Today marks the release of over one million new free to view pages on the British Newspaper Archive. Thanks to our ongoing partnership with the British Library, we have now made over four million newspaper pages freely accessible since 2021.

Our collection of over four million free to view newspaper pages represents a significant step in making historical resources available to more and more people, an effort to which the British Newspaper Archive and the British Library are firmly committed.

As part of this latest release, the British Library has carefully chosen and curated a range of titles to join the free to view collection. Some come from the British Library’s first major newspaper digitisation programme, Nineteenth Century Newspapers, which was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee, as well as from the Heritage Made Digital project, which focusses on making a variety of British Library collections available online.

Today’s release also features sixteen titles from the Caribbean, from the years 1771 to 1902. The span of these years will enable the further investigation of the fight for abolition, the wrongs of British colonialism, as well as the exploration of post-emancipation life across the Caribbean

Please read on to discover more about how to access the free to view newspaper collection, as well as to learn more about this year’s release. You can find out more about our previous free to view releases here, whilst you can find a list of all the titles included in the free to view collection here.

Accessing Our Free to View Newspapers

To access The Archive’s free to view newspapers you will need to register a free account, which you can do by clicking here. You will never need to subscribe to access these pages.

Once you have set up a free account, you can choose to search the free to view collection through the advanced search form page, where there is the option to select the access type you require. Alternatively, you can perform a search from the homepage and filter your results by free to view pages only.

Caribbean Newspapers

This year’s release sees sixteen newspapers from across the Caribbean joining our free to view collection. Hailing from Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, these titles join our earlier free to view publications from the Caribbean: the Barbadian, the Barbados Mercury, the Leeward Islands Gazette, and the Royal Gazette of Jamaica.

These newspapers showcase a variety of voices from across the Caribbean. For example, the early pages of the St. Christopher Gazette highlight the awful realities of life as an enslaved person in the 1770s, whilst the Saint Christopher Advertiser and Weekly Intelligencer was edited only decades later by Black activist Samuel Cable. The paper remained in the Cable family, who later established the St. Kitts Daily Express as a ‘Periodical for the Homes of the People’ in 1884.

Meanwhile, Kingston’s Morning Journal was first published on 31 October 1838, just months after the apprenticeship system, which was implemented by the British government after emancipation and was enslavement by another name, was finally abolished. Such a title shines a light on a time of immense change in Jamaica, with all of our sixteen titles helping to tell the stories of countries impacted by the devastating legacy of British colonialism.

Other International Perspectives

Another of our new free to view papers is New Zealand’s Lyttelton Times, which is also tied to British colonialism. The Lyttelton Times was first published on 11 January 1851, just months after 790 colonisers onboard four ships from Britain arrived in New Zealand. Indeed, the newspaper printing equipment arrived on one of the ships, the Charlotte Jane.

Providing another perspective on emigration and colonialism is Heritage Made Digital title the Emigrant and Colonial Advocate, which described itself as ‘the organ of intelligence for all classes of emigrants and their friends.’ The paper contained details about emigration to areas across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

Nineteenth Century Newspapers

Joining the free to view collection from the British Library’s Nineteenth Century Newspapers project are a range of newspapers from closer to home, including the national evening newspaper the Pall Mall Gazette. Aside from gaining recognition across popular culture, with mentions in works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells, the Pall Mall Gazette was also famed for its campaigning journalism. Indeed, in the 1880s its articles on and subsequent campaign to increase the age of consent is widely viewed as an early example of investigative journalism.

Another highlight in this release from the Nineteenth Century Newspapers project is the York Herald, which covers nearly a century’s worth of news, from 1801 to 1900.

Scotland, Ireland, Wales and…Railways?

Finally, this release of free to view pages includes newspaper titles from across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Representing Wales there is the Wrexham Advertiser, whilst representing Scotland there is the Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette and the North British Agriculturalist. Also included are a duo of Irish titles, namely the Cork Daily Herald and the Dublin Weekly Nation.

The very last gem to highlight is specialist railway newspaper Herapath’s Railway Journal. Beginning life in the very early days of the railways in 1835, this title provides a remarkable insight into the growth of Britain’s railways, featuring news about the railway industry from across the country.

Get Started Today

With so much to explore in The Archive’s free to view collection, dive in and begin your search today.

New Free View to View Pages – Added September 2024

About the British Library

We are the national library of the UK and we are here for everyone. Our shelves hold over 170 million items – a living collection that gets bigger every day. Although our roots extend back centuries, we aim to collect everything published in the UK today, tomorrow and far into the future. Our trusted experts care for this collection and open it up for everyone to spark new discoveries, ideas and to help people do incredible things.

We have millions of books, and much more besides. Our London and Yorkshire sites hold collections ranging from newspapers and maps to sound recordings, patents, academic journals, as well as a copy of every UK domain website and blog. Our public spaces provide a place to research, to meet friends, to start up a new business or simply to get inspired by visiting our galleries and events. We work with partners and libraries across the UK and the world to make sure that as many people as possible have the chance to use and explore our collections, events and expertise. And we’re always open online.