“In digitizing the Evening Star, the leading daily newspaper of Washington, D.C. for more than a century, Readex has established a bright and promising new horizon for anyone looking back at the well-known—and the long-forgotten—people, places, and events that have defined the nation’s capital city.
“No other source compares to the Washington Evening Star for exploring the 19th and 20th-century history of the District and surrounding areas. Star reporters rode the early- and late-morning street cars, investigated all manner of vice, crime, and murder, and kept tabs on local and national political figures, socialites, and business people. From every area of the city—from Georgetown to Capitol Hill to Anacostia—the Star offered the people’s news of the day with unrivaled fact, clarity, wit, and tenacity. Decade after decade it led its contemporaries in circulation for a reason. What an amazing online resource this is for D.C. researchers at all levels.”
—John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C: The Lion of Anacostia (The History Press, 2012)
“…the Washington Star…was indeed the premier paper in the nation’s capital for many years; not until the 1960s or even early 1970s did the Washington Post‘overtake’ it. It was home to many great reporters and columnists and delivered reporting on national affairs and politics that was at times as influential as that of the New York Times. Even in its last years it was an important and serious paper where future journalism stars such as Howie Kurtz, Fred Barnes, and Maureen Dowd cut their teeth. It occupies an important place in not only the history of American journalism but in the history of America.”
—David Greenberg, Professor of History, Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University and author of Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image (American Journalism Historians Association Book Award, 2003)
“…until the 1950s the Star was the most thorough paper in Washington. It had the largest reporting staff in the city for many years, and being an afternoon paper it reported the day’s news more promptly, which accounted for its large readership. The paper was too late in its efforts to transform itself into a morning paper, and went out of existence in 1981. But for the years between 1851 and 1981 it is a treasure trove of inside politics and government reporting. We have especially found the Sunday editions rich with lengthy profiles on various government offices and individuals…”
—Donald A. Ritchie, author of Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps
"But aside from locating hidden information, providing color, and giving us access to complete AP reports, the digitization of newspapers is also altering our interpretation of the past in other consequential ways. Researchers frequently make the anachronistic mistake of presuming that today’s dominant newspaper was the dominant one of the past. Yet this is often not the case. The New York Times had a smaller staff and covered less news than its rivals a century ago. And the Washington Post, famous for bringing down a President in the 1970s, played second fiddle to the Washington Star prior to the 1960s."
– James McGrath Morris, author of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power