British Newspaper Archive Subscription - historic newspapers online

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive -
history lovers can view millions of historic newspapers online!

The British Newspaper Archive is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to immerse themselves and get lost in historic newspapers, all from the comfort and convenience of home. It is amazing what they can tell you about the past and the way people used to live. It's a great way to escape the 21st century, and go back in time! You can learn a lot about life and past times by looking at the newspapers and magazines.

The Archive is growing week by week. To help make things easier, there's even a handy 'search' box, so that they can search out a particular publication, region, country, county, town, place and even recently added titles. You can also see the papers which have been updated here. And the work never stops, giving your loved one all the more to go and explore without even leaving home! There are now 97,560,303 pages - and it keeps getting bigger! Find out how they do it here.

There are monthly, 3 month and 12 months subscriptions available as gifts. You can do a month for £14.99, three months for £11.17 a month (saving you 31%), and 12 months for £8.34 a month. The 12 month subscription is the best value, saving you 48%. Subscribe to the British Newspaper Archive here

Newspapers are a window into past times

They give a real flavour of what life was like, what was important, what mattered to people and what they wanted to hear about. You can get a “feel” for the times and what was happening locally and nationally, day to day.

Letters and editorials give you a really good idea of the views people held at the time of publication, and also of attitudes. For instance, local advertisements, local events, even notices in the personal ads, give a flavour of local life. If you're researching the family history, it can particularly give you an inkling of what the lives of your relatives might have been like. Can you imagine what people would have been discussing at the dinner table, or the events they would have been looking forward to at the weekend? What would they have been tempted to buy as a result of the adverts in the papers?

Immerse yourself in history by delving into historic newspapers, all from the comfort of home!

So what can you search for with The British Newspaper Archive?

The Archive has an amazing search facility, to help you find what you're looking for. You can search by newspaper, region, country, county, the type of resource you're looking for, and the date you're looking for, so it's a mine of information on things such as:

News articles –events and issues of local, regional, national and international importance
Family notices – birth, marriage and death notices, announcements about engagements, anniversaries, birthdays and congratulations
Letters written to the editor by readers – what were they writing about? What did they care about? What did they want to share?
Obituaries on the lives of notable people
Advertisements – what were people wanting to buy, what did business want to sell?
Illustrations – photos, engravings, graphics, maps, cartoons

What else does the Archive have?

Headlines from History looks at how papers reported happenings of the time, such as Pets in Parliament, the Jitterbug dance which divided Britain in the 1940s.
New titles added – this is a round up of new papers added during the week
Tips for using the Archive so that you can really make the most of it such as how to research local history
Genealogy and family history – which papers are best to do your research with?
Plus over 73 million newspapers to read!

The Archive is a partnership between the British Library and Findmypast. The British Library’s collection is huge – it’s got newspapers from 1603 to the present day, as well as 300,000 reels of microfilm.

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive here