Early American Newspapers: Series 3, 1783-1922

Featuring more than 120 significant newspapers from all regions of the United States, Early American Newspapers, Series 3 offers extensive coverage of the 19th and early 20th centuries through a wide range of small-town weeklies, big-city dailies and titles of special historical importance. Notable titles include:

Charleston Mercury (South Carolina) 

• A strong supporter of the Confederacy and of slavery, the Mercury collapsed not long after the defeat of the South. The Mercury is covered here in the final years before the Civil War broke out.
• Includes 1,208 issues published between 1854 and 1859

Chattanooga Daily Rebel 

• The impassioned and highly mobile voice of the Confederacy, the Daily Rebel was published in three states, five towns and on a railroad boxcar traveling with Confederate soldiers. 
• Includes 200 issues published between 1862 and 1863

Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago, Illinois)

• One of the most successful and influential papers in Illinois during the 1874 to 1894 period covered here. Leveraging the newly built transcontinental railroad, the Inter-Ocean also developed a readership across the Midwest and West, and became known as one of the best newspapers in either region.
• Includes 2,984 issues published between 1874 and 1894

Eastern Argus (Portland, Maine)

• This long-running weekly argued for Maine’s independence from Massachusetts. 
• Includes 488 issues published between 1833 and 1880

Lucifer the Light-Bearer (Topeka, Kansas)

• Lucifer—the ancient name for the planet Venus—strove to “help woman break the chains that for ages have bound her to the rack of man-made law…” The controversial disquisitions on sexuality printed in this individualist-anarchist newspaper sent publisher Moses Harman to prison for more than six years. 
• Includes 67 issues published between 1891 and 1896.

New-Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth)

• The first newspaper in the state of New Hampshire, the Gazette is also one the nation’s oldest existing papers. 
• Includes 487 issues published between 1834 and 1851

Ohio Statesman (Columbus, Ohio)

• One of the most powerful political papers in the region: “In the Northwest, the Ohio Statesman was the great Democratic paper. For several years it was edited by Samuel Medary, a vigorous and belligerent writer, who became the boss of Ohio Democracy.” (Frank Luther Mott, in American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United Sates)
• Includes 1,402 issues published between 1837 and 1852

San Francisco Bulletin (California)

• James King founded the highly opinionated Bulletin in 1855 and quickly built it into the highest-circulation paper in San Francisco. In 1856, his criticism of a city official, James Casey, led Casey to shoot and kill him; Casey was then lynched by vigilantes. The Bulletin persevered, painting a vivid picture of the “Wild West.” 
• Includes 11,087 issues published between 1855 and 1891

Santa Fe Daily New Mexican (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

• The oldest daily in New Mexico, the New Mexican is covered here for the years 1888 to 1900 when Santa Fe was the most prominent city in the New Mexico Territory.
• Includes 3,787 issues published between 1888 and 1900

Savannah Republican (Georgia) 

• This prominent Southern paper was one of the few that managed to publish throughout the Civil War. One of its reporters, Peter Wellington Alexander, was one of the foremost Confederate war correspondents. He wrote front-line accounts of the battles of Manassas, Antietam, the Wilderness and Gettysburg. 
• Includes 922 issues published between 1849 and 1851

Sioux City Journal (Sioux City, Iowa)

• One of the most influential Republican papers in Iowa during the period covered here, 1872 to 1900. It was edited by George Perkins, who split his time between running the Journal and serving in the Iowa Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Includes 1,974 issues published between 1872 and 1900

Sun (Baltimore, Maryland)

• The history of the Sun is one of the longest and most distinguished in American journalism. Founded in 1837, it has long been considered the region’s newspaper of record. 
• Includes 19,680 issues published between 1837 and 1901

Trenton State Gazette (New Jersey)

• Arising as small Republican weekly and growing into a Whig daily, the State Gazette inaugurated the first telegraphic news service in New Jersey, enabling it to compete with the surrounding metropolitan papers. 
• Includes 10,354 issues published between 1847 and 1898

Vermont Gazette (Bennington)

• Publisher Anthony Haswell, who brought the first printing press to Vermont, was jailed for publishing articles in the Gazette that criticized the United States’ newly established government. 
• Includes 105 issues published between 1843 and 1844