Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876. Also known as America’s Historical Newspapers. Series I offers more than 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1876. Focusing largely on the 18th century, Series I is based on Clarence S. Brigham’s “History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820” and other authoritative bibliographies.

The core of the collection is formed by American Antiquarian Society (AAS) founder Isaiah Thomas’ own collection of colonial and early national period newspapers and supplemented by issues added by Thomas’ successors at the AAS. Numerous other institutions and historical societies have contributed to the collection, including the Boston Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Library of Congress, the libraries of universities such as Brown and Harvard and private collections.