Papers Past showcases selected historical New Zealand newspapers and periodicals.
Why use Papers Past?
The newspapers in Papers Past are a good source of information about the social and political events of the times. Researchers of family history and whakapapa (genealogy) will find the shipping news, births, deaths and marriages of interest. Advertising also features strongly. A range of regional newspapers are available on the site, making it a valuable source of information on life outside the main centres.
What's available on Papers Past?
Papers Past covers nearly 70 titles from throughout New Zealand. The titles and dates of the newspapers that have been digitised are listed on the Papers Past website. All newspapers are fully searchable and can also be browsed by date, region and title.
What's new on Papers Past?
In June 2011 we added 33 years of Auckland's Evening Star, and 44 years of the Rodney and Otamatea Times.
The most recent additions were:
- Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser (1877-1920)
- Daily Telegraph (1881-1901)
- Feilding Star (1910-1920)
- Northern Advocate (1910-1920)
- Observer (1910-1920)
- Wairarapa Daily Times (1902-1919)
- Wellington Independent (1845-1859)
Collaborate with Papers Past
After a successful pilot run, we are once again collaborating with other collecting institutions to digitise even more newspapers.
Read about the collaboration programme
Tens of thousands of pages from ten titles submitted under the collaboration programme will be digitised and uploaded to Papers Past in the first half of 2012:
- Akaroa Mail: ca. 8000 pages from 1921-1939
- Lyttelton Times: ca. 3,500 pages from 1862-1865
- Manawatu Daily Times: ca. 5500 pages from pre-1900 and from 1906-1908
- Manawatu Evening Standard: ca. 8000 pages from pre-1900 and from 1906-1910
- Horowhenua Chronicle: ca. 11,000 pages from 1910-1920
- Bay of Plenty Beacon: ca. 7000 pages from 1939-1945
- Hutt News: ca. 5000 pages from 1934-1945
- Northern Advocate: ca. 12,000 pages from 1921-1925 (pending permission from copyright owner)
- Waikato Times: ca. 4000 pages from 1872 and from 1887-1892
- Westport Times: ca. 2000 pages from 1875-1878
A further two titles will be offered the opportunity to have pages microfilmed over the next six months and digitised in the following financial year:
- Hutt Valley Independent
- Upper Hutt Weekly Review
Access items in this collection
Although the Papers Past website contains more than two million individual newspaper pages, this is only a small proportion of the Library's newspaper collections. You can access a much wider range of newspapers by visiting the Library, including current publications, in print and on microfilm.
More about the Library's newspaper collections
