Papers Past

Papers Past contains the digitised content from key New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. It's a veritable treasure trove!

Overall content in Papers Past covers the years from 1839 to 1945 and includes 77 publications from all regions of New Zealand. And all of this content is fully searchable using a basic keyword search or a more advanced search option, which allows you to narrow your search down using dates and content type (e.g. articles, adverts).

Papers Past have recently added 40 years worth of the New Zealand Herald, covering the period from 1885 to1924. Content on the system starts in 1863, when the paper was established. Previous installments of digitised content, (as mentioned in blog post on 8 August 2013), took the reader up to 1864, so it is great to have to have the start of the 20th century added.

Ref: 1-W625, Looking west from Queen Street up Wyndham Street showing the premises of the NZ Herald, 1925, Sir George Grey Special Collections

This addition is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it adds another 140,000 pages to Papers Past, which now has a total has of 2.8 million pages. This helps extend the coverage of this major metropolitan newspaper and gives a good contrast to the coverage of the same events as reported by the Auckland Star, which has coverage up to 1945.. The years added also include important events such as to WW1, which is timely considering that the WW1 centenary commemorations will be kicking off next year. Other key events covered include the Boer War and the influenza epidemic.

Ref: 435-B5-231, showing the New Zealand Herald building in Queen Street, c. 1960-1979, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Finally, this project signifies a 3 year collaboration between Auckland Libraries and the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa. Next year there are plans to take the NZ Herald up to 1945.

Some interesting facts ... There is a long standing relationship since 1950s between the library and the NZ Herald  to provide printed copies of the newspapers for the public to access. The NZ Herald reaches a milestone on 13 November 2013, when it will celebrate 150 years of publication!

Find out more about the Auckland newspapers on Papers Past and the wide range of local and national newspapers held in the heritage collections at Auckland Libraries.