Scottish Newspapers II, 1900-2022

This collection spans across Scotland, from the central industrial belt to the rural South and the northern Highlands, and throughout the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is the second instalment of a two-part series digitised in partnership with the British Library and leading publishers.  

These newspapers reflect Scotland’s shifting role within Britain and the world over the last 120 years. They record the experience of the two World Wars, the interwar depression, post-war reconstruction, and the rise and fall of heavy industries. They also trace the growing movement for Scottish autonomy, culminating in the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Alongside political developments, these newspapers document changes in everyday life, from urban housing and education to football, music, and mass protest. Local and national identity, cultural pride, and debate are captured across decades of social commentary and reportage. 

Among the titles in this collection are notable publications such as: 

• Edinburgh Evening News, sister paper of The Scotsman, founded 1873, with dedicated reporting on Edinburgh’s football teams, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian. 
• Aberdeen Evening Express, popular local paper serving the city of Aberdeen, founded in 1879. 
• Daily Record, popular Glasgow newspaper, the first daily European newspaper to be published in colour. 
• Sunday Post, a Scottish institution, this title is synonymous with comics Oor Willie and The Broons. In 1986 the Guinness Book of Records crowned the paper the ‘best read newspaper in its circulation area in the world’. 
• Jewish Echo, Glasgow newspaper serving Scotland’s Jewish population, for a time ‘Scotland’s only Jewish newspaper’. 
• The Scots Magazine, this series makes available the years 1924 to 2000 of the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, with a focus on all matters Scottish. 

This collection provides a vital resource for researchers in Scottish history, media and communication, labour and industrial history, urban studies, cultural history, and the study of national identity. 

The British Newspaper Archive 

DC Thomson, the owners of The Social History Archive, are the British Library’s digital publishing partners and have been developing the world-famous British Newspaper Archive for over a decade. Through this partnership with the British Library, the British Newspaper Archive (home to the world’s largest collection of digitised British and Irish newspapers), and other key newspaper publishers, The Social History Archive is delighted to make this rich archive available to the higher education community.