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FIA

Exploring Journalism History Online

Ira Chinoy, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
URL of this page: /jhistory


NOTE: Some resources on this page are accessible by UMD students after logging in. The rest are on the open web.


Reference and databases (UMD libraries)

  • Dissertations & Theses: Global
  • Communication & Mass Media
  • America: History & Life with Full-Text
  • JSTOR
  • Academic Search Ultimate
  • Historical Abstracts with Full Text
  • Google Scholar: Access via this UMD link for subscription-based content
  • Encyclopedia of Journalism (2009) via Credo Reference database
    • Sample entries: Hoaxes //  Coverage of Race and Ethnicity // Newsreels
  • Encyclopedia of American Journalism (2008) – eBook limited to checkout by one user at a time
    • Also:  Google Books (limited preview and search)
    • Also: call no. PN4855 .E53 2008, non-circulating in Hornbake, Broadcasting Archives Stacks
  • Digital Repositories at the University of Maryland (DRUM): Full text of dissertations and theses and other works deposited by faculty (open Web)
  • Social History of the United States (online) – by decade, 1900s to 1990s

Primary sources (UMD libraries)

  • New York Times (1851-2008; Historical Newspapers) (ProQuest)
  • Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
  • America’s Historical Newspapers (Readex)
  • Historical Black Newspapers (ProQuest)
  • African-American Newspapers 1827-1998 (Readex)
  • American Periodicals Series (ProQuest)
  • Times Digital Archive – Times of London, 1785-1985 (Gale)
  • Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 (Gale)
  • Evening Star (D.C.), 1852-1922 (Readex)
  • Black Abolitionist Papers
  • Nation Digital Archive –  from 1865 to the present
  • World Newspaper Archive: African Newspapers 1800-1922 (Readex)
  • American History in Video
  • World History in Video
  • National Review Archive  – 1955 to the present
  • New Republic Archive – coverage back to 1914
  • Women and Social Movements US 1600-2000
  • UMD Libraries Research Guide: Women in Media

Primary sources on the Web

  • Archive of American Television:
    • Videos of interviews with TV news and documentary “legends”
    • Videos of interviews with sports broadcasting “legends”
  • Online archives for journalism history research, American Journalism Historians Association
  • Reporting America at War: Materials from a PBS documentary series on war correspondents, with links to interviews and primary source materials
  • AmericanRadioHistory.com:  Trade publications
    • Broadcasting Magazine:  1935-1989.
    • Broadcasting Yearbook: 1935-2005.
    • Radio Annual, Variety Annual, Keyes Annual: 1933-1964
  • United States Early Radio History – articles, documents, resources.
  • Internet Archive: Web pages, text, audio, video
    • TV News Search and Borrow
    • The Wayback Machine – over 400 billion archived web pages since 1996
    • eBooks and texts: 8 million-plus public domain books
    • Moving image archive: 2 million-plus
    • Still image archives
    • Audio archives
    • Union list of serials: locations of newspapers in libraries in the U.S. and Canada
  • Hathi Trust: Digitized and searchable collections of historical magazines and books
  • Media History Digital Library
  • Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers – Library of Congress:
  • Historic Newspapers: Library of Congress Flickr pilot project
  • Google Newspaper Archive: Nearly 1 million pages from about 2,000 newspapers
  • Times Machine: Over 150 years if scanned New York Times
  • Online newspaper archives: worldwide list maintained by Wikipedia
  • Freedom’s Journal online archive – first African American newspaper, 1827-1829
  • Independent Voices:  Archives of the alternative press
  • Sports Illustrated Vault – Covers and full issues back to 1954
  • Illustrated Newspaper Pages: Flickr
  • Google News Archive: Scanned newspapers back to the 19th century,
    • Use  [site:google.com/newspapers] and add search terms
    • For example: [site:google.com/newspapers “by telegraph”]
  • Google Books: Includes historical periodicals.
    • For example: African American magazines:  Ebony , Jet , Negro Digest (partial archives)
  • Google ngram viewer: search book contents for early historical appearance of words, phrases, names and topics.
    • Tips for using ngram viewer
  • HathiTrust Digital Archive: A rich online collection of periodicals
  • Digital Public Library of America From libraries, archives and museums.
  • Making of America – Cornell: 19th Century American periodicals:
  • Making of America – U. Michigan: 19th Century American periodicals:
  • Harper’s Weekly Journal and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper
  • The Archive of American Journalism: Full text of journalism by Nellie Bly, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Richard Harding Davis, and more
  • Historical Newspapers and Indexes on the Internet
  • Early Maryland Newspapers: Maryland State Archives
  • Xooxle Links to online newspaper archives by state
  • Wikipedia: List of online newspaper archives
  • British Newspaper Archive
  • Digital History: Historically Significant Newspaper Articles
  • Digital Military Newspaper Library
  • Newsreels: British Pathe via YouTube – announcement in Variety
  • Associated Press: Archival News Footage via YouTube  – announcement in Variety
  • British Movietone News via YouTube – announcement in Variety
  • World War II in the Newsreels – a collection of videos
  • Amazon books: use the “search inside” feature where available
  • Project Gutenberg: Online books of historical interest
  • The Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
  • FullBooks.com

Journalism history and timelines

  • Highlights of American TV history, Archive of American Television
  • History of American Journalism, 1900-2004, University of Kansas
  • Data Visualization: Journalism’s Voyage West, the Rural West Initiative at the Bill Lane Center for the American West , Stanford University.
  • Shmoop: History of Journalism in America
    • Timeline
    • Links to resources on the web
  • New Media Timeline, The Poynter Institute
  • “Are these the biggest moments in journalism blogging history?” Online Journalism Blog
  • History of Business Journalism, Prof. Chris Roush, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
  • 100 Outstanding Journalists in the United States in the Last 100 Years, NYU, 2012.
  • The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, PBS.org.

For students:

  • Guidelines for History Students, Zachary M. Schrag:  
  • How to Write an Essay (Schrag, George Mason University)
  • Writing Historical Essays: A Guide for Undergraduates (Rutgers)
  • Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students (Bowdoin).
  • 10 Essay Tips (History Today)
  • Boston University Department of History Writing Guide.
  • History Matters, a website for students of history
  • Making Sense of Evidence, part of the History Matters site developed by the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, City University of New York, and the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.

Citations and style guides

  • JOUR200 Libguide: citation vs. attribution
  • Chicago Manual of Style (UMD libraries online)
  • Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide (Web)
  • Guide to citations for archival records: National Archives
  • The Elements of Style,” William Strunk Jr. (Web)

History as News

  • Mining the National Archives A page of resources for students in JOUR 774/474 (2011)

Organizations and lists:

  • American Journalism Historians Association
  • Media History Monographs: online journal for the history of journalism and mass
  • Jhistory – listserv for the history of journalism and mass communication
  • H-Net Book reviews: search within H-Net, a family of humanities and social science listservs, for reviews of books related to journalism history
  • Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
    • AEJMC History Division and Clio (Newsletter)
  • Journalism History Bibliography:  Poynter Institute list
  • American Historical Association (publishes The American Historical Review)
  • Search engine for Perspectives on History, 1987 to present
  • Broadcast Educators Association
  • Communication Research and Theory Network
  • International Association for Media and Communication Research
  • International Communication Association
  • National Communication Association
  • Organization of American Historians (publishes the Journal of American History)
  • Oral History Association

Archival collections: Maryland and D.C.

National Archives

  • National Archives home page
  • How to do research at NARA
  • Research by selected topic
  • Newly accessioned records
  • Search engines at NARA:
    • Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States
    • ARC: NARA’s online Archival Research Catalog
    • Access to Archival Databases:  NARA’s searchable electronic records
  • Other online resources

Library of Congress

  • LOC home page
  • LOC collections overview
  • Reader Registration and Access to Library of Congress Reading Rooms
  • Television in the Library of Congress
  • Newspapers in the Library of Congress
  • Searchable online database of historic newspapers
  • “Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II.”
  • Suffrage scrapbooks, 1897-191: An example of LOC collections related to media

Other

  • Maryland State Archives home page
  • Jewish Museum of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
  • Montgomery County Historical Society, Rockville, MD

Archives and libraries at UMD

  • UMD Special Collections and University Archives (including broadcast history)
  • Special Collections in Mass Media and Culture: Artifacts, books, photographs, press releases, fan magazines, and trade magazines that can aid in researching the history of radio, television and more. Collections include the National Public Broadcasting Archives (NPBA) and the Library of American Broadcasting (LAB).
    • L.A.B. info sheet and annotated list of periodicals for students in JOUR 479W, JOUR610, and JOUR774 [2012]
  • Reference works in the UMD libraries for general historical research
    [List created in 2010 for students in JOUR 774/474: Mining the National Archives]
  • Databases and Periodicals for Literature Review and Publication in the history of journalism and mass communication
    [a list created in 2010 for students in  JOUR 610]

For contributions to this page, thanks to Anne Rose of the FIA and  to Maggie Saponaro, Chuck Howell, Michael Henry, Ashleigh Coren and Laura Schnitker of the UMD Libraries.

Courses in which these resources are used: JOUR 476: Researching Emerging Media in Journalism: Past, Present and Future; JOUR 200: Journalism History, Roles and Structures; JOUR 610: Seminar in Mass Media History; JOUR 474/774: Mining the National Archives. Updated 6/27/2022.

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