Financial Times Historical Archive Now Available

The Duke University Libraries recently subscribed to the Financial Times Historical Archive, a facsimile edition of the seminal British finance newspaper from 1888-2010. It's a searchable and browseable collection of every article, advertisement and market listing from the very first issue of the newspaper until the end of 2010.

Known as the London Financial Guide when its first issue was published on January 9, 1888 (view issue), the tri-weekly paper contained invaluable financial analysis for the low price of one penny. Barely a month later, the paper had expanded to a daily format and renamed itself The Financial Times (view Feb. 13, 1888 issue), illustrating its commitment to global financial coverage beyond the city of London. Other fun facts from FT history, including the first printing on its now-iconic pink paper (1893, for you trivia buffs) can be found on History of the FT: An Interactive Timeline or in the 1988 publication The Financial Times: A Centenary History, available in Perkins/Bostock library.

This online archive is undoubtedly a gold mine of financial history, which will benefit journal cite-checkers and other legal researchers. But if you're wondering how to access the more recent half-decade of articles, no worries! Duke University has full-text access to more recent FT articles through a number of online databases (see options), although FT places a 30-day embargo on the very latest content. To access the most recent stories, you can register with a free account on FT.com, which allows users to access 3 free stories per month. Deeply-discounted student subscriptions are also available, which provides complete access to the 5-year archive.

For help with navigating the Financial Times Historical Archive, or for options to access the more recent full text of FT, be sure to Ask a Librarian.