Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection features the newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsheets of the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

It contains approximately 300 pamphlets and broadsheets, most prevalent in the 1672-1682 period, which illustrate the transition from early newsbook publications to newspaper format. The collection charts the history of the development of the press in England providing invaluable insight into seventeenth and eighteenth century England.

The Nichols collection was digitized as a counterpart and partner to the Burney collection, covering 1604-1804, also available via the University Library. These are the two largest collections of seventeenth and eighteenth century newspapers, gathered by the collectors Reverend Charles Burney and John Nichols. Both important collections in their own right, together they represent a wide range of titles from this era, with the Nichols collection filling in some gaps in the Burney material. Together, they are an invaluable and unequalled primary resource for this era.

Use the database’s Learning Center to gain context and background information as well as help about how to search the collection.

Click on the light bulb icon on the homepage menu to find help to conceptualize your research question; find primary source documents; read, understand, and evaluate what you find; and use and incorporate documents into your research.