The Customer Service staff of The Boston Globe Historic online archive wants to help make your searching as trouble-free as possible. To ensure your continued satisfaction with The Boston Globe Historic online archive, we offer the following answers to some of the most commonly asked questions:

• What is available in the archive?
  
  
• What is not contained in the archive?
  
  
• How do I purchase articles online?
  
  
• What forms of payment are accepted for purchasing articles?
  
  
• What is your refund policy?
  
  
• What is ProQuest Archiver (PQA)?
  
  
• How do I order back issues of Boston Globe Historic?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of an article that appeared in Boston Globe Historic?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of a photo that appeared in Boston Globe Historic?
  
  
• How do I get better search results?
  
  
• What part of the article is actually searched for my search term?
  
  
• How do I browse articles that appeared on one specific day?
  
  
• How do I find an obituary?
  
  
• I'm having trouble finding an article. Do you have search assistance?
  
  
• What formats are available for viewing an article?
  
  
• What if I have a question that cannot be answered by the Frequently Asked Questions?
  
  

The Boston Globe Historic archive includes articles, pictures, and advertisements from the first edition of the paper, March 4, 1872, through December 31, 1923.

The Boston Globe Historic were digitized from microfilm, so a few issues are not available. Due to the quality of scanned microfilm, we cannot guarantee that every word or name is searchable or that every article or ad is included.

Advice for new users: After you do a search, a screen will come up with the results of that search. You may view a summary of the document for free. Once you determine which document you would like to view, click on the icon with the '$'. If you are a new user, you will be taken to a pricing page, where you can choose the plan to purchase. After deciding which plan best fits your needs, you will be taken through the purchase experience. After confirming your purchase, the full text of the document will be displayed.

You may choose to print the document or save it for your personal review later on. Since you have access to this document for 90 days, you may complete the same search and retrieve the document again during this time period.

Accepted forms of payment for purchasing articles:

(Billed by ProQuest Archiver)

Customers may submit an online refund request within two hours of purchase. ProQuest will refund the full purchase price provided the customer provides an explanation of why he/she is dissatisfied with the quality of the content delivered. If more than two hours has passed, customers may contact ProQuest Customer Service by email to request a refund at mypqabilling@pqarchiver.com.

Refunds for passes will be pro-rated based upon duration since purchase and usage.

No refunds can be given more than 60 days following the original purchase date.

ProQuest Archiver is an e-commerce platform for publishers to distribute their content on the Web. Visit myPQA to learn more.

Though complete issues of historic Boston Globes are not available, reprints of full pages in any Globe edition since 1872 can be ordered online from The Boston Globe Store.

For reprints of individual articles, go to www.globereprints.com. For reprints of complete pages from any paper since 1872 go to The Boston Globe Store.

We do not currently offer that service for older editions. Reprints of more modern Globe photos are available from The Boston Globe store.

Be specific with your search terms. If your search is unsuccessful, refine your search terms. To narrow your search, use the advanced search page to fill in date range, author, headline, or subject fields. The more information you provide, the more precise your search results will be. To get more results, select different search words or a longer date range.

Using AND narrows the search, using OR broadens the search, and using NOT excludes unwanted items. The NOT operator is useful in refining an initial query that returns a broad list of results. WITHIN and ADJ controls how close your search terms must be to one another. ADJ also checks that words found are in the same order as in your search expression. For more detail, visit Search Tips.

The basic search includes the full text of the entire article and its headlines. For more detail on getting good search results, visit Search Tips.

On the advanced search page, use the date range option to select the specific date, insert a "*" into the "Search for" field, and click the search button.

The most comprehensive way to find an obituary is to search the person's last name and "dies" or "death".

For example, for John Doe, you would search this way:

Doe and dies
Doe and death

Or try a more complicated method:

In the Headline prompt box list the person's name this way:
  first name pre/3 last name
    Example: john pre/3 doe.
(Using the proximity of pre/3 tells the system to find the first name 3 words before the last name; this takes into account the use of a middle initial or a nickname.)

Currently, we do not offer this service.

You can choose the format you would like to view by clicking the icon next to the article title. Please note: Only some document formats may be available. The following formats may be available:

Preview - The free Preview provides bibliographic information about the article, such as author and publication date, and a brief summary. This format contains no photos.

Full Text - The Full Text version includes the citation and abstract, along with the complete text of the article. This format contains no photos.

Article Image - Article Image refers to a black and white scanned image of the article as it was originally printed, delivered in Portable Document Format (PDF).

If you still have questions after checking the frequently asked questions, please contact Customer Service.

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