ProQuest Historical Newspapers

The Library recently added a number of important historical newspapers to our growing digital collection in the ProQuest Historical Newspapers package*.

The Times of India was originally founded in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce (1838-1859), it became the Bombay Times and Standard (1860-1861) after merging with two other popular newspapers. After another merger in 1861, it was renamed The Times of India (1861-present). Learn about the partition of India, the economic boom in the IT sector, Bollywood films or Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen of all time, in this rich primary resource.

The Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005) covers community and world issues from the unique cultural perspective of the Los Angeles African American community. Follow the grass-roots struggle against the racially restrictive housing covenants of the 1940s, or read Roy Wilkins’ column, “The Watchtower,” and see how he attacked efforts to label civil rights activists as “communists” during the Cold War.

The Guardian and The Observer cover over 200 years of British news (1791 -2003). The Guardian was first published in response to the Peterloo Massacre. Originally known as the Manchester Guardian, it was a Saturday-only paper until the newspaper stamp duty was repealed in 1855. The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday paper, was first published in 1791. Thought-provoking writers such as George Orwell, Vita Sackville-West, Clive James, Philip Toynbee, and others were contributors, continuing a tradition of freedom of the press and providing serious coverage of politics and literature.

The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) was founded by former slave John Henry Murphy, Sr. when he merged three church publications. The Baltimore Afro-American became one of the most widely circulated African-American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast, and included contributors such as writer Langston Hughes, intellectual J. Saunders Redding, artist Romare Bearden, and sports editor Sam Lacy, whose column influenced the desegregation of professional sports.

* This post is the fourth in a series highlighting important additions to our online resources. These purchases were made possible in large part with new library funding that resulted from the Commission on the Future of the UC Berkeley Library charged under EVCP George Breslauer and Chair, Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate, Elizabeth Deakin. For more information, read the Commission Report and Response.