Primary Source Databases Research Guide

The AAS Historical Periodicals Collection includes scanned and searchable pages and articles from over 6,500 magazines, trade journals, and science journals published between 1690 and 1910. This is the most comprehensive database of its kind.

The American Periodicals Series brings the early days of U.S. history alive through more than 7,000,000 digitized page images from over 1,000 periodicals spanning 200 years. The wide variety of content ranges from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, first published in 1741, to literary and professional journals, specialized titles, and such well-known magazines as Vanity Fair, Ladies' Home Journal, Scientific American, and The Dial.

British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

Periodicals Archive Online contains PDF copies of articles published in 800 journals and magazines primarily spanning 1850-2000. The database emphasizes academic titles, but it also includes comprehensive runs of important political and commentary magazines such the Spectator and New Statesman.

HarpWeek enables you to directly experience the richness and historical significance of Harper’s Weekly, America's leading 19th century illustrated newspaper.

In more than 8,000 issues since its first publication in 1843, The Economist has presented timely reporting, concise commentary and comprehensive analysis of global news every week. With objective authority, clarity and wit, The Economist presents the worlds political, business, scientific, technological and cultural developments and the connections between them. Because of its global editorial perspective, it is read by more of the worlds political and business leaders than any other magazine.

The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive contains every page of every copy of the TLS published from 1902 onward. The archive runs five years behind with a new year added annually.

The Listener was a weekly publication, established by the BBC in 1929 as the medium for reproducing radio - and later, television - programes in print. It is our only record and means of accessing the content of many early broadcasts. With major contributors including E. M. Forster, George Orwell and Bertrand Russell, it also provided an important platform for new writers and poets; W. H. Auden, Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin being notable examples.

The Picture Post Historical Archive comprises the complete archive of the Picture Post from its first issue in 1938 to its last in 1957 - all digitized from originals in full colour. Picture Post’s innovative use of photo-journalism captured the imagination of the British people, with readership at its peak estimated at 80% of the population. In the era before television, it became the window on the world for ordinary people, bringing the major social and political issues of the day into popular consciousness.

This database offers an online archive of the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, which for many decades has been a major index to articles published in news magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report as well as popular magazines like Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest.