Exploring the Library: Newspaper Databases

by Laura Kayacan, Adult Services Librarian, Door County Library

Many readers have discovered how entertaining and interesting it is to dig into old Door County by reading historical newspapers at DoorCountyNewspapers.org. Local history comes alive through these stories of the past. 

The Door County Library Newspaper Archive includes papers from 1862 through 1979, all free to view. Port Light, for example, gives a first-hand view of Sturgeon Bay and shipbuilding during WWII, including stories about many of the shipyard workers. 

If you’re curious about newspapers published in Door County in the past, Hjalmar Holand has a fascinating description of the intense rivalries among newspapers in his book History of Door County, Wisconsin, The County Beautiful. Links to Holand’s book; historical newspapers from Door County, Algoma, Kewaunee; and other newspaper databases are available through Door County Library’s local-history and genealogy page at DoorCountyLibrary.org.

Wisconsin also offers newspaper databases free to residents on the Badgerlink website. There’s a library edition of Newspapers.com, with papers from the 1700s through 2000s, that contains thousands of regional, state and local newspapers in the U.S. and other countries.

Another Badgerlink database is the Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers, a collection that the Wisconsin Newspaper Association publishes. These papers date from 2005 to a buffer period of 90 days, and they include the Peninsula Pulse and Washington Island Observer. There is also a collection of 38 historical newspapers from around the state. 

The database U.S. Newsstream has articles from major newspapers around the country, 1980 to date, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and more. The library catalog InfoSoup.org provides the Wisconsin Newspaper Archive, which includes more than 700 Wisconsin newspapers, 1813-2017.

To get help using these resources, call the Sturgeon Bay Library at 920.743.6578.