Looking Back with America's Historical Newspapers

Newspapers may be considered passé in today's society, often just an annoyance to be thrown immediately into the recycling bin or saved up for lining the table at your next crawfish boil. But in times past, they were an essential way of learning what was happening in your community, around the country, and around the world. If it was important, it was in the paper. And now, newspapers from the past are an essential tool in learning about what shaped the lives of those who came before us. 

Here at Terrebonne Parish Library, we are fans of the printed word. We subscribe to various papers in print, including The Advocate, The Times Picayune, The Houma Courier, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and several more local and national publications. But these are sources for learning about what is happening now. Where should you look for historical newspapers? 

Terrebonne Parish Library subscribes to two databases which are extremely useful for historical research: America's Historical Newspapers and Newspaper Source. Both are available for free, 24/7, at mytpl.org/reference. All you need is your active Terrebonne Parish library card. 

 America's Historical Newspapers has a very simple search functions, so if you are looking for a specific topic, you can type in a word in the text box, just like you would in Google. From there, you can narrow down your results with several filters such as dates, newspaper titles, and location. 

You can also choose to get more specific results by using the "advanced search" function at the beginning of your search to find combinations of words. This is helpful when you are searching for a topic that is very specific. 

For example, I did a search for "Terrebonne Parish" and "yellow fever," which yielded only three results; However, these results were extremely relevant to my search. 

Viewing the newspapers inside of America's Historical Newspapers is even easier than reading them in print. Your search terms will be highlighted in your results. You can zoom in and out on the tiny font, making it much easier to read than regular print. You can also download your results to a PDF and email it or print it out, so keeping track of your research is easy. 

EBSCO's Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 U.S. & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 389 regional United States newspapers. In addition to newspapers, this source contains the full text of television and radio news transcripts from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, NPR, and more. Use EBSCO's multiple search filters to find the content you want quickly and easily.

 Both of these databases provide a wealth of information to researchers, both professional and amateur. If you would like help learning to use databases, consider attending a class with Reference Department staff, or as a librarian for a demonstration. We are always happy to help someone discover the past with our fantastic historical resources!