Daily Mail Historical Archive, 1896

Utilize over one hundred years of content from Britain's national newspaper to expand your understanding of twentieth-century middle-class life and culture

*Customers who purchase this archive after late 2020 will have the full archive from 1896-2016. Customers who previously purchased the original archive covering 1896-2004 can purchase the years 2005-2016 to extend their existing archive. Please note that the 1896-2016 module is only available as an add-on to institutions who have the original archive, and is not available as a standalone purchase.

Described by the New Yorker as "the newspaper that rules Britain," the Daily Mail has been at the heart of British journalism since 1896, regularly changing the course of government policy and setting the national debate. It currently boasts a circulation of over 2 million, and its website is the most visited news site in the world.

As well as the regular edition of the newspaper, the Daily Mail Historical Archive also includes the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, which was published on board the cruise ships that sailed between New York and Southampton from 1923 to 1931. Copies were printed and sold to passengers on every day of the five-day voyages, with news transmitted from London and New York to the middle of the Atlantic by wireless radio transmission. These editions published different content to the regular London version of the paper and contained articles specifically commissioned for the journey, with a heavy emphasis on American content.

More than 100 years of this major UK national newspaper can be viewed in full digital facsimile form, with copious advertisements, news stories, and images that capture twentieth-century culture and society. The Daily Mail Historical Archive is part of Gale's growing "middle class/middle market" collection of newspapers and periodicals which reflect twentieth-century popular culture and tastes. They provide an important alternative perspective to "the newspaper of record," the Times. It serves as the perfect complement to The Times Digital Archive for students and researchers looking for multiple viewpoints to understand the past.

Subjects for research, teaching, and learning with the Daily Mail Historical Archive include:

First World War: The Daily Mail played a pivotal role in the politics of the period, directly contributing to the change of British government in 1916.
Women and Gender: The paper had a women's column from its earliest issues and hired the world's first female war correspondent to cover the Boer War. The Daily Mail also distinguished itself from other newspapers by introducing the first women's magazine in a newspaper in 1968.
Home and Lifestyles: The Daily Mail founded the annual Ideal Home Exhibition in 1908 and continued to sponsor the event until 2009. At this annual event, designers aim to shape the way the British public lives, from home decorating to furniture to fashion. There is extensive coverage of each event in the paper.
"Popular" Politics: The Daily Mail has typically attracted a conservative readership, providing insight into the political issues that preoccupy the grassroots of the Conservative Party in Britain, including immigration, health, and care for the elderly. Historically, the paper also illustrates how some parts of the British population were inclined toward fascism in the 1930s.
Crime: Crime stories sell popular newspapers, and as such, the Daily Mail has a large number of sensational articles that would not have been reported in the broadsheets. It also has been involved in directing the reporting of higher-profile cases, such as the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1992 and the trails of his alleged killers.
Advertising: Analyzing the advertising of a given period and showing its development across time can tell us much about contemporary society. As a popular newspaper, the Daily Mail has a different audience than broadsheets such as the Times, and therefore opens up whole new avenues of study.

FEATURED TESTIMONIAL

“All in all, I’m very impressed with the Daily Mail Historical Archive. It gives us access to a vitally important paper for the study of twentieth century British history and should prove to be a valuable tool for both researching and teaching the period.”

- Dr. Bob Nicholson, the Digital Victorianist

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Additional Details

subjects covered

Chinese Studies
British Studies
European Studies
Gender & Women's Studies
Humanities & Social Sciences
Western Civilization
Journalism
Latina / Latin America / Caribbean Studies
Middle Eastern Studies
Religion & Philosophy
Science & Technology
U.S. History

Support Materials

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Platform Features & Tools

Term Frequency

Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, places, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.

Topic Finder

By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.

Cross-Search Capability

Search across the materials of complementary primary source products, including books, in one united, intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.

Reviews & Testimonials

This archive provides students, researchers and public libraries with unprecedented digital access to one of Britain’s most influential papers and its views. In nearly 1.2 million pages of content from the paper, including all of the major news stories, features, advertisements and images, the Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2004 captures the development of 20th century culture and society in a fully searchable and browse-able digital format, providing an important alternative perspective to ‘the newspaper of record’, The Times, which is also available from Gale as a Digital Archive.

Andover, Hampshire UK