Michigan historic newspapers free online. Old historical journals, newspapers and periodicals. From the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Table of contents
The Great Lakes States Directory
Michigan Historical Collections
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections – All Volumes
Table of Contents Vols 1-31
Vols. 1-40 (1874-1929)
Lansing: Michigan Historical Commission
Publication History:
1876-1886 (Volumes 1- 9): Pioneer Collections. Lansing : Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan.
1886-1912 (Volumes 10-38): Historical Collections. Lansing : Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society.
1915 and 1929 (Volumes 39 and 40): Michigan Historical Collections. Lansing : Michigan Historical Commission.
In fact this periodical never had the title Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, but that name is commonly used now. The first seven volumes are made up mainly of pioneer reminiscences, biographical sketches and memorials, and proceedings of local pioneer societies. In 1886 the Collections began to publish a large body of documents.
Volumes 41 and 42 (at the first link) contain indexes to the first 30 volumes. A complete “Table of Contents” for volumes 1 through 31 can be found at the second link, in the Bibliography of American Historical Societies, page 588.
Michigan History Magazine
Vols 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 (1917-1922)
Michigan Historical Commission and the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society
The magazine was a quarterly. Each of the volumes contains a table of contents at the front and an index in back covering all four numbers within. There is a Vol 3 at this link, which was mistakenly entitled “Michigan History” in the online archive. In fact it is Vol 3 of the Collection at the entry above.
Michigan Historical Review 1986-2020
You will need a free log-in to JSTOR to access these issues.
Collections of Michigan Historic Newspapers
Michigan Digital Newspaper Portal
Central Michigan University Library
Links to many online Michigan newspapers, at both paid and free sites.
The Ancestor Hunt – United States Online Historical Newspaper Links – Michigan
Ancestor Hunt
The Ancestor Hunt is a very large site with a page of newspaper links for each U.S. state. The Michigan page has links to many newspapers, organized by county and city.
See our free historical novels
Chronicling America: Michigan Newspapers
Library of Congress
Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers
This site at the Library of Congress has a very large collection of historic newspapers from every state in the U.S. In addition to the digitized newspapers, they provide information about other historic newspapers not in their digitized collection. For that database, use the tab “US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present”.
Historical U.S. Newspapers Online: Michigan
LibGuides
Bowling Green State University Libraries
This page of BGSU’s LibGuide (Library Research Guide) has links to free online newspaper collections for all states beginning with M. Scroll down for the Michigan collection.
Michigan Historic Newspapers
Alpena Weekly Argus
Weekly. Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 29, 1871) -Vol. 22, no. 25 (Jan. 4, 1893)
Alpena, Alpena Co.
Visit the Century Past collection of links to American newspaper archives
The Cass County Republican
Weekly. May 6, 1858 – Apr 14, 1864, with a few scattered issues until Aug 1880
Dowagiac, Cass Co.
See our directory of Great Lakes books & articles on this site
East Saginaw Courier
Weekly. Aug 4, 1859 – Dec 6, 1866. Also an issue of June 16, 1859
East Saginaw, Saginaw Co.
See our journalism books pdf free download
The Signal of Liberty
Weekly, April, 1841 – Feb 5, 1848
Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co.
The Michigan History Division placed a marker on the site of the First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor with this information:
“Antislavery Society: The founding meeting of the Michigan Antislavery Society was held in the First Presbyterian Church, located on this site [southwest corner E. Huron and Division Streets], on November 10, 1836. Delegates from six counties elected officers and adopted fourteen resolutions denouncing slavery. This convention led to the establishment in Jackson in 1839 of the American Freeman, the state’s first antislavery newspaper and its successor, Ann Arbor’s Signal of Liberty, in 1841.”
See the directory of free online magazines on this site