Search the blog

Ruth Small studied History at Newcastle University and recently got in touch to tell us all about her dissertation. She used The British Newspaper Archive in her research and was awarded a first-class mark, with some amazing comments about the originality of her work. ************** I wrote my History dissertation about the great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, which occurred on 6 October 1854. It was a fire which led to an explosion in a warehouse of a magnitude that no one had…

Did you know that you can save the stories you find at The British Newspaper Archive to your computer?This step-by-step guide will explain how you can download a whole newspaper page and also how you can save individual articles or images. Watch this short video tutorial or follow the steps below:Search the newspapers –>How to save articles from The British Newspaper Archive Use the ‘Download’ option at the top of our image viewer to download a PDF of…

The lovely people at history magazine Bygone Kent got in touch to share the shocking stories they’ve uncovered about Charles Dickens’ life in Higham, Kent.We’d love to hear about your own discoveries – email [email protected] to tell us about them.A ‘diabolical attempt’ to overturn the carriage of Charles Dickens while it drove through his home village has been discovered by local historian and journalist Andrew Rootes, editor of Bygone Kent. The incident was uncovered in The British Newspaper Archive…

Suzie Grogan used The British Newspaper Archive extensively while researching her book, Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War’s legacy for Britain’s mental health. She got in touch to show us the heart-breaking story she found about her own ancestors and some of the terrible accounts about life during World War One.**************My book is the product of two years of intensive research into the trauma of the Great War and its aftermath. But it was a chance find during…

Caroline Rance, author of The Quack Doctor and What the Apothecary Ordered, got in touch to show us some of the shocking medical tales she’s unearthed. We’d love to hear about your own discoveries – email [email protected] to tell us about them. **************Whatever you search for in The British Newspaper Archive, chances are the articles you find will be close to adverts promoting cures for every kind of disease. Some brands were sold in good faith and became stalwarts of the…

There are lots of new stories to explore at The British Newspaper Archive this month. More than 400,000 newspaper pages from 1745-1954 were added in January, helping us reach our 10 million page milestone.Search the newspapers –>39 new titles, including the Sunday Mirror from WW1The additions include copies of the Sunday Mirror from 1914-1918, then known as the Sunday Pictorial. The national newspaper printed fascinating weekly news, photographs and illustrations from World War One.The Dublin Evening Post, Oxford University and City Herald…

Lonely hearts columns aren’t a modern phenomenon. Search our historical newspapers and you’ll find numerous examples of ‘matrimonial advertisements’ from the 1800s and 1900s.The notices can often make for amusing reading. We’ve collected together a few of our favourites to provide you with some tips for finding love. You may or may not want to take the advice…1) Be overly specific and insultingAn American woman advertised for a husband in 1920, advising that he ‘can have any colour hair…

Just a month after hitting the 9.5 million page milestone, we’re very pleased to announce that there are now 10 million historic newspaper pages available at The British Newspaper Archive.The website launched with 4 million pages in November 2011, which means there’s now 150% more to explore. If you’ve not searched the collection for a while, it’s definitely time to try again.Search the newspapers –>More to search and a great-value subscriptionIt’s not just our coverage that has improved over the last few…

Newspaper articles can provide incredible detail about peoples’ lives, whether you’re looking for your ancestors or researching a particular character from history.Search for a person’s name –>Searching newspaper articles for an ancestor or person from historyEnter the name of the person you’re looking for in the search bar at the top of the homepage. Put a double quote mark on each side of the name and click the ‘search’ button.The quote marks will make your search results more…

Last year, we donated 100 subscriptions to Wikipedia’s volunteer editors to help expand public information about historical topics. Brian Chapman has worked with Wikipedia for over five years and made around 42,000 edits to the online encyclopedia. He got in touch to tell us about one of the pages he’s improved with the help of our newspapers.**************When I heard about the collaboration between The British Newspaper Archive and Wikipedia, I jumped at the chance to take part. I’ve long been fascinated…