I was browsing through some online blogs this morning and ran across a post in Megan Smolenyak’s RootsTelevision blog regarding an archive of the New York that is now available for free searches. There are actually two archives–one covering from 1981 to the present, and the other covering 1851-1980.
P.S. Apparently the years 1923-86 are not free. Only pre-1923 and post-1986 articles are available free. To access 1923-86 articles, a single article costs $3.95 or you can purchase a ten-article pack for $15.95 (but the pack expires after thirty days).Â
You can search the archives from the home page of the New York Times. Next to the search box is a drop down box that defaults to search the NYT Archive Since 1981. You can also choose to search NYT Archive 1851-1981. Once you’ve done a search, an advanced search option appears that allows you to search for keywords, headlines, author, and to specify a date range. The results can then be sorted by the closest match, oldest articles first, or the most recent articles first. Full text articles appear as PDF files that you can print or save.
As Megan said in her blog, let’s hope other newspapers follow the trend!
I think you should inform people that most of the matches will cost you to see or print.
Should you find an article that you would like and you can’t view it post a request on the NY or surrounding area boards. Most in the NY area have at home access thru their local libraries. We can email the article to you.
Ray,
I believe the archive is now free. They were charging for a while, but I was able to view all of the historic newspapers without a charge.
Juliana
Perhaps some of the articles are free, but the couple I was interested in both entailed costs. They were pieces that were “special to the Times”.
My research indicates that ONLY the 1981-2007 articles are free.
You still have to pay for the 1851-1980 articles.
While some free articles are certainly nice, the 1981-2007 database is already available for free at most libraries (and at home if you have a library card).
On the other hand, the 1851-1980 database is not free (at least from any library I know of) and it is likely most relevant to genealogists.
Subscribers also get free archive access (up to 100 articles a month for free). So if you know a subscriber who doesn’t download from the archives much themselves, they may be able to help.