Wellington City Libraries subscribe to a number of different online databases that provide news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. This month, our featured database is the Times Digital Archive (you’ll need your library card number and surname details to log in and explore via the link above).

The Times Digital Archive allows you to search and view every page published by The Times [London] from 1785-1985. Content includes news articles, obituaries, advertising, book reviews and even the crossword puzzles! You can also browse by issue date, story headline, subject etc. Results are displayed at the article level and you may view the article – or the full page upon which it appeared. This is a valuable primary resource for students, genealogists, researchers and anyone interested in history.

To show you the depth and breadth of content available, here’s a teaser on an eclectic selection of subjects:

(The article links below will take you right into the articles if you’ve logged into the library’s databases in the last month, otherwise, you’ll be prompted to use your library card number and surname details to log in and view the articles.)

• A Japanese Opera, The Times. London: March 16, 1885; p. 4.
• A review of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, after it opened on March 14 1885 at London’s Savoy Theatre
• Everest Conquered : Hillary And Tensing Reach The Summit, The Times. London: Jun 02, 1953; p. 6.
• The Colonies, The Times. London: Dec 04, 1893; p. 7.
  An account of the results of the New Zealand general election of 28 November 1893 – the first in which women were entitled to vote: “The result of the first Parliamentary elections that have been held upon a female franchise in the British Empire has not been such as to inspire either great alarm or surprise.”
• The remains of the late Lord NELSON have at length reached this country, The Times. London: Dec 06, 1805; p. 2.
  A very short account of the arrival of the Victory in Portsmouth with Lord Admiral Nelson’s remains aboard month’s after he was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar (Nelson’s body was placed in a cask of brandy and carried home for burial in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London).
• Negroes Sit Where They Choose In Montgomery Buses, The Times. London: Dec 22, 1956; p. 6.
  Victory for the civil rights movement in America after the US Supreme Court upheld a federal district court ruling that Alabama’s racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began after Rosa Parks was arrested for violating racial segregation laws and officially ended December 20, 1956.