Access the Library of Congress from R.
Chronicling America provides access [140,000] historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages.
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("news-r/loc")library(loc)
# titles
titles <- loc_search_titles("michigan", pages = 2)
#> ℹ 10 pages available
# pages
(articles <- loc_search_pages("Thomas"))
#> ℹ 154880 pages available
#> # A tibble: 20 × 29
#> sequence county edition frequency id subject city date title end_year
#> <int> <list> <lgl> <chr> <chr> <list> <list> <chr> <chr> <int>
#> 1 6 <chr> NA Weekly /lcc… <list> <chr> 1934… Amer… 1942
#> 2 40 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1906… Los … 1911
#> 3 45 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1906… Los … 1911
#> 4 46 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1907… Los … 1911
#> 5 46 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1906… Los … 1911
#> 6 121 <NULL> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1963… Even… 1972
#> 7 13 <chr> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <chr> 1904… San … 1907
#> 8 50 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1906… Los … 1911
#> 9 56 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1907… Los … 1911
#> 10 44 <chr> NA Daily /lcc… <list> <chr> 1907… Los … 1911
#> 11 2 <list> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <list> 1956… St. … 9999
#> 12 3 <chr> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <chr> 1962… The … 1978
#> 13 1 <list> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <list> 1884… St. … 9999
#> 14 3 <chr> NA Weekly /lcc… <list> <chr> 1924… Amer… 1942
#> 15 2 <chr> NA Weekly /lcc… <list> <chr> 1924… Amer… 1942
#> 16 5 <chr> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <chr> 1962… The … 1978
#> 17 3 <chr> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <chr> 1962… The … 1978
#> 18 1 <list> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <list> 1873… St. … 9999
#> 19 2 <list> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <list> 1949… St. … 9999
#> 20 2 <list> NA Daily (exc… /lcc… <list> <list> 1949… St. … 9999
#> # ℹ 19 more variables: note <list>, state <list>, section_label <chr>,
#> # type <chr>, place_of_publication <chr>, start_year <int>,
#> # edition_label <chr>, publisher <chr>, language <list>, alt_title <list>,
#> # lccn <chr>, country <chr>, ocr_eng <chr>, batch <chr>, title_normal <chr>,
#> # url <chr>, place <list>, page <chr>, ocr_dan <chr>The text of the newspaper is in the ocr_eng variable. You can
reconstruct endpoints to specific newspapers, editions, or issues.
a <- sample(articles$url, 1) # take a random article
pdf <- gsub(".json", ".pdf", a) # change to PDF
# browseURL(pdf)
And you can get the text with:
txt <- gsub(".json", "/ocr.txt", a) # change to PDF
readLines(txt)
#> Warning in readLines(txt): incomplete final line found on
#> 'https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1906-11-25/ed-1/seq-40/ocr.txt'
#> [1] "Thirsty Thomas gets a Cool Drink,"
#> [2] "J 7/?£nojfi JEEKt* acr FINDS a LITTLE TjioublE\"-*"