Finding Published Primary Sources: Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Historical Articles

ProQuest Historical Newspapers (US) (Coverage Varies)
Searchable full-text articles and images from:
  • Atlanta Constitution (1868-1939)
  • Chicago Defender (1921-1975)
  • Chicago Tribune (1849-1986)
  • Christian Science Monitor (1908-1993)
  • Hartford Courant (1764-1984)
  • Los Angeles Times (1881-1986)
  • New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
  • New York Times (1851-2004)
  • Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
  • Wall Street Journal (1889-1990)
  • Washington Post (1877-1991)


Early American Newspapers Digital (1700-1859)
Digital renditions of newspapers published in America from 1700-1859.

Times (London) Digital Archive (1785 - 1985)
Scanned version of the London Times. Contains full content of the newspaper including advertisements, editorials, reviews, stock exchange tables, and weather reports. Does not include the Sunday edition.
Works best in Internet Explorer.

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Index to articles in popular, general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.

Nineteenth Century Masterfile (1800s-1920)
Index to English and American books, journals, magazines, newspapers and government documents published in the 19th and early 20th century. Includes Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.

World News Connection (1994-Present)
Publications of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a U.S. Government agency which monitors and translates radio and television broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspaper and periodical articles, non-classified technical reports, and government statements from within other countries. View list of sources included.

Current Articles

ProQuest National Newspapers (Current News) (Coverage Varies )
Full-text of articles from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other highly circulated US newspapers.

Articles only - does not include graphics, photos, advertisement or classifieds. New York Times Magazine and Book Reviews are available as PDFs with graphics included.

PressDisplay (Last 45 days)
Fulltext digitized version of international newspapers. Available the day of publication. Archives are maintained for 45 days. Tutorial Printing Help

ProQuest International Newsstand (Coverage Varies )
Searchable fulltext (some citations) from over 170 English and non-English Language newspapers and newswire sources worldwide. Coverage for most sources begins in the late 1990s.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - News (Coverage varies)
Provides access to full-text articles from U.S. national and regional news sources, English language newspapers and newswires from around the world.

Readers' Guide Abstracts (1983-Present )
Index to articles in popular, general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.

Locating Articles

While searching one of the above databases, you will want to determine whether the Williams College Libraries own the journals containing the articles you wish to read.

Many databases have this Find Text icon icon. When you click on the icon in the database, it will attempt to find an electronic version of the text in our collection. If it doesn't find an electronic version, it will give you a screen with a link to FRANCIS and WILL. The FRANCIS link sends a pre-formatted search into FRANCIS to find print or other electronic subscriptions in our collection. The WILL link provides an automatically filled-in interlibrary loan request form to get a copy from another library.

If the database you are using does not have the Find Text icon, you can do a journal title search in FRANCIS. If we do not have an electronic or print subscription, you can submit an interlibrary loan request through WILL.