The newspaper collection referred to in this talk is housed in the Cambridgeshire Collection at CUL (Cambridge University Library). Cambridgeshire newspapers are almost all on film - many originals are available. reader copies are available at 10p per copy.

Papers included news, features, articles and Village News. Much of the news content was culled from the national news.

Some indexing has been completed but further indexing is needed.

There exist collections of 'cuttings files', covering c. 750 topics. These are cross-referenced and indexed.

There exist two newspaper indexes:

1. one in the form of a review of each year;
2. another detailing important stories (these are not yet in the public domain but the speaker has them).

There exist indexes of newspapers for 1770 - 1819, identifying every item included. After that, there was a great expansion in the number of newspapers and it is too big a job to index everything. However, Village News columns up to 1900 have been microfilmed and indexed. They are also indexed by subject.

In addition many village and subject stories have been transcribed and many of these published. Court cases, too, reveal many aspects of daily life but these have not yet been indexed.

Many treasures appear amongst these and are available. E.g. crime and poverty in the Cambridge Chronicle. A number of books have been written, based on these. E.g. A Century of Cambridge News 1888-1988, by Mike Petty; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge (stops at 1858). Both of these are in the Cambridgeshire Collection.

The Ely Standard has been indexed for the period covering the wars, This paper included much news related to individuals in the wars - comings and goings, injuries, etc.

These are a good source of information about individuals. In one case they led to an existing photographic firm which still had many old negatives and these are now in the Cambridge Collection and are indexed.

All advertisements have been indexed from 1770 - 1819.

Illustrations before 1900 were not common but some do exist. Photos were included in greater quantity in the Cambridge Graphic in 1900, many of good quality.

Photos in the major newspapers were not common until 1914. An example of a photo is the one of the fire at Grantchester Mill.

Illustrations are catalogued in the Cambridgeshire Collection.

The task is lengthy but feasible. The plans are to move from microfilm to CD-ROM. It is possible that the indexes could be put onto CD-ROM using volunteer help.