Newspapers can be a rich source of historical information, but finding articles on your topics of interest can be difficult – particularly for older articles. Fortunately, several state libraries offer indexes to Wisconsin newspapers.
- The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Library maintains a collection of newspaper and magazine article clippings, organized by subject and arranged chronologically. There are clippings in over 1500 different subject areas, many of them law-related. There is also a biography index listing names of prominent Wisconsinites who are mentioned among the articles. Some of the earliest clippings go back to the library’s inception in 1901.
- The Milwaukee History Clippings Index from the Milwaukee Public Library is a subject listing of people, places, events, etc. represented in newspaper articles that were clipped from Milwaukee area newspapers published mainly in the middle to late 20th century.
This finding tool lets the searcher know if there are articles on a particular subject, but does not give citations to the articles. Therefore, a visit to the Central Library is necessary to review the contents. - The Milwaukee Public Library also has print-based card indexes to the Milwaukee Sentinel, 1837-1890 and the Milwaukee Journal, 1915-1917. Both indexes are located in the Periodicals room.
- The South Central Library System also maintains an index of Wisconsin newspapers through the LINKcat library catalog.
Includes the following titles:- Several Baraboo newspapers (1850-1994 – incomplete)
- Portage Daily Register (1995-present)
- Mount Horeb newspapers (dates unknown)
- Several Reedsburg newspapers (1888 – present)
- Wisconsin State Journal (1966-1996)
- Several Wisconsin magazines (1998-present)
- More recently, full text Wisconsin newspapers are available through Badgerlink’s ProQuest Wisconsin Newsstand. Badgerlink is freely available to all Wisconsinites.
It includes the following titles:- Corporate Report Wisconsin; Menomonee Falls (2003 – current)
- The Daily Reporter; Milwaukee (1997 – current, some exceptions)
- La Crosse Tribune; La Crosse (1991 – current)
- Madison Capital Times; Madison (1991 – current)
- Marketplace; Appleton (1994 – current)
- Marshfield News Herald; Marshfield (dates unknown)
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Milwaukee (1995 – current)
- News; Kenosha (1991 – 2000)
- Northeastern Wisconsin Business Review; Neeah (1992 – 1993)
- Rhinelander Daily News; Rhinelander (1993 – current)
- Wausau Daily Herald; Wausau (dates unknown)
- Wisconsin State Journal; Madison (1991 – current)
- You may also find some Wisconsin newspapers in Google News. It’s not clear which papers are included or what the dates of coverage may be, but it’s worth a look.
Anyone know of any other indexes that I’m missing?
Thanks to my colleague, Bev Butula for her Wisconsin Law Journal post on the Milwaukee PL Clippings file.