In January 1783, as the birth of America brought the decline of the city's lucrative tobacco trade and an end to its first phase of imperial expansion, the first issue of a newspaper called The Glasgow Advertiser was published. In the 225 years since, The Herald, as it became known, has reflected and recorded the growth of its home town from being little more than a village to a world-class tourism, technology, sporting and financial services centre. A new exhibition, which opens in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow next week, tells the story of how The Herald grew up with Glasgow, through historic front pages and stunning photographs from the newspaper's picture archive.

The Herald has reported on the peace talks that founded an independent America, the city's astonishing growth during the Victorian era, how it presented itself to the world through the great international exhibitions, Glasgow's experiences of two world wars, and the growth, decline and resurgence of its economy. Throughout, it has placed Glasgow in the context of Scotland, the United Kingdom, Europe and the world. The newspaper has always been Glasgow's Herald, but it has never been merely a local paper: it has always looked outward, telling Glasgow's story in world terms, and the world's stories in Glasgow's.

When John Mennons - writer, editor, printer and publisher of The Glasgow Advertiser - sold the few hundred copies of his first issue around the coffee houses of Glasgow in 1783, he was already dealing with international businessmen, the tobacco lords and the other members of the Merchants' House who traded with the Americas and Caribbean, who owned plantations and mansions across the Atlantic and whose fortunes would provide the basis for Glasgow's early and hugely successful participation in the Industrial Revolution. The American colonies were lost, but the city continued to trade across the Atlantic, and soon added businesses in Africa, Australia and the Far East, as the British Empire slowly crept across the world map.

That first issue of The Herald, the starting point of the exhibition, clearly showed the international interests of the Glasgow business community. On the front page alone there was intelligence from London, Dresden, Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica, New York, Gibraltar and Madrid, and reports of ships belonging to the East India Company sailing for Africa and the South Sea (the South China Sea). In addition, a disapproving account of the princes and princesses of Europe changing their religion "as if it were part of their dress" when marrying for family or national advantage was enlivened by the news that the Sultan of the Ottomans (Turkey) and the Sophia of Persia (Iran) had sent ambassadors to south Germany to ask for the hands in marriage of two princesses of the House of Wurttemberg.

By the time of the second front page in the exhibition, from the first issue of 1800, advertising had begun to dominate the cover of The Herald. There was still an international aspect, however, with a lengthy public notice seeking 70 men or their relatives who were killed or wounded at the Battle of Camperdown in October 1797. The notice had been placed by the committee set up to raise money "for the relief of the sufferers" of the naval action. The home ports of all 70 were not listed, but among those that were was that of D Sammond, an able seaman from Mull, and perhaps an ancestor of the current First Minister.

These early front pages are of huge historical importance, for they bring to life the people and events of the day in a way that the official reports of the time seldom do, by highlighting the individuals caught up in the great victories and defeats of war, the fortunes made and lost in international trade, and the changing circumstances of members of the royal and other families as times changed around them.

The twentieth century arrives with the third front page. By Monday January 1, 1900, the newspaper's title had become The Glasgow Herald, advertising had taken over the entire front page and our modern world was much more in evidence. That day, according to the front page, readers could watch Queen's Park play football against Corinthians at Hampden Park ("admission 6d, ladies free"); inspect the crematorium in Maryhill; have their fortune told by Mrs Kelly ("Royal Manx Gyspsy"); or apply for a variety of jobs in mining, baking, printing, commercial travelling or even the ministry. People wanting to improve their chances of employment were invited to enrol with the Rodmure School of dressmaking in Sauchiehall Street, or Skerry's Preparatory College in Buchanan Street. Some of the job descriptions, however, are obviously of their time, and readers will scour The Herald's current appointments section in vain for openings for a "boy (stout)", a flesher "young man to kill and go with van", a "lad (strong)", "salesmen (two head)", or a "house maid (single handed)".

By 1900, too, the newspaper had moved with the times and was housed in some splendour at 65 Buchanan Street. The Herald had moved to these prominent premises in what was then the commercial and retail heart of the city in 1868, after a century in various offices and printworks around Glasgow Cross. The paper soon outgrew these premises, and architects Honeyman and Keppie were engaged to provide expanded accommodation at their rear, in Mitchell Lane and Mitchell Street. Charles Rennie Mackintosh may have been only at the start of his career in 1895, but he provided a stylish solution to a complex problem, and the building is now, fittingly, home to The Lighthouse, Scotland's centre for architecture and design.

The sombre history of life in Scotland through two world wars, as well as the changing fortunes of the Allied forces, was fully recorded by The Herald. From the First World War, the exhibition highlights the wounded in Springburn Hospital, which had been adapted from the offices of the North British Locomotive Company. During the Second World War, the Clydebank Blitz in March 1941 may have been reduced by the official censor to a "long, fierce attack on Clydeside town", but the powerful picture of a family calmly making their way along a devastated Radnor Street towards Kilbowie Road clearly shows the dignity and determination in the face of Total War.

The post-war world really began with the 1960s, which were bracketed by the assassination of President Robert F Kennedy in November 1963 and the first manned moon landing in July 1969. The front page recording the second event was almost overshadowed by a report headed "600 Glasgow arrests in first three days of Fair", prompting the thought that Nasa specifically chose the Glasgow Fair Weekend for the lunar landing, perhaps because the sky over the west of Scotland would be clear of smoke.

The explosion of popular music in the 1960s is also reflected in The Herald anniversary exhibition, through evocative photographs of Elvis Presley being greeted by fans at Prestwick Airport, during his only visit to the United Kingdom, in March 1960, and Ringo Starr and John Lennon meeting the Scottish press after The Beatles' sell-out gig in the Odeon Cinema in Renfield Street, Glasgow, in December 1965.

The 1970s and 1980s brought a variety of tragedies to Scotland, as witnessed in Herald front pages: the Ibrox disaster, the Clarkston Toll gas explosion in 1971, the Kilbirnie Street fire in 1972, and the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. Those decades also delivered two of the most significant events in the regeneration of the economy of Glasgow and the west of Scotland: the opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983 by the Queen, and of the Glasgow Garden Festival five years later by her eldest son and his first wife.

The failed Scottish referendum of 1979, while it may be classed as a tragedy for devolution, was also a stepping stone towards a more modern Scotland, in that it provided many useful lessons for those campaigning for a yes-yes vote for a devolved administration with tax-varying powers in 1997. The 1980s also saw The Herald move from Mitchell Street to Albion Street, back towards its roots near the Cross but forward into a world of new printing technology, abandoning the near-medieval hot-metal process for up-to-date photo-litho systems.

The highlights of Scotland at the millennium, as seen in The Herald front pages, included the successful outcome of the yes-yes campaign in 1997, the subsequent opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and the Millennium Link project, which restored and revived the canals of central Scotland. As the country moved into the twenty-first century, The Herald also changed with the times, establishing a new headquarters at the head of Renfield Street and moving its printing operations to Cambuslang, well away from the grid-locked city centre. The newspaper also developed both its digital edition and its website, both giving the global reach that enables The Herald to provide news, sport and features to its readers both nationally and internationally.

The events of the millennium years, and many others reported in the paper and electronic pages of The Herald, reflected a confident, successful country that is ready and willing to tackle the challenges of momentous times, just as the first issue of The Glasgow Advertiser did 225 years ago.

The Herald - 225 Years, 1783-2008: A celebration of Scotland's leading quality daily newspaper opens in the main hall of the Mitchell library on Wednesday August 6 and runs until the end of September.