About the British Newspaper Archive
The British Newspaper Archive is an online newspaper archive created by the partnership between Findmypast and the British Library. Findmypast has spent over ten years working with the British Library to digitise their vast newspaper collection and create an easy-to-use online search experience. Our continued commitment to this epic endeavour means there are now millions of pages of news available online to search and explore.
What makes this project so special?
The British Library's collection of historical newspapers is one of the wonders of the world. It contains newspapers from the 1600s to the present day, from Britain, Ireland and further afield. There are over 600,000 bound volumes of newspapers (occupying 32 kilometres, or 20 miles, of shelving) and over 300,000 reels of microfilm (occupying a further 13 kilometres, or 8 miles, of shelving). Until now, the only way to view these newspapers was to visit the British Library, and, of course, it was not possible to search them.
What have we done to date?
Launched in 2011 and renewed in 2021, we have already scanned millions of pages of historical newspapers and made them available online for the first time ever. You can search hundreds of millions of stories by keyword, name, location, date or title and watch your results appear in an instant.
The future
The initial scale of the project was mammoth - to digitise up to 40 million pages from the collection over 10 years. The renewal of the partnership will see millions more pages added, including some free-to-access material.
The news never stops, so neither do we. Our scanning team are constantly digitising more newspapers, so new pages are being added all the time.