by Dr. Radut

Historic L.I. Newspapers

Searchable or browseable newspapers, and selected collections

  • NYS Historic Newspapers:  Suffolk County, New York -- Includes weekly newspapers from Suffolk County, NY, plus continuations of earlier newspapers under a different title. For a list of the newspapers included (a) Alphabetically by Title, (b) Chronologically, and (c) by Village of Publication, click here.  Originated as the product of a collaborative effort between Suffolk Cooperative Library System, participating Member Libraries in 9 regions of the county, Newspaper Publishers, and one Historical Society.  The latest version falls under the aegis of the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network.  On the initial web page, newspapers are listed with a beginning and ending publication run, that may differ from the part of the run, actually digitized.  The listing "- current" simply means that the paper is still currently published.  
  • Newspapers of other New York State Counties on L.I. (and on Manhattan):
  • Brooklyn Newsstand:  Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841-1963 (Brooklyn Public Library.  Brooklyn Collection) -- This daily (as opposed to weekly) newspaper covered not only Brooklyn, but Long Island communities from Brooklyn to Montauk & Orient, and points in-between.  It rewards searching.  Rapid increase in the number of pages per issue in subsequent years, renders its analysis and preparation a slower, far more labor intensive process.
  • Old Fulton New York Postcards (Thomas M. Tryniski) -- One of the quirkiest newspaper sites around anywhere.  Holds many pleasant surprises and frustrations for those searching for information, e.g., on a L.I. village, town, county, outer island, personal or family name.  However, beware:  Mass downloading is forbidden by the site owner, who regularly bans transgressors from his site.  Full newspaper pages appear when you click on a promising entry, usually at 14% of the original, unreadable until enlarged.  A strange site, but an amazing, ongoing feat of digitization.  
  • Patchogue, L.I., N.Y. in the Spanish-American War (and Its Immediate Aftermath), ed. by Mark Rothenberg (Patchogue-Medford Library.  Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, Courtesy of the Long Island Advance) -- Articles and advertisements drawn from the Patchogue Advance, Jan.-Dec. 1898 - searchable using Control + F(ind). [Originally produced for the 1998 centennial commemoration of the Spanish-American War.]
  • Long Island Newspapers:  Home  (Stony Brook University Libraries.  Research and Subject Guides)
  • Searchable at Patchogue-Medford Library (through the Library's subscription; and at many other Long Island area Libraries) are the New York Times Historical 1851-2007 and Newsday Historical 1940-1984, as well as their current editions.  Both of them often prove valuable sources of Long Island historical information.

-- Genealogically-oriented newspaper indexes

-- New York State-level holdings (mainly on microfilm):