Skip to Main Content
Michigan State University

British Isles Online Primary Resources: Newspapers

This is a guide to the major electronic resources M.S.U. Libraries has bought or is subscribing to about/from the British Isles. It can be used for literary, historical, political, or social/economic topics.

Newspapers

Our Online U.K. and Irish Newspapers library guide is more up to date than this page.

This list below is arranged roughly by our start dates.

Annual Register

1758-1953 Link goes to a version in Hathi Trust collection from our online catalog.  Not a newspaper per se but an annual publication about events around the world that were of concern/interest to the British.

1791-1900 Observer (London)

Manchester Guardian, 1821-1825; 1828-1900; 1901-1959;

Telegraph Historical Archive

1855-2016 One of the world's highest circulating newspapers in the English language.  Includes also the Sunday issues from 1961-2000.  The BBC describes it as "the newspaper of the establishment."  We also offer this newspaper post 2000, here.

Irish Times

1859-2012  From Dublin, Ireland

International Herald Tribune Archive

1887-2013  Complete archive from its inception as the European edition of the New York Herald and later the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune.  Ends with last issue of International Herald Tribune before its relaunch as International New York Times.

Financial Times

1888-2021  The world’s most authoritative daily business newspaper.

Daily Mail Historical Archive

1896-2004  Progressive newspaper for ordinary, busy people.  For emphasis and scope see the essay about its history in the "Essays" section of the web site.

1901-2003 Observer (London)

Independent (London)

1986-2016 Centrist politically.  Economic stance is liberal, pro-market.  Current issues online, here.

Scotsman

1993-2016  from various aggregators, a subscription resource for us, not owned content.