World War II Primary Sources

• New York Times Historical, 1851-2013
  Pacific pays for access to this database.
   
• Japanese-American Interment Camp Newspapers Collection - Library of Congress
  "Produced by the Japanese-Americans interned at assembly centers and relocation centers around the country during World War II, these newspapers provide a unique look into the daily lives of the people who were held in these camps. They include articles written in English and Japanese, typed, handwritten and drawn."
   
• Stars and Stripes (REQUIRES SUBSCRIPTION)
  Read daily by troops and officers alike, this is the independent daily newspaper of the U.S. military. Access requires signing up for a subscription through Newspapers.com, but it can be very cheap if you cancel early. 

General Newspaper Links

• The Historical Oregonian, 1861-1987
  This is a more complete database that requires libraries to pay an expensive subscription price. Pacific does not subscribe, BUT you can get a free Multnomah County Library Card and access it through their site online. 
   
• Historic Oregon Newspapers, Mostly 1850s-1923; some post-1920s
  This outstanding free resource allows you to search through scanned versions of hundreds of Oregon newspapers from the 1850s-1923.
   
• Chronicling America, Mostly 1850s-1923; some post-1920s
  This database provided by the Library of Congress for free covers a huge number of newspapers from across the United States from 1789 to 1923, with a few newspapers stretching up through 1949.
   
• International Newspapers
  • ​German Historic Newspapers guide, linking out to dozens of databases / individual periodicals
  • [More links TBA; ask the archivist for help if you need to find more]
     
• Other Digitized Newspapers
  Some newspapers that are not covered in the databases above have been digitized for stand-alone web sites. If you know the name of the newspaper you want, it is often easiest just to Google: "Newspaper Title" Archives

If you're just starting out and need to know what magazines or newspapers existed at a certain time/place:

• Ulrichs Periodical Directory
  This database can tell you what periodicals have ever been published in a particular state or city:
  1. Go to Advanced Search. 2. In the drop-down search box, select "Publisher City" or "Publisher State". 3. Enter the city or state name in the search box and click Search. 

Magazines

Popular magazines published before 1980 or so are fairly likely to be available in digital format.

• Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
  This is a great way to search across popular 20th century magazines. You can use it to find articles on all kinds of topics that the general public would have been reading about. It includes hundreds of titles; for example, Time, Sports Illustrated, Motor Trend, Vogue, Ebony and many more. The Readers Guide Retrospective Title List provides a list of the magazines covered in the RGR Database; it is a good basic list of popular American magazines that existed from 1890-1980. Note: This database does not have full-text versions of all the articles it indexes, so you may find articles there that you can't immediately access online. You can, however, always request PDF copies of articles that are not online through Pacific's Interlibrary Loan services. 
   
• Other Digitized Magazines
  Many magazines that are not covered in the databases above have been digitized for stand-alone web sites. If you know the name of the magazine you want, it is often easiest just to Google: "Magazine Title" Archives. 

More news sources are linked to on this library page.

To find physical or microfilm copies of newspapers: 
 

1. Find out which newspapers from your city have survived in libraries
   • Go to Worldcat.org and search for subject = your city name AND Format = newspaper. This will usually turn up records of most known copies of newspapers. (Worldcat covers holdings at most libraries, but not museums or small historical societies.)
      
2. Search for holdings of a particular newspaper
   • Go to Worldcat.org and search for the newspaper title AND Format = newspaper
   • This should return a list of matches. Try to pick the correct one based on date, etc. 
   • Clicking through on the newspaper title should bring you to a page that lists libraries which own that newspaper.
   • *You'll need to check those libraries' catalogues individually to see if they have the specific issues that you need.* For example, if the Multnomah County Library owns the newspaper you need, google the Multnomah County Library, then check their catalog for that newspaper; open the record for it; and see if they have the exact issues you need.
   • If you need to go deeper: find the closest city-level or county-level historical society and contact them for help.
      
3. Once you've located a library that owns the newspaper, plan how to get access.
   • ​​If the newspaper is on microfilm, you might be able to borrow the microfilm reel and have it delivered here to Pacific for you to use with our microfilm reader. Request the microfilm reel for borrowing through our Interlibrary Loan 
   • If you can't borrow the microfilm, your choices are:
     • Make arrangements to visit that library in person, or
     • Request copies of specific articles through that library. You can request this through Pacific's Interlibrary Loan, or through the library that owns the newspaper. Directions are usually listed somewhere on the library's site under "reproductions."