Skip to Main Content

Find writings on music

Use this guide to find scholarly writings about music, musicians, and musical culture for your research projects and assignments.

Using newspapers

Newspapers are primary sources of information about historical and current events. There are many different types of news sources available, and depending on your needs you might turn to print newspapers, online newspapers, digitized newspapers, aggregators, microform, or a combination of multiple formats, since many newspapers are available in more than one.  This is an introduction to the different kinds of newspaper formats you will find in the McGill Library collections and how to locate these sources.

Local news sources

Single Title

La Presse (1884- 3 years ago)

  • Digitized issues from BANQ. Coverage 1884-2017 (click on 'calendar' icon to choose date)

Le Devoir (1920-2011)

  • Daily independent newspaper from Montreal founded by Henri Bourassa.

Montreal Gazette

  • Year 1985-Current
  • Year 1857-2010 (ProQuest Central)
  • Year 1785-2010 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Montreal Gazette)
  • The main English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal. Pre-1985 issues may also be available in microform, see the page Finding Newspapers.

Multiple Title Databases

Paper of Record

  • An archive of historical newspapers, searchable by location. It includes Quebec newspapers from Montreal, Quebec City, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sorel and Stanstead.

Revues et journaux Québécois (BAnQ)

Canadian news sources

Single Title

Alberta

Calgary Herald (1988-Present)

  • Content is delayed one day. First published as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser in 1883.

Edmonton Journal (1903-2010)

  • Daily newspaper founded in 1903 as a rival to Alberta's first newspaper, the Edmonton Bulletin.

Edmonton Journal (1989-Present)

  • Content is delayed one day. It was called the Evening Journal until 1911.
 

British Colombia 

China Times (1915-1992)

  • First published in Vancouver in 1914, it covered both local information and news about China and Asia. By Simon Fraser University.

Vancouver Sun (1987-Present)

  • Content is delayed one day. The Sun was founded in 1912.

The British Colonist (1858-1951)

  • Published in Victoria, it was the leading newspaper for B.C. until the 1890s.
 

Manitoba

Winnipeg Free Press (1991-Present)

  • This link shows all articles. To change the date range, click on "Modify Search" on the top right, and than choose an option under the drop down menu labeled "Date" located under the search bar. For more information on using Factiva, please see our Factiva search guide.

Winnipeg Tribune (1890-1978)

  • One of western Canada's oldest newspapers, it ran from 1890 to 1980.
 

New Brunswick

L'Évangeline Database

  • Summaries and indexes of articles in French from 1887 to 1957, L'Évangeline was a major Acadian newspaper. From the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.
  • There are currently few digitized versions of individual historical New Brunswick newspapers available online, however we have several titles on microform. Please see the page on Microform for more information on how to access these resources.

New Brunswick Historical Newspapers

  • A collaborative project at UNB Libraries between Archives and Special Collections, Microforms, the Imaging Centre and Library Systems to build a portal to every known newspaper published in or directly related to New Brunswick regardless of available format. 
  • Includes 103 digitized titles.
 

Newfoundland

Western Star (1900-1952)

  • Western Newfoundland's only daily newspaper. Founded in 1900 and still published.
 

Northwest Territories

  • We receive the News/North newspaper in print, but we currently do not have access to their online archive. However, we have back issues in print between 2004 to the present. Some issues are in storage. You can ask a librarian how to access these.
 

Nova Scotia

The Chronicle-Herald (1982-Present)

  • Content is delayed 1 day. Full text searching is available back to 2014, and then citations or abstract are available from 1982 until 2001. After this period, we have no coverage until 2014.

Micmac News (1965-1991)

  • An important example of Mi’kmaw print culture.
 

Nunavut

Nunatsiaq News Online (1995-2009)

  • We have additional print back issues in storage at the library. You can ask a librarian how to access these.
 

Ontario

The Globe and Mail (1844-2013)

  • A national Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto. Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Hamilton Spectator (1852-2010)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Toronto Star (1894-2014)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Waterloo Region Record (1893-2010)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Windsor Star (1893-2010)

  • Daily newspaper founded in 1888.
 

Prince Edward Island

The Guardian (1890-1965)

  • Coverage varies per year. We also have access to Guardian articles from 1997 to the present (delayed one day) through Eureka.cc. (You can access all articles from the Guardian by using Advanced search to add The Guardian as a source, and then pressing "Search" without adding anything in the search box.)
 

Saskatchewan

Le Patriote de l'Ouest (1910-1941)

  • French language newspaper from Saskatchewan. Later merged with a Winnipeg newspaper to become Liberté et le patriote.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (1902-2009)

  • Daily newspaper that began in 1902.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (1996-Present)

  • Content is delayed one day.

Regina Leader-Post (2008-Present)

  • First published as The Leader in 1883, it later merged with the Regina Evening Post in 1920, before publishing both under the current title in the 1930s.
 

Yukon

Whitehorse Star (1999-Present)

 

Multiple Title Databases

BC Historical Newspapers

  • Digitized versions of historical papers from around the province. The titles date from 1865 to 1994. By the University of British Columbia.

Ontario Community Newspapers Portal

  • Community newspapers from Southern Ontario and Illinois. Coverage is not complete, dates range from early 1800s to the 2000s.

Island Newspapers

  • A digitization project carried out by the Robertson Library at UPEI along with other partners. Currently covers the years 1900-1962.

Memorial University of Newfoundland - Digital Archive Initiative: NL Newspapers

  • A collection of newspapers from across the province. Full-text searchable.

Multicultural Canada

  • A digitization project to document the lives of minority cultural groups, it includes newspapers published by these groups from across Canada.

New Brunswick Newspaper Directory 1783-1996

  • Hosted by the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers

  • Hosted by the Nova Scotia Archives. Dates range from 1769-2002, but coverage is not complete.

Paper of Record

  • An archive of historical newspapers, searchable by location, with many newspapers, especially smaller ones, from Canada.

Peel's Prairie Provinces

  • A resource for western Canadian history which has fully searchable newspapers from many communities. By the University of Alberta.

Saskatchewan Historic Newspapers Online

  • This collection has been created in collaboration between the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan and Sask History Online (SHO).

Saskatchewan News Index

  • You can use this index to find news stories published in Saskatchewan newspapers from 1884 to the 2004

SFU Digitized Newspapers

  • A resource for digitized immigrant and foreign-language papers. By Simon Fraser University.

University of Manitoba Digital Collections

  • Digitized versions of several Manitoban newspapers.

Yukon Digital Archives

  • The Yukon Archives has all types of archival records in its collection, including books, photographs and sound recordings, as well as almost 600 historic newspaper issues available online.

American news & magazine sources

Single Title

Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Boston Globe (1872-1982)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Chicago Defender (1910-1975)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Chicago Tribune (1849-1986)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Christian Science Monitor (1908 to 2000)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Liberty Magazine Historical Archive (1924-1950)

National Geographic Digital Archive (1888-2020)

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Multiple Title Databases

17th-18th Century Burney Collection newspapers

  • The British Library’s collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817). Includes material from several countries that were British colonies at the time.

19th Century U.S. Newspapers

  • Digital facsimile images of both full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers

America's Historical Newspapers

  • Includes titles from all 50 states. Covers 1690-1922.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

  • Contains digitized newspapers from 1836-1922 and the U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present.

Historical Jewish Press

  • A collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. Contains a few American newspapers, such as the B'nai B'rith Messenger.

Indigenous Newspapers in North America

  • Explores nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada

Paper of Record

  • An archive of historical newspapers, searchable by location. It includes several papers from the U.S., with varying coverage.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

  • Search across all Historical Newspapers databases to which McGill has subscriptions.

ProQuest News & Newspapers

  • A list of the ProQuest databases that contain primarily newspaper articles. They can be searched individually or together. Includes many major U.S. dallies, with archives going back to the 1800's for some titles.

International news & magazine sources

Single Title

Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2016)

Daily Trust (2014-present)

  • A privately owned newspaper from Abuja, Nigeria, and one of the largest in the area. The same publisher also produces the Weekly Trust and the Sunday Trust.

Economist Historical Archive (1843-2020)

Financial Times Historical Archive (1888-2010)

  • Fully searchable archives of the international daily business newspaper.

The Guardian (1959-2003)

  • A major British left-leaning newspaper. It was known as The Manchester Guardian from 1821 to 1959.

Izvestiia (1980-present)

Izvestiia Digital Archive (1917-)

  • Moscow's newspaper of record. Founded in 1917.

The Japan Times (1991-2000)

  • Articles from 2002-present are also available on Factiva: The Japan Times.

The Listener Historical Archive (1929-1991)

Novoe Russkoe Slovo Digital Archive

  • Newspaper of the Russian émigré community in New York and beyond

Picture Post Historical Archive (1938-1957)

Pravda (1912-2009)

Punch Historical Archive (1841-1992)

Renmin Ribao (1946-present)

  • Known as the People's Daily in English. To access this collection, you need to click on the click here link that appears in the phrase "Please click here to enter if your library/institute subscribes the database...", which appears underneath the newspaper title. We also have the English articles from the People's Daily Online (2010-present).

The Sunday Times Historical Archive (1822-2021)

The Telegraph Historical Archive (1855-2016)

Times Digital Archive (1785-2019)

Times Educational Supplement Historical Archive (1910-2000)

Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive (1902-2014)

Times of India (1838-2007)

  • Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Multiple Title Databases

17th-18th Century Burney Collection newspapers

  • The British Library’s collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817). Includes material from Europe, as well as India and the Caribbean.

17th -18th Century Nichols Newspapers Collection

  • London newspapers and pamphlets gathered by antiquarian and printer John Nichols. This collection is from the Bodleian Library and spans the years 1672 to 1737.

Afghanistan Digital Library

  • Contains an issue of Shams al-nahar, the first newspaper published in Afghanistan.

Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ history and culture since 1940

  • The archive contains 7 collections featuring newspapers and newsletters which document LGBTQ+ history around the world.

British Library Newspapers

  • National and regional newspapers from the British Libraries' collection. Covers from the early 1700's to 1950.

Compact Memory: Internetarchiv Judischer Periodika

  • A virtual archive of 118 Jewish historical magazines and newspapers in German speaking countries from 1806 until 1938 when these were banned by the Nazis.

CRL (Center for Research Libraries) Digital Collections

  • Digitized newspapers, documents and ephemera from around the globe.

East View Universal Databases

  • A collection of various electronic resources, in particular a database of articles in English from many different newspapers from Post-Soviet Russia.

Gale NewsVault

  • A collection of historical newspapers, most titles are from Britain.

Gallica

  • The digital library of the Bibliothéque nationale de France, it hosts many French newspaper titles from around the world, including several countries in Africa as well as Haiti and Turkey.

Historical Jewish Press

  • A collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. Includes titles from Europe, North Africa and parts of the Middle East.

International Coalition on Newspapers

  • This page links to many historical newspaper digitization digitization projects around the world.

Paper of Record

  • Searchable archive of historical newspapers from Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Coverage varies, from the mid-1800s to 2000s.

Papers Past

  • Digitized New Zealand and Pacific Papers from the 19th and 20th centuries. By the National Library of New Zealand.

ProQuest Historical Newspaper: Chinese Newspaper Collection

  • Various English language newspaper from China, including The Chinese Repository (1832-1851), The North China Herald (1850-1941) and The China Press (1925-1938).

Trove

  • Access to over 1000 Australian newspapers from each state and territory, with new material added daily. From the National Library of Australia.

World Newspaper Archive (Readex)

  • Digitized historical newspapers from South Asia and North America.
Subjects: Music

McGill Libraries • Questions? Ask us!
Privacy notice