murder in U.S. History

Why Newspapers?

You can use historical newspapers to find out how issues and events were reported during a specific time in history.

Newspapers

Proquest Historical Newspapers: Combined Search
Search across the six ProQuest historical newspapers that the Libraries subscribe to: the Chicago Defender (1910-1975), the New York Times (1851- three years prior to the current year), the Philadelphia Inquirer (November 7, 1860 – December 31, 2001), the Pittsburgh Gazette (August 29, 1786 – December 31, 2003), the Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), the Washington Post (1877-2005); the Camden Courier Post (1950- ) and the New Jersey Collection (1876- ).
Searching across the historical newspapers is handy, but sometimes articles that appear in a search of an individual newspaper don't appear in a combined search. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Historical New York Times
Allows you to search and display the full image of articles published in the New York Times back to 1851. The two+ most recent years are not included; use Factiva to find more recent articles. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Historical Washington Post
Search and display the full image of articles published in the Washington Post between 1877 and 2005. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Historical Philadelphia Inquirer
Search and display the full image of articles published in the Philadelphia Inquirer between 1860 and 2001. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Historical Wall Street Journal
Search and display the full image of articles published in the Wall Street Journal between 1889 and 2010. Rutgers-restricted Access
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Full-text database of 500 newspapers published between 1800 and 1900. Rutgers-restricted Access.
America's Historical Newspapers: Early American Newspapers, 1741-1922
Full text access to 1,500 newspapers published between 1741 and 1922. Rutgers-restricted Access
Chronicling America: Search the Newspaper Pages
An ongoing project of the Library of Congress to digitize America's historical newspapers. Coverage ranges from 1789 to 1963 but varies for each newspaper.

Contemporary Accounts: U.S. Media

Access World News
Access to the full text of over 2200 North American and over 1200 international newspapers. Includes the Newark Star-Ledger back to 1989.Rutgers-restricted Access
Westlaw
"News" portion indexes the full text of many newspapers. Rutgers-restricted Access
Factiva
A vast archive which includes the full-text of 8,000 leading newspapers, magazines, trade journals, newsletters, and television and radio transcripts, including the current New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ten to twenty year+ backfile for many titles. Rutgers-restricted Access.
Newspaper Source Plus
A collection of current (late 20th century to the present) news sources from around the world, including over 1200 full-text newspapers, 150 newswires, news magazines, television and radio transcripts, news video clips, and more. Television and radio news transcript sources include ABC News (United States), ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS. Rutgers-restricted Access.

Non-U.S. Media

Access World News, Westlaw Campus, and Factiva provide access to thousands of international newspapers!

African American & Ethnic Press

African-American Newspapers Rutgers-restricted Access
Full-text database of historical newspapers published by and for African-Americans. Includes:
  • Christian Recorder (Philadelphia: 1861-1902 [excluding 1892])
  • Colored American (New York: 1837-1841)
  • Douglass' Monthly (Rochester, NY: 1859-1863)
  • Frederick Douglass' Paper (Rochester, NY: 1851-1855; continues The North Star)
  • Freedom's Journal (New York: 1827-1829)
  • National Era (Washington, D.C.: 1847-1860)
  • North Star (Rochester, NY: 1847-1851)
  • Provincial Freeman (Chatham, Ontario): 1854-1857)
  • Weekly Advocate (New York: 1837)
  • Chicago Defender
    The Chicago Defender was the most influential African-American newspaper of the 20th century. With the majority of its readership outside the Chicago region, it served as the de facto national black newspaper in the U.S. Search and display the full text of articles published between 1910 and 1975.Rutgers-restricted Access.
    Ethnic NewsWatch
    Full text collection of articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press back to 1960. Rutgers-restricted Access.

    The Media

    American History in Video
    Digitized documentaries, newsreel films, and archival footage.   Rutgers-restricted Access
    TV-NewsSearch: The Vanderbilt Television News Archive
    Online access to NBC and CNN news broadcasts from August 1968 to the present. In addition, the database provides indexing for nightly news programs broadcast by the other national television networks, ABC and CBS; abstracts of each story within a regular news program are fully searchable. Rutgers-restricted Access

    Alternative Press

    Independent Voices
    Full text access to alternative press newspapers, magazines, and journals published in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century, including periodicals produced by radical student organizations; LGBT, African-American, Native American, and Latino activists; feminists, dissident military personnel, and others.

    Understanding Hate in America

    Documentating White Supremacy and its Opponants in the 1920s
    Full text access to eleven Ku Klux Klan newspapers, six pro-Klan newspapers, and two anti-Klan newspapers published between 1921 and 1932.
    RUTGERS.EDU | SEARCH RUTGERS.EDU

    © , Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

    Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues with Rutgers websites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier / Provide Feedback form.