Newspapers: Historic Newspapers

The Washington Digital Newspapers program brings together over 400,000 pages from our earliest online Washington Territorial newspaper collection with titles digitized by the state library as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The state library’s newspaper collection in Olympia, contains more than 6500 newspaper titles and more than 50,000 reels of microfilm. As a rich source of primary materials for teachers, students, genealogists, and professional researchers it’s one of the best “go-to” places to find Washington newspapers.

This database is accessible for free if you have a Seattle Public Library (SPL) card or a King County Public Library (KCLS) card.

Washington State Library's newspaper collection includes current issues on paper and historic newspapers on microfilm with some issues searchable online. We subscribe to about 125 daily and weekly newspapers throughout Washington, plus a few out-of-state papers. The microfilm collection consists of over 50,000 reels of newspapers dating from the 1850s to the present. We offer even more research options through our subscriptions to newspaper databases. In some cases a Washington State Library card number may be required to view these collections.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

The Black Press Research Collective (BPRC) is dedicated to generating digital scholarship and archiving the Black Press to preserve the significance of the historical and contemporary role of black newspapers in Africa and the African Diasporas.

The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.