NY Times Archives

I have a treasure trove and didn’t realize it! Earlier this week, I wanted to see a copy of the NY Times for the day I was born as I was looking for content for a speech I will be presenting. I contacted my local public library to see if they had access to past issues.

I was told they do not, but the Rutgers Library has access, and the copy can be viewed digitally with a Rutgers ID. I don’t have a Rutgers ID; however, I am teaching at Baruch College and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and I figured I would call the librarians there to see if I could gain access through them. I also figured I could visit the Rutgers Library, which is about 20 minutes from my house. I mentioned this to my son, Andy, who suggested that since I have a subscription to the New York Times that is delivered daily, I probably would have access to the Times’ digital archives and should check that out.

I did, and after updating my password, I was on the New York Times site. I went to the search space and entered “print edition and the date” I wanted. The site immediately returned a list of headlines for that date. I clicked one on the headings and was taken to a full digital page containing that article. Not only was I able to read that article, but I was able to scroll forward or backward to each full page. The front page was also very interesting.

I found a lot of articles (and some ads) that I could incorporate into my speech and used my snipping tool to copy and paste them into my notes.

I will repeat this process with The Wall Street Journal and Barrons. I also have digital access to both publications, but I still prefer the paper edition delivered to my house. These archives are another treasure trove of data I will scan through. And thanks to Andy, I can do it all from my home.

By the way, Andy also pointed out that I should look at the paper for the day after I was born, which would report what happened the previous day. I was born on a Saturday, and the next day’s paper was a 191-page Sunday edition with all of “yesterday’s” news I could want. Pretty cool!