Research Guides: HIST 103: Intro to East Asian Studies: Finding Mass Media

Recommended Sources

Historical Magazines in Print

Find these on the second floor, on the shelves behind the staircase.

Life
American general interest magazine known for its photography and social commentary.
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Behind the stairs on the 2nd Floor: 1936-1972, 1984-2000
Online: 1936-1972, 1996-2000
National Geographic
American magazine known for its photojournalism and focus on science, geography, history, and world culture.
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Behind the stairs on the 2nd Floor: 1888-2019
Online: 1888-Present
Time
American news magazine covering current affairs, politics, business, health, science, and entertainment.
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Behind the stairs on the 2nd Floor: 1930-2017
Online: 1923-Present

Online Historical Magazines

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Index to popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada. Includes Time, Newsweek, US & World News Report, National Geographic, Harpers, The New Yorker, and many more.
British Periodicals
Hundreds of British periodicals in full text, from the 17th century through the early 21st. Topics include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
American Periodicals (1740-1940)
American magazines, newspapers, and journals in digitized page image format, published between 1740 and 1940.
Accessible Archives
Primary sources from 18th & 19th century American newspapers, magazines, and books. Includes eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, advertisements, and genealogical records.

More Contemporary Media Sources

Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (1982-Present)
Index to recent popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada.
Academic Search Complete
Limit your search to magazines. Also find Associated Press (AP) videos.

Find Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers
Full-text content from U.S. & international newspapers from the 19th century to the late 20th century. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, cartoons, classifieds, and obituaries.
See title list of over 400 historical newspapers.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Digitized American newspapers, 1789 - 1963. From the Library of Congress.

Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832 - 1953)
22 historical newspapers published in Beijing & Shanghai from 1832 to 1953. Most titles are in English.
Titles included are:
North China Herald (1850-1941)
Canton Times (1919-1920)
China Critic (1939-1946)
The China Press (1925-1938)
China Weekly Review (1917-1953)
Chinese Recorder (1868-1940)
Chinese Repository (1832-1851)
Peking Daily News (1914-1917)
Peking Gazette (1915-1917)
Peking Leader (1918-1919
Shanghai Gazette (1919-1921)
Shanghai Times (1914-1921)

Find More Contemporary News Sources

Academic Search Complete
Limit your search to newspapers and/or magazines. Also find Associated Press (AP) videos.
NewsBank
International and major US Newspapers, newswires, broadcast transcripts, videos, blogs, and Acceda Noticias (in Spanish).

Newsreels, Television, and Video Sources

American Newsreels in Video
US newsreels covering the years leading up to and during the Second World War, 1929-1946.
Over 35 hours of the American weekly newsreel produced by the U.S. Office of War Information from 1942 to 1946, complete with transcripts, from United Newsreel. Universal Newsreel provides over 200 hours of film with full transcripts from Universal Studios’ biweekly series that ran from 1929 to 1946.

Moving Image Research Collections
Collection of films and videos produced outside the American feature film industry, including news film, home movies, and civil rights movement film footage.
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Main collecting areas: the Chinese Film Collection, Newsfilm Collections, Regional Film Collections, Science and Nature Films and Military Films Collections. Materials include local television news and commercials, home movies, cinemicroscopy nature films, and fiction and documentary films from the People's Republic of China.
From the University of South Carolina.
Moving Image Archive from the Internet Archive
Includes television news broadcasts, historical film clips, alternative news broadcasts, classic full-length films, cartoons, and concerts.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Extensive archive of television news, 1968-present. Useful to see what was in the news--video clips not available online.
Prelinger Archives
Thousands of "ephemeral" films (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) made from 1927 through the present.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Archive of historic programs of publicly funded radio and television across America. Also includes recorded interviews from programs such as Eyes on the Prize and others.

Engineering Case Studies Online
Video and text material focusing on engineering failures and successes including the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

The International Military Tribunal For The Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), informally known as the Tokyo War Crimes trial, lasted two and a half years, from April 29, 1946 to November 12, 1948. Documents and personal papers from members of the prosecution and defense sections, official IMTFE records, newspaper clippings, photographs, and related trial materials.
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From the University of Virginia Law Library and the Virginia Historical Society collections.
Ad*Access
Free database of historical Advertising Images (1911-1955) from Duke University
Digital Public Library of America
Millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Each record links to the original object on the content provider’s website.
Internet Archive
Open and permanent access to historical collections in digital format for researchers and the public.
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“Books in this collection may be borrowed by logged in patrons for a period of two weeks. You may read the books online in your browser, or download them into Adobe Digital Editions, a free piece of software used for managing loans.”
Life Magazine via Google
Magazine know for excellent photography. Digitized issues back to 1935
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Prints, photographs, manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, illustrated books, printed ephemera, streaming video, and more from the New York Public Library Collections.
Library of Congress World Digital Library
Cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by UNESCO partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.

Guide to Primary Sources
by Kelly Frost Last Updated Apr 23, 2025 298 views this year

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