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Distinctive sources mined

Gale’s 19th Century U.S.Newspapers has digitized contents from the microfilm holdings of the largest and some of the most impressive collections, including:

• Library of Congress
• Wisconsin Historical Society
• South Carolinian Library
• Scholarly Resources archives
• Historical Society of Pennsylvania
• Maryland State Archive
• Boston Public Library
• Case Western Reserve Historical Society
• And more

The archive features the spectrum of publications from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the 19th century to the mammoth dailies that shaped the nation at the century’s end. Every aspect of society and every region of the nation is found in the archive — rural and urban, large cities and small town, coast to coast and beyond. Major newspapers stand alongside those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women’s rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other select groups. Also included are illustrated papers that bring the 19th century to life through the drawings of many of its celebrated artists.

Newspapers such as:

• New York Herald (NY)
• Lynchburg Virginian (VA)
• Pacific Commercial Advertiser (HI)
• Rocky Mountain News (CO)
• Southern Illustrated News (VA)
• Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago)
• Milwaukee Sentinel (WI)
• Bee (OH)
• Mountaineer (SC)
• And more

A Sampling

Emporia Gazette, Emporia, Kansas, 1890-1919
Under the leadership of William Allen White, the Gazette became one of the most famous small town papers in America. White bought the tiny Emporia Gazette in 1895 for $3,000, all of which was borrowed. The paper prospered, in large part because the energetic White used the paper to boost the local economy. Beyond Emporia, White became a nationally known editorialist, a progressive crusader, and a spokesman for Middle America. The editorial that made White famous, “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” was published in 1896. In it, White vigorously attacked Kansas Populists, a position that brought him to the attention of many important Republicans. Another famous editorial, “Mary White,” celebrated the life of his sixteen-year-old daughter who was killed in an accident in 1921. White edited the Gazette for fifty years, becoming the most famous small town newspaper editor in American journalism history.

Portland Oregonian, 1850-53; 1861; 1862-64
The Oregonian, founded in 1850 by a printer named Thomas J. Dryer, was a weekly that became a daily in 1861 and went on to become the preeminent newspaper in the state’s largest city. Dryer hired a energetic young printer, Henry L. Pittock, to help run the paper in its early years, while Dryer devoted more of his time to politics. The Oregonian’s most famous editor was an opinioned and scholarly lawyer with a flair for editorial writing, Harvey W. Scott. Scott ran the paper for forty-five years beginning in 1865, building the Oregonian into one of the Northwest’s most important newspapers.

San Francisco Examiner, 1880-1900
The legendary press magnate William Randolph Hearst got his start in journalism at the San Francisco Examiner, a paper his father, a successful mine operator George Hearst, received to settle a debt in 1880. The younger Hearst took control of the paper in 1887, writing his father that he had developed “a strange fondness for our little paper.” He also accurately predicted his future in publishing: “I am convinced that I could run a newspaper successfully.” Hearst used his family wealth to improve the Examiner’s presses and double its pages. Hearst hired a staff of energetic journalists, including Sam S. Chamberlain as managing editor and such writers as Arthur McEwen, Ambrose Bierce, and “stunt girl” Annie Laurie, whose real name was Winifred Black. Hearst also launched a series of high profile editorial crusades and the Examiner soon called itself “The Monarch of the Dailies.” The circulation figures supported this claim, rising from 5,000 to more than 55,000 daily. Hearst went on to establish a national newspaper empire and become one of the most famous publishers in U.S. journalism history, known primarily as for sensationalism and “yellow journalism.”