Newfoundland and Labrador Online Historical Newspapers Summary

​Newfoundland/Labrador is one of the Canadian provinces that does have a single central online repository for searching historical newspapers. Also, there are several free publications available on other sites and there are small collections available on subscription sites. Below is a list of where the titles are stored and the link so that you can access them. 

​So go for it – find your Newfoundland and Labrador ancestors and all the interesting articles that capture the stories of their lives. 

Please note that I have not always entered the dates that are included in the collections, as I suspect they will change as more items are digitized. Also, I suspect that some of these links may change over time – so if there is a dead link – please use your favorite search engine to find their new location. 

(Updated July 2021; recently added links are in BOLD)

Free Sites:

Provincewide Collections:

Memorial University of Newfoundland – Digital Archives Initiative

• Caribou 1980-1987 (50 Issues)
• Colonist 1886-1892 (1,896 Issues)
• Daily News 1952-1963 (3,351+ Issues)
• Evening Advocate 1917-1924 (4,518 Issues)
• Evening Herald 1890-1920 (9,130 Issues)
• Evening Telegram 1879-1926 (14,084 Issues)
• Harbor Grace Standard 1859-1934 (3,141 Issues)
• Le Gaboteur 1984-2011 (27 Volumes)
• Morning Courier 1845-1854 (884 Issues)
• MUN Gazette 1968-2016 (1022 Issues)
• Muse 1950-2017 (1,392 Issues)
• Newfoundland Mercantile Journal 1816-1827 (376 Issues)
• Newfoundland Weekly 1924-1932; 1940-1941 (424 Issues)
• Patriot And Terra-Nova Herald 1833-1890 (2,346 Issues)
• St. John’s Daily News 1860-1870 (2,333 Issues)
• St. John’s Daily Star 1915-1921 (1,738 Issues)
• Terra Nova Advocate 1875-1890 (1,260 Issues)
• Twillingate Sun 1880-1953 (2,080 Issues)
• Weekly Herald And Conception-Bay General Advertiser 1845-1854 (450 Issues)
• Western Star 1900-1952 (3,404 Issues)

Centre for Newfoundland Studies Newspaper Collection

• Banner of Temperance.. Earliest issue located Jan. 18, 1851, last issue located Dec. 20, 1851.
• Carbonear Herald and Outport Telephone, May 22, 1879 – Feb. 22, 1882 (120 issues)
• Carbonear Herald and Railroad Journal, Mar. 17- Aug. 26, 1882 (5 issues)
• Daily Tribune. Nov. 4, 1892 – Dec. 2, 1893; (272 issues)
• Fishermen’s Advocate. Dates of publication: Feb. 12, 1910 – May 22, 1980.
• Morning Advertiser and Shipping Gazette. Began publication Sep. 21, 1844, last issue located Apr. 26, 1845.
• Morning Despatch. Began publication July 13, 1892, last issue located Aug. 22, 1892.
• Newfoundland Mercantile Journal. Earliest issue located Sept. 11, 1816 (no. 108), last issue located June 7, 1827.
• Our Country. Dates of publication: Aug. 25, 1883 – May 14, 1885.
• Sentinel and Conception Bay Advertiser. Oct 27, 1836 – Jul 20, 1837 and Dec 13, 1838 – Nov 19, 1844. (148 issues)
• The Carbonear Sentinel and Conception Bay Advertiser. July 27, 1837 – Nov. 29, 1838. (26 issues)
• The Conception-Bay Man. Began publication Sep. 3, 1856, last issue located Feb. 16, 1859.
• The Confederate. Dates of publication: April 7 – July 16, 1948.
• The Daily Globe. Began publication Dec. 16, 1924, last issue located June 5, 1926.
• The Enterprise. Dates of publication: Oct. 21, 1896 – Nov. 3, 1897.
• The Independent. Dates of publication: Mar. 22 – July 15, 1948.
• The Mercury And General Advertiser. Began publication Feb. 3, 1846, last issue located Oct. 15, 1846.
• The Morning Herald Earliest issue located Nov. 28, 1879 (no.8), last issue located Feb. 21, 1880.
• The Newfoundland Commercial Journal. Dates of publication: 1855? – 1892?
• The Newfoundland Vindicator. Began publication Jan. 2, 1841, last issue located May 14, 1842.
• The Newfoundland Weekly.
• The Newfoundlander. Began publication Oct. 6, 1934, last issue located Dec. 20, 1934.
• The Plaindealer. Dates of publication: 1907 – June 1922.
• The Record. Earliest issue located Jan. 18, 1862 (V. 2, No. 14), last issue located Dec. 29, 1863.
• The Register. Earliest issue located Sept. 17, 1880 (V.1, No. 2), last issue located Dec. 16, 1880.
• The Reporter. Earliest issue located Jan. 31, 1856, last issue located Dec. 25, 1856.
• The Sentinel. Mar. 13, 1845 – Oct. 30, 1845. (12 Issues)
• The St. John’s Free Press And Daily Advertiser. Apr. 9, 1877 – May 29, 1877 (37 Issues)
• The St. John’s Free Press And Semi-Weekly Advertiser. Jun. 11, 1877 – Jul. 22, 1878 (46 Issues)
• The Star and Conception Bay Weekly Reporter. Earliest issue located Feb. 4, 1874 (V. 2, No. 2), last issue located May 6, 1875.
• The Star and Newfoundland Advocate. Earliest issue located Nov. 14, 1840 (V. 1, No. 2), last issue located Jan. 14, 1847.
• The Vindicator and Brigus Reporter. Earliest issue located: May 4, 1898 (V. 1, No. 2), ceased publication Oct. 28, 1903.
• The Weekly Express. Began publication Jan. 6, 1858, last issue located Dec. 27, 1859.
• The Weekly Herald and Conception-Bay General Advertiser. Dates of publication: Nov. 2, 1842 – June 28, 1854.
• The Weekly News. Began publication Mar. 29, 1894, ceased publication June 1906.
• Tribune. Dec. 6-30, 1893. (5 issues)

Google News Archive

• Harbour Grace – The Standard 
• St. Johns – Newfoundlander 
• St. Johns – The Evening Telegram
• St. Johns – The Newfoundland Express
• St. Johns – The Newfoundlander
• St. Johns – The Public Ledger
• St. Johns – The Public Ledger and Newfoundland General Advertiser
• St. Johns – The Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser
• St. Johns – The Telegram

Canadiana Online

• Evening Advocate – St. Johns
• Mail and Advocate – St. Johns
• Newfoundland Monthly Messenger – St. Johns
• The Carbonear herald and outport telephone – Carbonear
• The Carbonear herald and railroad journal – Carbonear
• The Collegian – St. Johns
• The Conception-Bay man – Harbour Grace
• The Daily Mail – St. Johns
• The Evening Telegram – St. Johns
• The Mail and Advocate – St. Johns
• The Morning Advocate – St. Johns
• The Newfoundland Magazine – St. Johns
• The Star and Conception Bay semi-weekly advertiser – Harbour Grace
• The Star And Conception Bay Weekly Reporter – Harbour Grace
• The Star and Newfoundland Advocate – St. Johns

Digitized Periodicals from the Centre for Newfoundland Studies

• The Cadet. Published 1914-1924
• Christmas Annual.
• Christmas Bells. Published 1892-19?
• Christmastide. Published 1907-?
• College Courier
• Colonial Commerce. Published 1915-1919
• Commercial Annual. Published 1916-1921?
• Curtis Academy Magazine. Published 1944-1956
• The Distaff. Published 1916-1917
• Easter Lily. Published 1917-?
• Forward. June 1946
• Imperial Oil Review. Vol. 25 No. 1 Spring 1941
• Military Gazette. Vol. 60 No. 9 September 1945
• Newfoundland News. Published 1939?-1945?
• Newfoundland Magazine (1917). Published 1917-192?
• New-land Magazine. Published 1962-1990/91
• Parsons’ Xmas Annual. Published 1899-1907?
• The Record. Published 1898-?
• St. John’s Woman
• Shortis Papers.
• Spencerian. Published 1921-1959
• Sports and Pastimes in Newfoundland. Published 1911?-1916?
• TickleAce. Published 1977-2003.

Newfoundland Newspaper transcriptions

• Notre Dame Bay
• Conception Bay North
• Conception Bay South
• St. John’s
• Free Press
• Daily News
• Newfoundland Express
• Newfoundland Quarterly
• West Coast Newspapers

Transcriptions – Newfoundland Grand Banks

Student Collections:

Memorial University – St. Johns

• The Muse

For Obituary Indexes, transcriptions, and other death/obituary information from historic newspapers, please check out the Obituaries page.

Other Free Sites:

Subscription or Pay Sites:

Ancestry.com:

There is currently 1 publication available at this site. See all the titles at Ancestry – Newfoundland and Labrador Newspapers

Paper of Record:

There are currently 2 publications available at this site. See the titles at Paper of Record – Newfoundland and Labrador

Newspaper Archive:

There are currently 4 publications available at this site. See all the titles at Newspaper Archive – Newfoundland and Labrador

And Finally:

You might want to check out the Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative site from time to time to see what is available online or otherwise. 

Please note – even more may be available via a local or provincial library where a library card is required. And of course, there is always microfilm for those that have not been made available online as yet.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

For more links for different states, provinces, and countries – please see the Newspaper Links page on this website.

For other Free Newfoundland and Labrador Links, click on the category of interest:​​