local history | The British Newspaper Archive Blog - Part 2

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Using Newspapers for Local History Research recap

Hopefully, you were able to join us live for our local history webinar, presented by Michala Hulme. However, if you weren’t able to catch it live or want a refresher, watch it on our YouTube channel here! In reviewing the lively and engaging Q&A that took place during the webinar, we’ve pulled out a few questions that we wanted to highlight and expand upon. Search tip 1 Can The British Newspaper Archive distinguish between buildings, ships, towns, and surnames? Every time

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An Essential Guide to Historical London Newspapers

London is steeped in rich history. Every borough, street and building in the UK’s capital city has a past and the British Newspaper Archive is one of the best resources available for unlocking the stories behind them. No matter what part of London you’re interested in researching, you’ll find newspapers covering every locality, with contemporary reports from some of the most pivotal eras in British history. Register now and view London newspapers for FREE One of the quickest ways to focus only on our

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It’s our birthday!

Read all about it, The British Newspaper Archive is 5 years old today! We are delighted to be celebrating our 5th anniversary at The British Newspaper Archive.  We launched on 29 November 2011 with 4 million pages.  Today, we have four times that amount, and just this week, we have passed the 700 mark on the number of titles we hold.  Along with our British titles, we have also published over 125 newspaper titles from across Ireland. According to our

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Things that go Bump in the Night

At this time of year you naturally start thinking about all things spooky and here at the British Newspaper Archive we’re no different. We’ve been combing the newspapers in our collection for stories that will send a shiver down your spine and we think we’ve found three great ones. The first takes us right back to 1723 where the Newcastle Courant was all a whisper about some strange sightings. From their somewhat tongue in cheek tone the Courant don’t seem

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Getting the most out of Irish newspapers

If you’re interested in Irish history the Irish titles on the British Newspaper Archive can give you an insight that you won’t find in any history book. With more than 136 titles available to browse going back to the mid-18th century and right up to an independent Ireland they are a rich resource for political and social historians alike as well as the more casual reader. You’ll find a picture of day to day life, from the highest scented halls

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Writing a first-class History dissertation: How newspapers can help

Ruth Small studied History at Newcastle University and recently got in touch to tell us all about her dissertation. She used The British Newspaper Archive in her research and was awarded a first-class mark, with some amazing comments about the originality of her work.   **************   I wrote my History dissertation about the great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, which occurred on 6 October 1854. It was a fire which led to an explosion in a warehouse of a

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Join us for a week of prize giveaways, starting on Saturday 27 December

We’ll be giving away some fantastic prizes and celebrating the different types of research our newspapers can help with next week. Simply check The British Newspaper Archive’s Facebook page at 12pm (GMT) every day from Saturday 27 December – Friday 2 January to take part.   Visit The British Newspaper Archive’s Facebook page   Win some great prizes with The British Newspaper Archive There are lots of exciting gifts on offer, whether you’re interested in genealogy, local history, studying World

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Working with Wikipedia to bring history facts to light

We’ve recently donated 100 subscriptions to the Wikipedia community through the Wikipedia Library, a grant-funded programme which makes it easier for experienced volunteer editors to access research materials. It’s very exciting to be involved in this new partnership. It allows us to contribute to Wikipedia, one of the most frequently used reference tools in the world, and demonstrates how local British and Irish newspapers can help improve public information about historical topics from around the world. We asked Simon Tushingham, one

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Meet the Product Director of The British Newspaper Archive

Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at The British Newspaper Archive? We sat down with Product Director Ian Tester to find out who he is and what he does.   What does your job involve? I’m responsible for growing the business in all its myriad forms. My role covers marketing, building a better product, tweaking the pricing, choosing newspapers that we think will be of most interest and generally keeping everything running smoothly. Less excitingly, it also involves balancing

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