There are several types of reference sources that can assist with and enrich newspaper research. Scroll down or click on the source type linked below to explore the sources available in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room (NCPRR) collections:
Within each section is a description of the type of source and how it can be used for newspaper research, links to significant titles of that source, and a search strategy to find that particular source in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.
Please note that the records in the Library of Congress Online Catalog can sometimes be unreliable, and there may be more reference sources available beyond what you are able to find by searching only the Library of Congress Online Catalog. For questions or assistance with identifying or locating reference sources, please contact the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room where reference librarians are happy to help!
Also included on this page are lists of repositories that hold various Newspaper Morgues and Newspaper Photographic Morgues.
Newspaper indexes list articles classified by subjects, names, personal notices, advertising, illustration, or other items found in a newspaper. If you are looking for coverage of a particular person or event, you can use indexes to possibly find citations that will lead you to specific issues and page numbers for articles. Be aware that for newspapers, there are no comprehensive retrospective indexes covering multiple titles over long time periods, and many newspapers lack any of indexing at all.
Below is a sampling of the newspaper indexes in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room reference collection; it is not a complete list of every index within the collection. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
The Atlanta Journal, The Atlanta Constitution Index by Bell & Howell Newspaper Index to the Times-Picayune, the States-Item by San Francisco Chronicle. Newspaper Index by Below is a list of some freely available online newspaper indexes.
| State | City | Newspaper Archive | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | Washington | Rambler, Washington Star External | 1912 - 1928 |
| Florida | Jacksonville | Florida Times Union Index External | 1986 - 1997 |
| Hawaii | Honolulu | Hawaii Newspaper Index External *Honolulu Advertiser, Star-Bulletin, and Star-Advertiser |
1989 - current |
| Hawaii | Honolulu | Index to the Honolulu Advertiser & Star-Bulletin External | 1929 - 1969 |
| Iowa | Des Moines | Des Moines Register External | 1959 - 1976 |
| Kentucky | Northern Kentucky Newspaper Index 1800-1899 External | 1835 - 1899 | |
| Kentucky | Louisville | Louisville Newspaper Obituary Index 1918-1987 External | 1918 - 1987 |
| Michigan | Detroit | Detroit News Index External *Obituary name search |
1879 - 1995 *approximate |
| New York | Albany | University of Albany, Scholar Archive | 1982 - 1990 |
| New York | New York Daily Tribune Index External | 1875 - 1906 | |
| Ohio | Cleveland | Cleveland Necrology Index External *Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Herald, and Cleveland Press |
1833 - 1979 *coverage varies per title |
| Oregon | (Varied) | Oregon State Library - Oregon Index External *Multiple newspapers included |
1975 - 2004 *coverage varies per title |
| Oregon | Portland | University of Oregon - Newspaper Index Search External *Daily Emerald, Oregonian, and Register Guard |
1852 - 2004 *coverage varies per title |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Philadelphia Press Index External | 1898 - 1912 |
| Tennessee | (Varied) | Newspapers Obituary Indexes in Public Libraries External *A list of newspaper indexes and which library has them |
1810 - current *coverage varies per title |
| Virginia | Fairfax County | Historical Newspaper Index Search External *Multiple newspapers included |
1785 - 2000 *coverage varies per title |
| Virginia | Richmond | Library of Virginia Newspaper Index External *Richmond Times Dispatch and Richmond News Leader |
1940s - 1985 |
| Virginia | (Varied) | Race & Place: Newspapers External *Charlottesville Reflector and Richmond Planet |
1890 - 1935 *approximate |
| Virginia | Williamsburg | Virginia Gazette Index External | 1736 - 1780 |
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Lathrop Report on Newspaper Indexes by The Lathrop Report on Newspaper Indexes is also freely available online.
Newspaper Indexes by The following title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Editor & Publisher International Year Book by Some volumes of the Editor & Publisher Yearbook from 1909 to 1922 are freely available to search online through HathiTrust External.
The following strategies will help you locate newspaper indexes in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
It can also be helpful to Browse the online catalog using Library of Congress Subject Headings. The following heading structures will assist you in locating newspaper indexes for particular states and regions. Using browse, select "SUBJECTS beginning with" and enter the subject words in order, as seen in the examples below:
Most newspaper indexes found in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room can be found within Call Number A121.
Newspaper directories identify titles published in specific locations or time periods.
The U.S. Newspaper Directory is an online directory of newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which can help identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them. Use the drop-down menus to select a particular place and time, or use keywords to locate specific titles.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
N.W. Ayer & Son's Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals by Rowell's American Newspaper Directory by While no complete set of Rowell's or Ayer's is digitally available online, there is digital access to many of the volumes through various online sources, including HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, Google Books, and the University of North Texas (UNT). Below is a source list with links to the various available volumes found online.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Newspapers in Microform by Newspapers in microform. Foreign countries by The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Directory of Newspaper Libraries in the U.S. and Canada by Encyclopedic Directory of Ethnic Newspapers and Periodicals in the United States by History and Present Condition of the Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United States by Newspaper Libraries in the U. S. and Canada by The Working press of the nation by The following strategies will help you locate newspaper directories in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
It can also be helpful to Browse the online catalog using Library of Congress Subject Headings. The following heading structures will assist you in locating newspaper directories for particular states and regions. Using browse, select "SUBJECTS beginning with" and enter the subject words in order, as seen in the examples below:
Newspaper bibliographies include the title, dates, place of publication as well as a paper's focus. Numerous bibliographies treat newspapers and newspaper history. Union lists present lists of newspapers in geographic arrangement according to place of publication, and specify which libraries or other institutions hold collections of those newspapers and the dates of their holdings. These can also be useful for tracking title changes throughout a newspaper's history.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
American newspapers, 1821-1936 : a union list of files available in the United States and Canada by Daniel Hewett's list of newspapers and periodicals in the United States by History and bibliography of American newspapers, 1690-1820: including additions and corrections, 1961 by A list of American newspapers by 
Newspapers by A Check List of American Eighteenth Century Newspapers in the Library of Congress by Union list of serials in libraries of the United States and Canada by Below is a sampling of the state and regional union lists available in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room Reference Collection; it is not a complete list of every union list of this type within the collection. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Newspapers and periodicals in the Lincoln-Douglas country, 1831-1832 by A union list of newspapers in offices of publishers and in libraries of Southern California by Union list of serials -- Miami Valley, Cincinnati, and Northern Kentucky by 
Commonly referred to in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room as "the Green Books," these volumes provide a list of the Division's newspaper holdings by year and geographical location, covering 1801 to 1967. These indexes are helpful with identifying what newspaper holdings the Division has in its collections that published in a particular city and state during a particular year. Please note that this source may contain some outdated holdings information and should not be the only reference source checked to find definitive holdings lists. However, these indexes are a good source to getting a general idea of what we have for a specific place and time.
Two sets of these volumes are available to browse in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room; one set is located behind the reference desk and the second set is available on the public shelves in the reading room.
The following strategies will help you locate newspaper bibliographies or union lists in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
It can also be helpful to Browse the online catalog using Library of Congress Subject Headings. The following heading structures will assist you in locating newspaper bibliographies or union catalogs for particular states and regions. Using browse, select "SUBJECTS beginning with" and enter the subject words in order, as seen in the examples below:
Comprehensive histories of U.S. newspapers 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.
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 journalists—as long as the researcher knows the newspaper for which these particular journalists worked.
Other works cover the history of the printers and printing of newspapers in a state, county, or region more generally, and provide more condensed histories of the editors, journalists, and evolution of the newspapers in a specific area.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
American Journalism: A History, 1690-1960 by History of Printing in America by 
The Press and America by Below is a sampling of the individual newspaper histories available in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room Reference Collection; it is not a complete list of every individual newspaper history within the collection. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Chicago Tribune by The San Francisco Chronicle and Its HistoryStory of the New York Times by The Washington Post by Below is a sampling of the state newspaper histories available in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room Reference Collection; it is not a complete list of every state newspaper history within the collection. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.
Connecticut Newspapers in the Eighteenth Century by A history of California newspapers by Printers and printing in Providence, 1762-1907 by The following strategies will help you locate newspaper histories in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
It can also be helpful to Browse the online catalog using Library of Congress Subject Headings. The following heading structures will assist you in locating newspaper histories for particular states and regions. Using browse, select "SUBJECTS beginning with" and enter the subject words in order, as seen in the examples below:
With the term "morgue" in the title, it sounds like this is a place where newspapers go to die. On the contrary, a newspaper morgue refers to where paper collections of newspapers go to live on. These morgues are composed of physical newspaper archives and supplemental materials, which may include bound volumes of the newspapers, newspaper morgue materials, institutional records, and personal papers of people associated with the newspaper. Currently, no physical newspaper archive has fully digitized these supplemental materials.
| State | City | Newspaper Archive |
|---|---|---|
| California | San Bernardino | San Bernardino County Sun Donated its paper archives to San Bernardino County Historical Archives External and California State University, San Bernardino's John M. Pfau Library External. |
| California | San Francisco | San Francisco Examiner The paper archive 1888-1956 is at the University of California, Berkley's Bancroft Library External. |
| District of Columbia | Washington | Washington Afro-American The paper archive is located at the Afro-American headquarters External in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| District of Columbia | Washington | Washington Star The paper's photo archive is in the Martin Luther King Library's Star Collection External (DC Public Library). |
| Massachusetts | Boston | Boston Herald Boston University's Beebe Communications Library External houses a collection of newspaper clippings from the late 1800s to the early 1980s, most or all of which once belonged to the Boston Herald's library. Cambridge Public Library External has a collection of Boston Herald photographs, 1924-1997. |
| Maryland | Baltimore | Afro-American The paper archive is located at the Afro-American headquarters External in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| New Jersey | Newark | Newark Evening News The paper morgue is at the New Jersey Archives External. |
| New York | New York | New York Herald Tribune The paper archive from 1925-1966 is at the Briscoe Center for American History External, University of Texas at Austin. |
| New York | New York | New York Journal American The photographic morgue is held by the Harry Ransom Center External at the University of Texas at Austin. The Center also holds a nearly complete set of microfilm for the paper. The clippings morgue is held across campus at the Briscoe Center for American History External. |
| New York | New York | New York Times The morgue from 1910-1989 is at the Briscoe Center for American History External, University of Texas at Austin. |
| Ohio | Cleveland | Cleveland Press The Cleveland Press Collection External (morgue) is at Cleveland State University. |
| Ohio | Dayton | Dayton Daily News The morgue 1890-2004 is at Wright State University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives External. |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Daily News The clipping files 1958-1962 are at the Urban Archives External, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA. |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Philadelphia Bulletin The clipping files 1900-1982 are at the Urban Archives External, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA. The Urban Archives also has the newspaper index 1908-1975. |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Philadelphia Record The clipping files 1918-1950 and the newspaper photographs archive 1900-1946 is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania External. |
| Tennessee | Nashville | Nashville Banner The archive of clippings and photos is at the Nashville Public Library External. |
