Google news archive

I still haven't figured out just what Google News Archive covers, but I've seen New Zealand papers and Washington State supreme court abstracts there. If you have any mobile target, it's probably a good bet for a search.

Remember one annoying property of older newspapers: so much of their content was snipped from other papers. Search engines like this can turn that annoyance into an asset. An exact-phrase search on "Indianapolis Orphan Asylum" turned up an 1884 news item about the Indianapolis Orphan Asylum in the Bluffton Weekly Chronicle, reprinting material from the Indianapolis Journal. But watch your search term: "Indianapolis Orphans Asylum" got nothing.

Bear in mind, also, that in some cases such as pay-per-view or snippet-only views, GNA may serve just as an index. You can specify only full view in the search if you want.