The Library has access to a trial of The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000 through June 17, 2016.
Description from the vendor’s website:
“Launched in 1855, The Telegraph was the first 1d morning paper (The Times was 7d). By 1876, The Telegraph was the largest-selling newspaper in the world, with a circulation of 300,000. The newspaper was directed at a wealthy, educated readership and is commonly associated with traditional Toryism, despite its more ‘liberal’ beginnings. However, this shifted in the late 1870s, when the newspaper began to support British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli over the Eastern Question.
“Under the editorship of poet and Orientalist Edwin Arnold from 1873 to 1899, the newspaper published widely on foreign affairs and foreign cultures. This led to The Telegraph’s coverage of Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition to Africa in search of David Livingstone, which it co-sponsored with the New York Herald in 1874. Its dedication to foreign news coverage was evidenced by its employment of several renowned special correspondents over the years; Winston Churchill, who reported from India in 1897, Rudyard Kipling, who braved the trenches of the First World War, and Clare Hollingworth, who, as the first female war correspondent, relayed the start of the Second World War from Poland.
“During the twentieth century, The Telegraph cemented its reputation as a pioneering yet reliable source of news reporting. There was the infamous uncensored interview with Kaiser Wilhelm of 1908, in which the German chancellor successfully alienated Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. In 1942, the newspaper published the cryptic crossword puzzle responsible for recruiting Allied codebreakers during the Second World War.
“The Telegraph’s commitment to lively copy was matched by its desire to position itself at the forefront of journalistic innovation; it published the first crossword to appear in a newspaper in 1925, the first television column in 1935, and became the first British newspaper to launch a website in 1994.
“The publication of The Telegraph is generally seen by press historians as the start of a new era of journalism that emerged following the repeal of the stamp duty, marking the first step towards the mass-market journalism of the Daily Mail. This makes The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000 a valuable addition to Gale’s coverage of the ‘quality’ UK press, providing an important alternative voice to its other national UK dailies such as The Times and The Independent.
“The Telegraph Historical Archive, 1855-2000 has over 1 million pages of content and includes the Sunday edition from its inception in 1961. The archive offers a fundamental insight into domestic and international affairs and culture over a timespan of almost 150 years.”