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Journalism - Newspaper Research: Underground Newspaper Collections

Find primary sources for newspapers, find Missouri newspapers, international newspapers, historical newspapers and info on doing newspaper research.

Using this page

The resources linked here contain information about 'alternative' or 'underground' publications, also sometimes called the 'clandestine press'. From University of Illinois- Urbana: "These periodicals tend to be written from an acknowledged political perspective–for example, liberal or conservative–and they often promote a specific agenda. They might, however, report on news that is of interest to a specific community–often a marginalized one–without endorsing any defined ideology."

The underground press is sometimes used as a shorthand for the grassroots papers, 'zines', and other periodicals published in the mid-1960s to 1970s that emerged from outside of mainstream news programs and established newspapers or newspapers of record. These underground publications generally represented a specific group or goal, particularly one that was more easily prosecuted, and were either explicitly or assumed to be against the wishes of dominant groups, resulting in the publication being labelled as 'radical'.

Often, modern collections of underground papers include historical newspapers of any era that pertain to marginalized, racialized, oppressed, and/or disenfranchised groups. These might include resistance papers from German-occupied Europe, abolitionist publications, and LGBTQIA+ periodicals such as the Lavender Left. Many of the links below have been included in the 'Historical Newspapers' tab.

Digitized Underground Newspaper Collections

Underground Newspaper Collections on Microfilm or in Print

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