While CREDO Reference is a great place to find secondary information -- that is, information created later by someone who did not experience the event -- searching for historical newspapers is the perfect method for learning more about what was happening during the time of your topic. Consider these questions as you search:
- How did the news at the time cover the event? Was it front page news?
- What was the tone of the journalist writing the article? Did they see the event in the same way we see it today?
- What news stories were considered more important on that particular day?
The New York Times is a great place to start for this kind of research since it often covers national news and has been in publication since 1851. Check it out:
A few things to note when searching for historical newspaper articles using this New York Times archive:
- Remember that the journalists at the time may not be using the same words we use today. For instance, searching for "Easter Rising" might not bring back many results, so we need to cast a wide net. As you see below I decided to search for variations of the words "Rebellion" and "Ireland"
- To make things easier for yourself, be sure to limit the date range to only the scope of your event using the graph at the bottom left of the page. Drag the markers to limit by year, then by month, and finally by day. In this case, I'm setting my results to only show April 24-30, 1916
- When you find an article, be sure to click "Browse this Issue" to see the rest of the paper. Check to see what's on the front page
- To quickly cite this article, click the "Cite" button on the top right of the page
