The Guardian and Observer Archive

This archive will eventually contain the digital reproduction of every page, article and advert published in the Guardian (since 1821) and the Observer (since 1791 - the oldest Sunday paper in the world). Currently, the archive covers the period of 1821-2000 for the Guardian and 1791-2000 for the Observer, as they are still working on digitising the remaining material. Shortly, the entire archive up to 2003 will be available - more than 1.2m pages covering all major historic events over 212 years as reported at the time.

This is the first time a national UK newspaper has made its paper archive available online via its website. Previously, the only way to explore newspaper archives was by laboriously searching newsprint pages, stored on microfilm and in bound copies. Their ambitious digitisation project involved scanning every page from microfilm, segmenting each page into article clippings and then making them searchable.

As a result you are now able to search, browse, save and print articles and adverts from the Digital Archive. Searching is free of charge. However, if you want to view in full or print out material you will need to subscribe to a timed access pass. They offer 24 hours, three days or a month. During the purchased time periods you will be able to search and print as much as you like - there are no restrictions on downloads. For further information on how to use the Guardian and Observer Digital Archive, please see their FAQs page, or for guided tour please visit their interactive guide.