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New York Media Morgues

The Briscoe Center for American History holds the clippings morgues for three major New York City news sources: The New York Times, The New York Herald Tribune, and The New York Journal American.

Morgues do not contain complete issues of newspapers, and consequently they are not an “archive” of everything published by a paper. Instead, morgues consist of files (envelopes) with clippings inside. The envelopes are defined by a subject, or by a personal or organization name.

This arrangement makes clippings morgues excellent resources for research, since many articles on one desired topic are contained in one place. However, this arrangement also makes it impossible to locate articles in the morgues using date information.

We have a list of repositories holding entire runs of the papers represented in our clippings morgues.

Search The New York Herald Tribune Morgue

The New York Herald Tribune morgue of more than 15 million clippings was acquired by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in 1995. We maintained the morgue in the organizational arrangement that we received it.

The Briscoe Center does not hold the Herald Tribune’s photographs morgue. Please contact the Queens Borough Public Library’s Long Island Division.

During its years of publication, the Herald Tribune covered politics at the local, state, national, and international levels, as well as sports, New York culture and society, theater and the arts, and all of the major events of the day.

NYHT Biographical files, which make up the bulk of the collection, were established for persons mentioned in a Herald Tribune article.

The NYHT Subject files contain information on a wide range of topics and are organized into general subjects with subheadings. The subject “Accidents,” for example, contains subheadings for “Automobile,” “Hunting,” “Runaway Animals,” and “Runaway Elevators.” These topical files also include clippings from several other New York area newspapers, such as the Brooklyn Eagle and the New York Post. Some of the subject files also contain related documents, such as press releases, reporters’ unedited typescripts, and reports from government and private organizations.

* Morgue files are stored off site and must be requested several days to a week before you would like to view them. 

Search The New York Journal American Morgue

The New York Journal American morgue of approximately 9 million clippings was transferred to the Briscoe Center for American History by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, which received the morgue in 1967. The HRC Photograph Division still retains the NYJA photographs morgue.

The NYJA clippings morgue is divided into biographical, subject and geographical categories. The clippings are not only from Hearst’s own publications in their various daily editions, but also from competitors and even some magazines.

* Morgue files are stored off site and must be requested several days to a week before you would like to view them. 

Morgue Copyright Contact Information

The New York Journal American Morgue
The Hearst Corporation
959 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
(212) 649-2000

The New York Times Morgue (PDF 790 KB)Download

The New York Times newspaper morgue’s 2,500 linear feet of subject files were donated to the Briscoe Center for American History by the New York Times Corp. in 1998. The Briscoe Center does not maintain the New York Times biographical clippings morgue or the New York Times photographs morgue.

The Times is the only publication recognized for consistently covering news events as a national newspaper of record since the turn of the twentieth century and through both world wars.

When the NYT morgue was packed, the beginning and ending file of each box was recorded to create a box-level inventory. The clippings are indexed and filed the way New York Times reporters used them. Researchers will have the most success locating materials in the morgue by consulting the New York Times Index for proper subject headings before requesting materials.

* Morgue files are stored off site and must be requested several days to a week before you would like to view them.

Morgue Copyright Contact Information

The New York Times Morgue

Biographical Files (PDF 269 KB)Download
Biographical, Deceased (PDF 173 KB)Download
Organizational Files (PDF 447 KB)Download
Subject Files (PDF 664 KB)Download

Newsweek, Inc. donated its research archive of approximately 3000 linear feet to the Briscoe Center for American History in 2001. In 1933, concurrent with the magazine’s birth, Newsweek staff began clipping and gathering newspaper and magazine articles, government reports, annual reports, reporter’s files, and ephemera. A variety of sources are represented in the archive for the 63-year clipping period. Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal are the major sources.

The Briscoe Center for American History will make copies of published materials only for researchers in accordance with the University’s fair use guidelines. Any requests for copies that fall outside of fair use and for copies of unpublished material held in the files will be referred to Newsweek’s Rights and Permissions Department.

The Briscoe Center for American History maintained the organization established by Newsweek. The files are organized alphabetically and chronologically within three series: biographical, subject, and organizational.

* Morgue files are stored off site and must be requested several days to a week before you would like to view them. 

Morgue Copyright Contact Information

Newsweek Research Archive
251 West 57th Street
22nd Floor
New York, NY 10019
(212) 445-4825
FAX (212) 445-5764

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