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Early American Newspapers

Harry Houdini is internationally famous as the world’s foremost magician and escapologist. For 35 years, from 1891 until his sudden death on October 31, 1926, at the age of 52, Houdini amazed...

Before Napoleon averred that “An army marches on its stomach,” General George Washington was applying that maxim in the field against the British. And to ensure that the Continental Army was well...

IN THIS ISSUE: Myth and fact mingle in early depictions of the Muslim world; history redeems a Justice of the Antebellum Supreme Court; and stitching together facts to visualize Colonial clothing. The...

On Nov. 7, 1916, the U.S. Congress—and the entire nation—forever changed when Montana’s Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress, winning a seat in the House of Representatives...

Teresa Van Hoy is Associate Professor of History at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Originally from North Carolina, Prof. Van Hoy moved to Texas to research the intersecting histories of...

The Boston News-Letter was the first continuously published newspaper in the British Colonies of North America, surviving for 72 years. It appeared 13 years after the one and only issue of America’s...

From 230 years ago, as reprinted in the New-York Gazetteer or Northern Intelligencer on the first of September 1783: Click to open full article n PDF. "The four Winds (the Initials of which make the...

This year's U.S. Open marked the 100th anniversary of one of golf’s most memorable moments: the incredible performance of a 20-year-old amateur in the same event in 1913. Francis Ouimet’s win—the most...

Before Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel appeared in book form in March 1852, it was published as a serial in The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper printed weekly in the nation’s...

By Edward M. Griffin, Distinguished Graduate Professor of English, University of Minnesota A few years ago, a graduate student told me, "I'm changing fields. I'm switching to the wacky world of Early...

Walt Whitman's poem "America" was first published in The New York Herald on February 11, 1888. This short but significant work appeared on page four in the middle of a column-long article headlined...

Henry Brown was born into slavery, circa 1815, 45 miles outside of Richmond, Virginia. As a young man, he was taken to work in the Richmond tobacco factory of his owner, William Barret. Well-regarded...

“Report of a committee of the Linnæan Society of New England relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August, 1817.” From Early American...

Isadora Duncan was dance-struck as a young child in San Francisco. By the time she was six, she was teaching neighborhood children how to move like ocean waves. The strict rules of ballet and...

What activities might make up the archetypal life of a 19th-century American man? Items on such a checklist could include: Samuel Clemens checked off many of these items: He was a sailor, if on the...

Thousands of ships over centuries have lined the ocean floor, but even 100 years after it sank, the Titanic still fascinates. James Cameron’s 1997 critically acclaimed "Titanic"—the second bestselling...

Dr. James McCune Smith. Source: New-York Historical Society In 2010 descendents of Dr. James McCune Smith, a prominent abolitionist leader and prolific author, discovered and dedicated his unmarked...

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth. America’s Historical Newspapers contains hundreds of contemporaneous articles about this genius of English literature, as well as...

From Early American Newspapers, Series 9 This spring Readex will begin releasing two new series in its acclaimed Early American Newspapers collection. Early American Newspapers, Series 8 and Series 9...

Joshua C. Kendall The Connecticut Webster on Slavery By Joshua Kendall, author of The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture The pure-bred New...

Downton Abbey, a PBS drama about the English aristocracy and their servants during the Edwardian era, has become a cult hit in the United States. A great deal of its appeal is nostalgia for an elegant...

Guest blogger: Ja-ne de Abreu, an award-winning writer in the media production industry currently embarking on her first novel The Louisiana Historical Newspaper Archivehas proven to be an invaluable...

Carla Mulford, Dept. of English, Penn State University In December 2008 an essay about one of Benjamin Franklin’s cleverest hoaxes was published in The Proceedings of the American Philosophical...

Chocolate: A Readex Sampler By Louis E. Grivetti, Professor of Nutrition, Emeritus, University of California, Davis International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) 2010 Award Finalist in...