News sources like newspapers and magazines may have interviews with artists and curators, reviews of exhibitions and obituaries of people who have made their mark in some way on the art world. This is good contextual information when analyzing an artist's life, work and influences. Much of what you will find in newspapers and magazines is written very close to the time of the subject and may be considered primary source information.
The Masterfile Premier database covers popular magazines and news sources. Sometimes an artist's work may be written about in these types of sources if the artist has more popular appeal.
Use the historical The New York Times covering 1851-2019. (For current content, try the New York Times Digital site.)
Search tip:
Use the Date Range limit to narrow your search to a specific time period:
For a more European perspective, try The Times Digital Archive. This is the newspaper from London and covers 1785-2011. When searching it, limit your search by date range and add a keyword for the topic or person you are researching.
The following databases have content in newspapers, magazines and trade journals.
Try the databases listed below for topics relevant to the 18th and 19th centuries.
Accessible Archives is a digital collection of material from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is an eclectic collection of newspapers and published texts. Highlights include a set of eight African American newspapers from the 19th century, including Frederick Douglass' Paper; full texts of county histories; a collection of newspapers and texts about the Civil War; miscellaneous newspapers such as The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800), The Virginia Gazette (1736-1780), William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator (1835-1865), and many others.
The American Antiquarian Society is the nation's chief repository for newspapers published in the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. The online collection of full text periodicals spans the period 1691-1876.
