Blog Posts by Subject: Historical Newspapers

Including genealogy, the performing arts, LGBT studies and more.

Understanding that they, as young people, are historical actors and that their lives are worthy of scholarly analysis can be a profoundly empowering experience.

Sunday is Mother's Day—a day of flowers, cards and brunches. How did this special day to celebrate all mothers actually begin?

Robert G. O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University recites this letter about faith composed by Harlem Renaissance poet and novelist, Langston Hughes, to Jamaican born Harlem preacher E. Ethelred Brown.

As June turned into July in 1863, the residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi faced an increasingly dire summer. The city's newspaper, the Vicksburg Daily Citizen, was remarkable in that it both documented and physically represented the effects of the siege.

Now Screening highlights NYPL's recent electronic resource acquisitions. This month: Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000, available at any NYPL location, or remotely using your library card.

The editors of the newspaper decided that women could make better use of their quadrennial opportunity if they had a better lay of the marriageable land. So, the newspaper published an annotated list of eligible Chicago bachelors.

Caribbean Newspapers encompasses twenty countries during their occupation by European colonizers and chronicles a tumultuous time in Caribbean history.

On December 21, 1913, the first known published crossword appeared in the New York World newspaper. Today, in celebration, we're challenging you to complete our New York Public Library-themed crossword!

August 2, 1945: The high temperature in New York City was 84 degrees, and the second World War was drawing to a close. Where were Greenwich Villagers going to wile away the hot evening hours? Why, Little Shrimp, The Golden Eagle, and Dick the Oyster Man, of course!

Picture it: The year is 1933, and you need a new coat! Chances are, you'd be headed to Hearn's. This department store, located on 14th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues from 1879 until 1955, was a New York shopping mecca.

New York is a city of nicknames. The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice… and of course Gotham, which we’ve covered before. Today let’s just look at the Big Apple.

Historical newspapers are useful tools for history and genealogy research. They can be searched for ancestors’ death notices/obituaries, personal announcements and celebrations, community involvement, social news and gossip, lodge and club news, employment ads, real estate transactions, legal notices, casualty lists, military news, criminal activity, and much more.

At the turn of the 20th century, children’s lifestyles were not quite what they are today. Child labor laws were not declared constitutional until 1938 and children largely socialized with their adult co-workers in dance halls, gambling dens, and gin mills. It was this children-as-adults culture that sparked the play movement, removing children from the “physical and moral dangers of the street” to playgrounds, under the direction of trained play leaders.

For those researchers who need to look up past weather information for New York City, one way to do so is to use a historical newspaper database, such as ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2009) with Index (1851-1993) which is accessible at any New York Public Library location.

In this case, since it is not weather forecast information that one is interested in, but 

This post will decipher the Library's record of the NYT and demonstrate how to use the NYT to conduct other newspaper research.

It's time to CELEBRATE!

This year the musical Newsies got nominated for eight Tony Awards. The popularity of the Disney Broadway show based on the Disney film has led many of our younger patrons to ask about the newsboys and the strike they led in 1899 on which the film and play are based.

If you are interested in learning more about the strike of 1899 (there were other strikes before and after) simply do 

March is Women's History Month. This year, the theme of Women's History Month is Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This blog post will explore how one can conduct research in women's and gender studies and history.

The research collections of The