Several of the newspapers in Gale Primary Sources cover the Christmas periods across the turn of two centuries, showing us the concerns of the public, the interests of the press, and what is considered 'newsworthy' at both Christmas and the dawn of new millennia.
Between 1899 and 1999, many things happened that changed the world: two world wars, commercial flight, television, the Internet, economic crises; the list could go on. By comparing the headlines in these two years, we can ask:
- How important is Christmas in the news, or is it just another day of reporting?
- Did the newspapers change very much over these 100 years, or are they surprisingly similar?
- Were the public interested in the same things, or had the nature of news changed significantly?
We have taken the front pages of newspapers from their 1899 and 1999 Christmas issues, so you can jump into Gale Primary Sources and take a look at the stories that populated them.
