It is possible to find books published prior to 1924 online. If you have a citation for an early printed book, check for an ebook version of it online. Three sites with digital collections are:
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.
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.
Chronicling America from the Library of Congress
In addition, libraries and archives are starting to digitize their newspaper holdings, and you may be able to find some newspapers freely available on the Internet. The Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection has some digitized papers from 1860-1922 for some states. Also, when you find digital collections of materials (see the Internet Sources tab) there may be digital versions of newspapers, or newspaper articles included in the online collections.
