Chronicling America Titles API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Chronicling America Batches Titles API
  description: Chronicling America is a Library of Congress initiative providing free public access to a searchable database of historic American newspaper pages from 1770 to 1963. The platform hosts over 20 million digitized newspaper pages from hundreds of US newspapers contributed by institutions in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The API exposes search, title, issue, batch, and OCR text endpoints with no authentication required, returning responses in JSON and Atom feed formats.
  version: 1.0.0
  contact:
    name: Library of Congress
    url: https://www.loc.gov/about/contact-us/
  termsOfService: https://www.loc.gov/legal/
  license:
    name: Public Domain
    url: https://www.loc.gov/legal/
servers:
- url: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
  description: Chronicling America production server
tags:
- name: Titles
  description: Endpoints for retrieving newspaper title bibliographic metadata.
paths:
  /search/titles/results/:
    get:
      operationId: searchTitles
      summary: Search newspaper titles
      description: Search for newspaper titles in the Chronicling America collection by name, location, LCCN, language, and date range. Returns bibliographic metadata for matching titles.
      tags:
      - Titles
      parameters:
      - name: terms
        in: query
        description: Search terms for the title name.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
        example: New York Tribune
      - name: format
        in: query
        description: Response format.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - json
          - atom
        example: json
      - name: state
        in: query
        description: State where the newspaper was published.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
        example: New York
      - name: county
        in: query
        description: County where the newspaper was published.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: city
        in: query
        description: City where the newspaper was published.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: language
        in: query
        description: Language of the newspaper.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: ethnicity
        in: query
        description: Ethnicity the newspaper was targeted at.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: labor
        in: query
        description: Labor or union affiliation of the newspaper.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: material_type
        in: query
        description: Type of material (e.g., newspaper).
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: date1
        in: query
        description: Start year for publication range.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
        example: 1900
      - name: date2
        in: query
        description: End year for publication range.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
        example: 1920
      - name: rows
        in: query
        description: Number of results per page.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 100
          default: 20
      - name: page
        in: query
        description: Page number for paginated results.
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          default: 1
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Successful title search results
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchTitlesResponse'
  /titles.json:
    get:
      operationId: listTitles
      summary: List all newspaper titles
      description: Retrieve a list of all newspaper titles in the Chronicling America collection. Returns bibliographic metadata including LCCN, title name, publication place, date range, and subject information.
      tags:
      - Titles
      responses:
        '200':
          description: List of all newspaper titles
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TitlesListResponse'
  /titles/{lccn}.json:
    get:
      operationId: getTitle
      summary: Get a specific newspaper title
      description: Retrieve detailed bibliographic metadata for a specific newspaper title identified by its Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN). Includes publication information, language, subject headings, and links to digitized issues.
      tags:
      - Titles
      parameters:
      - name: lccn
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for the newspaper title.
        schema:
          type: string
        example: sn84026749
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Newspaper title metadata
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TitleDetail'
        '404':
          description: Title not found
  /titles/{lccn}/issues.json:
    get:
      operationId: listIssuesByTitle
      summary: List issues for a newspaper title
      description: List all digitized issues available for a specific newspaper title identified by its LCCN. Returns date and URL for each issue.
      tags:
      - Titles
      parameters:
      - name: lccn
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for the newspaper title.
        schema:
          type: string
        example: sn84026749
      responses:
        '200':
          description: List of issues for the title
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/IssuesListResponse'
        '404':
          description: Title not found
  /newspapers.json:
    get:
      operationId: listNewspapers
      summary: List all newspapers (alias for titles)
      description: An alternative endpoint that lists all newspapers in the Chronicling America collection. Returns the same data as /titles.json but under a different URL path. Useful for discovering available titles.
      tags:
      - Titles
      responses:
        '200':
          description: List of all newspapers
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TitlesListResponse'
components:
  schemas:
    SearchTitlesResponse:
      type: object
      description: Paginated search results for newspaper titles.
      properties:
        totalItems:
          type: integer
          description: Total number of matching titles.
        endIndex:
          type: integer
          description: Index of the last result on the current page.
        startIndex:
          type: integer
          description: Index of the first result on the current page.
        itemsPerPage:
          type: integer
          description: Number of results per page.
        items:
          type: array
          description: Array of matching newspaper title records.
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/TitleSummary'
    IssuesListResponse:
      type: object
      description: List of all issues for a newspaper title.
      properties:
        issues:
          type: array
          description: Array of issue records.
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/IssueSummary'
    IssueSummary:
      type: object
      description: Summary of a single newspaper issue.
      properties:
        url:
          type: string
          description: URL to the issue JSON record.
        date_issued:
          type: string
          description: Date the issue was published (YYYY-MM-DD).
          example: '1900-01-01'
    TitleSummary:
      type: object
      description: Summary record for a newspaper title.
      properties:
        lccn:
          type: string
          description: Library of Congress Control Number.
          example: sn84026749
        title:
          type: string
          description: Name of the newspaper.
          example: Chicago Tribune
        url:
          type: string
          description: URL to the full title JSON record.
          example: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749.json
        state:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: State(s) where the newspaper was published.
        county:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: County or counties of publication.
        city:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: City or cities of publication.
        start_year:
          type: string
          description: First year of publication.
          example: '1849'
        end_year:
          type: string
          description: Last year of publication (or "present" if ongoing).
          example: '1920'
    TitlesListResponse:
      type: object
      description: Complete list of newspaper titles in the collection.
      properties:
        newspapers:
          type: array
          description: Array of newspaper title records.
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/TitleSummary'
    TitleDetail:
      type: object
      description: Detailed bibliographic metadata for a newspaper title.
      properties:
        lccn:
          type: string
          description: Library of Congress Control Number.
          example: sn84026749
        name:
          type: string
          description: Title name.
          example: Chicago Tribune
        url:
          type: string
          description: URL to this title record.
        start_year:
          type: string
          description: First year of publication.
        end_year:
          type: string
          description: Last year of publication.
        place_of_publication:
          type: string
          description: Place of publication.
        publisher:
          type: string
          description: Publisher name.
        frequency:
          type: string
          description: Publication frequency.
          example: Daily
        subject:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Subject headings.
        note:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Bibliographic notes.
        language:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Language(s) of publication.
        country:
          type: string
          description: Country of publication.
        county:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: County of publication.
        city:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: City of publication.
        state:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: State of publication.
        issues:
          type: array
          description: List of digitized issues.
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/IssueSummary'
        place_of_issue:
          type: string
          description: Place where the newspaper was issued.
externalDocs:
  description: Chronicling America API Documentation
  url: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/about/api/