British Newspaper Archive - read historic newspapers online with a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive!

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive, so that history lovers can view online historic newspapers!

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. So if you've got a history lover in your life, this could be a great gift subscription for them. It's a great way to escape the 21st century, and go back in time!

The Archive is growing week by week, and after 91,584 pages were added to it during the week of 8th April 2024, there's now close to 76 million million pages to explore online! As well as the pages from the three titles below, the Archive has been updating existing titles from England, Scotland and even Canada!

10,949 pages from the
Coventry Graphic

20,008 pages from the
Gainsborough Evening News

23,844 pages
from the Matlock Mercury

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. 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? Letters and editorials give you a really good idea of the views people held at the time of publication, and also of attitudes.

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive here

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!

Subscriptions....

There are monthly, 3 month and 12 months subscriptions available as gifts, starting from £8.34 a month for 12 months. You can do a month for £14.99 and three months for £11.17 a month.

Can I see any of it without subscribing?

There’s nearly 3.5 million pages free to view as part of the collection, brought to you as a result of the partnership with the British Library. The Archive and the British Library are committed to making historic resources available to increasing numbers of people, which is why so many are free to view.

Immerse yourself in history by delving into historic newspapers.

Give a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive here