British history students and researchers will be pleased to find their favourite 19th century newspapers are being scanned and put online by the British Library in a £2,000,000 project. The Library has set a goal of putting over 1Million pages from the last century of news publishing online within 18-months. Currently anyone wishing to see this material has to visit the Newspaper Library in North London.
Once online, the Newspaper Library will provide access to articles written by icons of English literature including works by Charles Dickens, W.M. Thackeray, Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth.
This collection is particularly important as the time period spans several social eras, including England’s transition from being an agricultural economy to a modern, industrial economy. Anyone interested in England’s history and by extension our own should look forward to the completion of this site.