British Library puts 19th-century news online

The British Library has put two million digitised pages from 19th century newspapers online, taking historical research out of its dusty reading rooms into people’s homes.

The pay-as-you-go service brings a century of history to life and offers a first hand insight into life between 1800 and 1900, covering topics such as slavery and its abolition, Chartism, the Sepoy Mutiny, the Bryant and May match girls’ strike, sex and scandal, the Napoleonic wars, the Crimean war and the Whitechapel murders.

The database allows you to search millions of articles from 49 local and national newspaper titles for free using keywords. The site also contains 1000’s of illustrations, maps, tables and photographs. With this service you can print, email, download, and save articles and page images, and also explore bonus content, including biographies, publication histories, and timelines.

View complete articles from the  Penny Illustrated Paper and The Graphic  free of charge or alternatively, buy a 24-hour pass for £6.99 allowing you to view up to 100 articles, or a seven-day pass with 200 article views for £9.99

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8104099.stm

For more information and to check out the database for yourself, visit http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

posted by Sophie