By James Speed Hensinger
Now your students and library patrons can access valuable historical information online, all full
text and fully searchable on the web. Subscribe to Scholarly Resources' Accessible Archives
online databases through BCR.
Subscribers to this new service have unlimited web access to five databases of 18th-
and 19th-century newspapers for a single annual fee, discounted when purchased
through BCR. This historical information has been hand keyed from primary
newspaper records and then assembled in an easy-to-use, interactive, digital format.
Users can search all the databases simultaneously or choose to search only one or two.
New material will be added quarterly. The five databases are listed below.
The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective consists of major articles published between
1860 and 1865 in The New York Herald, Charleston Mercury and Richmond Enquirer.
Readers get both the Union and the Confederacy points of view. More than 12,000
articles and 700 maps may be accessed.
African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century includes the complete text of major
African American newspapers Freedom's Journal, Colored American, The North Star
and National Era. The collection eventually will include more than 50 titles and is the
largest project of its kind ever attempted.
The Pennsylvania Newspaper Record, Delaware County, 1819-1879, documents the
industrialization of an agrarian community of Quaker farmers in the United States.
More than 27,000 full-text transcriptions of articles, advertisements and vital statistics
provide insight into technology and business activity. Material is taken from six
Pennsylvania newspapers.
The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue, Chester County, 1809-1870 is primarily a
listing of marriages, deaths and obituaries from the Village Record, published in West
Chester, Pennsylvania. Included is information about emigration patterns, customs and
traditions, important events, medical history and biographical data.
Complete pricing for these databases is found on BCR's Web page.
Libraries must make a three-year committment, but are expected to pay in advance for
only one year at a time. Pricing models differ for universities and colleges, public
libraries, schools (K-12) and historical and genealogical societies.
The price for the consortium purchase of the complete package of Accessible Archives
databases will be finalized November 30. The maximum prices are already discounted
as much as 21 percent from the list price. Discounts could go much deeper depending
on the total number of orders received at BCR by November 30.
To sign up for the free trial or subscribe to the databases, please fill out the online
form at. Click on "Reference Databases," then select Accessible
Archives. For more information, contact BCR's Jim Hensinger.
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1800, is the full text of the newspaper published by
Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. Considered to be The New York Times of its day,
the Gazette provides readers with a firsthand view of colonial America, including the
French and Indian and Revolutionary wars.