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 more than 40 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 can be browsed by date, region and title, and over half of the collection can be full text searched. Over time all the newspapers will become searchable.
More about the Papers Past redevelopment
Searching the Papers Past website
The Papers Past site was re-launched in September 2007 with new functionality that allows users to search the full-text of some of the newspapers. Over time all the newspapers will become searchable.
More about the Papers Past redevelopment
Access items in this collection
Although the Papers Past website contains nearly 1.2 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
