Our news collection is a unique and extensive archive of newspapers, which has been acquired by legal deposit, purchase and donation, dating from the 17th century to today.
The collection includes:
From 1822 the British Museum library began collecting newspapers systematically. In 1869 newspapers were made subject to Legal Deposit legislation, meaning the late and/or London edition of newspaper published in the UK were to be deposited at the Library, so theoretically we hold a copy of every paper in the UK though we may not hold all regional or timed editions. We continue to collect around 1,200 titles this way every year.
We also hold an extensive collection of overseas newspapers, mostly on microfilm and digital format, with some dating back to the 17th century. These were received through purchase, donation or colonial deposit exchange and over 190 countries are represented historically in the collection.