Finding Women in Newspapers

The Library of Congress offers many tools, catalogs, and databases that are useful when searching for women in newspapers. As indicated, some tools require you you be onsite at the Library of Congress, but most tools are freely accessible online.

The Library of Congress subscribes to a list of databases to search full-text historical newspapers. Some of these databases include complete runs of newspapers. Listed below are some of the most frequently used and most comprehensive databases to search historical newspapers. The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

View a complete list of subscription databases for historical newspapers
The link above displays the full list of databases available via the Library's E-Resources Online Catalog.

Accessible Archives External This link opens in a new window
Contains a number of digitized historic newspapers of 18th and 19th century America. Provides access to advertisements, death notices, and other ephemeral parts of the newspaper through indexing.
America's Historical Newspapers External This link opens in a new window
Features full text cover-to-cover reproductions of historic newspapers published in 50 states and the District of Columbia. The coverage provides insight into the early years of the United States.
Chronicling America This link opens in a new window

Provides free and open access to millions of pages from historic American public domain newspapers. More than 2100 titles, published in 40 states and territories and the District of Columbia (eventual coverage will be all states and territories, 1690-1963). Also provides a link to find information about newspapers published in the United States from 1690.
NewspaperARCHIVE External This link opens in a new window
Features articles from historical newspapers around the U.S. and the world. All newspapers in this database are full-page and fully searchable.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers & Periodicals External This link opens in a new window
Offers full-text and full-image articles for significant national newspapers dating back to the 18th Century. The Library subscribes to the complete run of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and more.

The print resources listed on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Comprehensive Histories of U.S. Newspapers

These resources document the diversity and progress of newspaper publishing and offer a good introduction to the topic. Newspaper histories may refer to specific stories or columnists for which the newspaper is known.

American Journalism: A History, 1690-1960 by Frank Luther Mott (New York: Macmillan)
Call Number: PN4855 .M63 1962
Published/Created: 1962
Provides both broad scope and insights into individual newspapers. Provides exhaustive footnotes and detailed accounts not found in other newspaper histories.
History of Printing in America by Isaiah Thomas (Albany: J. Munsell)
Call Number: E172 .A3 vol. 5-6
Published/Created: 1874
Describes printing in the colonies through 1775. Discusses not only the printing process itself and the newspaper press in each colony, but also individual newspapers and biographies of printers. The first to point out the involvement of women in early American printing.
The Press and America by Michael Emery; Edwin Emery; Nancy L. Roberts
Call Number: PN4855 .E6 2000
ISBN: 0205295576
Published/Created: 1999-12-06
The Press and America remains the classic authority on the history of mass media in the United States. Recognizing that the development of America's journalism is inherently and integrally related to the cultural identity of its people, the heart of this book is an examination of American life and the American media. It traces how major events in U.S. history were covered by reporters, editors and broadcasters and how other writers, advertisers and advocates influenced and continue to influence events in this country. While examining the media's influence on the course of events, this text also points out how events have determined the shape and character of the media.

Individual Newspaper Histories

Most major newspapers have a published history of the newspaper compiled by the newspaper itself or by independent historians. They may be useful starting points to finding information about women journalists—as long as the researcher knows the newspaper for which these particular journalists worked.

Chicago Tribune by Lloyd Wendt (Chicago: Rand McNally)
Call Number: PN4899.C4 T87
ISBN: 0528818260
Published/Created: 1979-10-01
Relies on Tribune files, interviews with key personnel of the past and present to provide a chronicle of 130 years of the Chicago newspaper. Mentions women's columns, women's interest coverage, and notes women editors and reporters.
Story of the New York Times by Meyer Berger
Call Number: PN4899.N42 T53 1970
ISBN: 0405016522
Published/Created: 1971-01-01
A detailed history of the New York Times over a century. Covers women columnists, reporters, editors, and other personnel. Includes information about women's pages in the newspaper.
The Washington Post by Chalmers M. Roberts
Call Number: PN4899.W31
ISBN: 0395258545
Published/Created: 1977-11-01
A comprehensive chronicle of the Washington Post over a century. Includes information about women reporters and specifically the first female reporter at the newspaper, as well as women editorial writers. Also covers women's influence on policies and style, and women's suffrage.

The print reference works listed on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Biographical Works

Equal to the Occasion: Women Editors of the Nineteenth-century West by Sherilyn Cox Bennion (Reno: University of Nevada Press)
Call Number: PN4872 .B46 1990
Published/Created: 1990
The lives, publications, and historical contexts of thirty-five female editors of newspapers and periodicals in the 19th-century West, from 1854, when the West's first woman editor began her work, through the turn of the century. Has in-depth portraits of pioneering women editors and its appendix listing more than two hundred women and the major repositories where their extant publications are kept.
The First Women Washington Correspondents by Maurine Hoffman Beasley (Washington: George Washington University)
Call Number: PN4872 .B4
Published/Created: 1976
Great Women of the Press by Madelon G. Schilpp; Sharon M. Murphy; Howard R. Long (Introduction by)
Call Number: N4872 .S34 1983
ISBN: 0809310988
Published/Created: 1983-08-01
Each of the 18 women whose stories unfold in this unique work made heroic, profession-changing contributions to journalism. Covering nearly 300 years, Schilpp and Murphy have elevated these women either from the obscurity of historical footnotes (Elizabeth Timothy, 1700-1757) or from the frozen stuff of legend (Nellie Bly, Anne Newport Royall, Margaret Fuller); they have made their subjects working journalists whose careers and accomplishments were indeed heroic and inspiring, but human.
Ladies of the Press by Ishbel Ross (New York: Arno Press)
Call Number: PN4872 .R7 1974
Published/Created: 1974 [c1936]
Colorful history of women in the newspaper business from colonial times to the 20th century. Roughly chronological in arrangement, its index is helpful locating specific women.
A Place in the News by Kay Mills
Call Number: PN4784.W7 M55 1990
ISBN: 0231074174
Published/Created: 1990-12-18
This unique book combines a brief, comprehensive history of women in the American newspaper business over the last one hundred years with a sharp assessment of their present status. Kay Mills describes how today's women journalists have reached their present positions and argues that the increased presence of women reporters is having an important impact on the kind of news that appears in daily papers.
Raising Her Voice by Rodger Streitmatter
Call Number: PN4872 .S66 1994
ISBN: 0813108306
Published/Created: 1994-02-24
Each chapter is a biographical sketch of an influential black woman who has written for American newspapers or television news, including Maria W. Stewart, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Gertrude Bustill Mossell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Josephine St.Pierre Ruffin, Delilah L. Beasley, Marvel Cooke, Charlotta A. Bass, Alice Allison Dunnigan, Ethel L. Payne, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
Women of the World by Julia Edwards
Call Number: PN4872 .E39 1988
ISBN: 0395444861
Published/Created: 1988-06-01
From the early days of reporters like Margaret Fuller and Nelly Bly to female correspondents in Vietnam, this is a history of women journalists.

Women's Press Organizations

Leadership 1937-2013 by Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas (Editor-In-Chief); Susan Brauer (Associate Editor)
Call Number: PN4872 .W65 2013
ISBN: 9780974587820
Published/Created: 2013-01-01
Women's press organizations, 1881-1999 by ed. Elizabeth V. Burt (Westport: Greenwood Press)
Call Number: PN4872 .H57 2000
Published/Created: 2000
Provides a description and analysis of forty women's press organizations that have been key to the development of women writers of the press since the first established organization in 1881. Each entry describes the challenges faced by women that brought about the establishment of the organization at that particular time and place, some of the women who played key roles in the group's leadership, the group' s major activities and programs and its contributions to women of the press.

The print resources listed on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Bibliographies

Numerous bibliographies treat newspapers and newspaper history. Most general bibliographies refer to women in journalism, more often noting them in the index than devoting entire chapters to women.

American Journalism History by W. David Sloan (Compiled by)
Call Number: Z6951 .S54 1989
ISBN: 0313263507
Published/Created: 1989-04-24
Sloan has compiled a comprehensive annotated bibliography of works pertaining to United States journalism history from colonial to contemporary times. Some 2,600 separate entries provide information on dissertations, articles, monographs, books and reference materials published between 1810 and 1988. This work is an invaluable tool for historians and other scholars engaged in research, this book will also serve as a useful reference for courses in mass communications and the history of journalism.
Literature of Journalism: An Annotated Bibliography by Warren C. Price (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
Call Number: Z6940 .P7
Published/Created: 1959
Considers the press in Britain, Canada, and the United States. This work, and its supplements, is one of the standard bibliographies of the field.
Newspapers: A Reference Guide by Richard A. Schwarzlose
Call Number: Z6951 .S35 1987
ISBN: 0313236135
Published/Created: 1987-11-13
Newspapers provides a historical context for the books discussed in its readable essays and will be invaluable for anyone researching the history or role of newspapers in American life. This reference guide provides a broad-based and comprehensive introduction to the literature about and by newspapers, and views them as multi-faceted sociocultural phenomena.

The print resources listed on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Newspaper Indexes

These resources list articles classified by subject, names, personal notices, advertising, illustrations, or other items found in a newspaper. You can use indexes to find pertinent articles about women or by women reporters. Be aware that for newspapers, there are no comprehensive retrospective indexes covering multiple titles over long time periods and many newspapers lack any kind of indexing at all.

Lathrop Report on Newspaper Indexes: An Illustrated Guide to Published and Unpublished Newspaper Indexes in the United States and Canada by Norman M. Lathrop (Wooster: Norman Lathrop Enterprises)
Call Number: Z6293 .L37 1979 AI3
Published/Created: 1979-
Guide to indexed newspapers in the United States.
Newspaper Indexes: A Location and Subject Guide for Researchers by Anita Cheek Milner (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press)
Call Number: Z6951 .M635 AI3
Published/Created: 1977-
Entries identify and locate commercially produced indexes, as well as indexes created by libraries, societies, and individuals. Includes dates, special topics, and locations of indexes.
Women, 1965-1975 by ed. Cynthia Crippen, ae. Felice D. Levy ... et al. (Glen Rock: Microfilming Corp. of America)
Call Number: Z7961 .W62 HQ1154
Published/Created: 1978
A New York Times specialized index. Covers subjects which affect women as individuals and the traditional and evolving concepts of women's role, choices, and image.

The print resources listed on this page link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Newspaper Directories

These directories identify newspaper titles published in specific locations or time periods.

History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 by Clarence S. Brigham (Westport: Greenwood Press)
Call Number: Z6951 .B86 1976 PN4861
Published/Created: 1975
Widely used to identify early newspapers, Brigham's work includes historical information about each newspaper as well as holdings information. The work is arranged first by state and then by newspaper title. It includes indexes to titles and printers.
History and Present Condition of the Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United States by S. N. D. North (Elmsford: Maxwell Reprint Co.)
Call Number: HC105 .A66 vol. 9 PN4855
Published/Created: 1971
Completed for the 10th census (1880), this history of the newspaper and periodical press from 1639 to 1880 provides statistics, a catalog of periodical publications issued in 1880, and a chronology of the U.S. newspaper press. Although not every state's press history is included, the chronology, arranged by state and territory, contains valuable historical information not easily found elsewhere.
N.W. Ayer & Son's Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals by N.W. Ayer (Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Sons)
Call Number: Z6951.A97
Published/Created: 1880-
Published annually, the “Ayer's Directory,” as it is commonly known, is a list of newspapers (and many periodicals) published in the U.S. and Canada, arranged geographically. Ayer's includes a classed listing of newspapers and periodicals, as well as subject listings, such as culinary and housekeeping, fashion, matrimonial, millinery, woman's handiwork, and women's clubs.
Rowell's American Newspaper Directory by George Presbury Rowell (New York : Printers' Ink Pub. Co.)
Call Number: Z6951 .R88 PN4864
Published/Created: 1905-
A predecessor and later a competitor of Ayers, Rowell's lists newspapers and periodicals of the U.S. and the territories geographically. It has a large section on advertising rates and circulation data and includes listings related to women, such as “Woman's Rights.” It was absorbed by Ayer's American Newspaper Directory in 1910.
Working Press of the Nation by (New York: Farrell Pub. Corp.)
Call Number: Z6951 .W6
Published/Created: 1947-
Volume 1 of the three-volume Working Press is categorized first according to type of newspaper (daily, weekly), then by subject groupings (feature syndicates, news and photo services), which are not limited to a specific newspaper. One of its strengths is its index to editorial personnel, which includes women.

Union Lists of Newpapers

This type of resource can assist in locating newspaper holdings beyond the Library of Congress and they verify the existence of newspapers. They may include useful editorial information and listings of variant titles.

American Newspapers, 1821-1936 by ed. Winifred Gregory (New York: Bibliographical Society of America)
Call Number: Z6945 .A53
Published/Created: 1937
Newspapers in Microform, 1948-1983 by Catalog Management and Publication Division, Library of Congress (Washington: Library of Congress)
Call Number: Z6951 .U56a PN4855
Published/Created: 1973

American Women: Resources from the Serial & Government Publications Collections

Finding Women in Newspapers

Comprehensive Histories of U.S. Newspapers

Individual Newspaper Histories

Biographical Works

Women's Press Organizations

Bibliographies

Newspaper Indexes

Newspaper Directories

Union Lists of Newpapers