1 10 116 https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/975317fff69c160aa75ba788487eccfd.jpg dbfacf55a325d9659b31ce90c046ae3c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Lithograph Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Fanoli, Michele, -1876, after Woodville, Richard Caton, 1825-1855 Title A name given to the resource Politics In an Oyster-House. Les Politiques au Cabaret. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1851 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image and text 47.5 x 35 cm., on sheet 53 x 45 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant New York, N.Y. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Goupil & Co. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=396371">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/396371">View larger images</a> Description An account of the resource This 1851 <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-and-the-civil-war/visual-culture-and-the-civil-w">lithograph</a>, after an 1848 painting by <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-antebellum-america/item/22">Richard Caton Woodville</a> (1825-55), encapsulates the central role the newspaper played in American politics. In the image, two men sit across the table from each other in an oyster house, an establishment used commonly as a meeting spot and watering hole. The younger man, dressed all in black and wearing his top hat indoors, is leaning across the table toward his middle-aged companion, arguing some political point. He tightly clutches a newspaper, suggesting that something he has read has instigated the argument. The older man looks out at the viewer, rather than at his young, fiery companion, with a slightly bemused look, perhaps implying that the situation is a familiar one and that he has heard—and probably disagreed with—all of the younger man’s points before. Though we have no way of knowing what the argument is about, the image captures a scenario typical at the time, in which a political argument, instigated or fueled by the latest news, takes place in a public meeting space. Woodville, the painter, belonged to a prominent Baltimore family but left the United States for Europe at the age of twenty. There he spent several years studying under Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-67) in Düsseldorf, Germany. Woodville was known for painting contemporary interior scenes with exquisite detail and color. Many of his paintings, including Politics in an Oyster House, were exhibited in the United States, often at the American Art-Union. The painting was commissioned by a prominent Baltimore citizen named John H. B. Latrobe (1803-91), and it hung in his private residence after its exhibition at the union. Latrobe also loaned it out for the first annual exhibition of paintings at the Maryland Historical Society, and Woodville made a copy that was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. The popularity of the painting led to its lithographic version, seen here, which was distributed by the New York branch of the famous French lithography company Goupil & Co.  Lithograph Richard Caton Woodville https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/f8f5aa47faa14b8c17c34d151519bdc6.JPG ef06c7ba91590ad89d993f4ea8992376 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Newspaper Title A name given to the resource Penfield Extra: Little Nellie's Little Paper Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 20, 1862 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 31 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Penfield, N.Y. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Nellie Williams Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=394124">AAS Catalog Record</a> (newspaper) <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=479456">AAS Catalog Record</a> (tintype of Nellie) Description An account of the resource With the ubiquity and voracious appetite for news throughout the country, it is no surprise that the publication of amateur newspapers became a popular hobby in the nineteenth century. Though the first amateur newspaper in the United States is believed to have been published in 1805, the pastime proliferated in the 1840s and 1850s and reached its heyday in the 1870s and 1880s following the invention of an inexpensive tabletop press in 1867. The Penfield Extra, subtitled “Little Nellie’s Little Paper,” was a weekly amateur newspaper published in Penfield, New York, between 1862 and 1866. Started by twelve-year-old Nellie Williams (1849-75), the paper boasted a circulation of more than three thousand copies at the height of its popularity. At a cost of two cents an issue and fifty cents for a yearly subscription, readers were treated to local news, a description of local weather, a robust advertising section, and puns and jokes. Nellie herself described the paper in its masthead as “Devoted to News and Literature and Neutral in Politics.” Born in 1849, by the age of eight Nellie was working with a press. She began by distributing type after her older brother had finished printing a job on a press their father had won in a card game. When the Civil War broke out, Nellie’s brother enlisted, leaving her in charge of the press. Her first issue of the Penfield Extra was published in December 1861 and she described herself to her audience as “A little Lass not yet in her teens who is the sole Editress, and Compositor, and probably the youngest Publisher, and Editress in the world. The reader will of course over-look a little bad spelling and typo-graphical errors.” After the first year, the circulation of her paper increased tenfold, and the next year she doubled readership, in the process becoming something of a local celebrity. Though most amateur newspapers were published for the enjoyment of its editor, publisher, and readers, Nellie also sought to make a profit. With her mother dead, a brother off to fight in the Civil War, and a sickly father, Nellie wanted her newspaper to be successful. An aggressive advertiser, Nellie campaigned locals to publicize their business in her paper: “You might ‘bout as well go a fishing without any bait, as to undertake to do a large paying business…without advertising in a local newspaper.” Taking advantage of the relatively new and cheap availability of photography, she included in her promotional package a nickel-sized <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/items/show/43">tintype portrait of herself</a>, attached to her business card. Though Nellie mostly focused on local news, weather, jokes, and ads (the latter usually filling two to three pages), rather than the Civil War that was in many ways the impetus for her undertaking, her paper and her story clearly struck a chord with a war-weary public. Advertising, humor, connection to the community, and the success of a young girl editress provided hope and an underlying current of morale in difficult times. And Nellie did not ignore the war entirely; in this issue, she mentions the death of a former resident due to war wounds and includes a joke featuring a rebel sympathizer living in the county. In 1866 Nellie closed her paper, citing that the price of newsprint was too costly. At age nineteen, she married Henry Braden, giving birth to two children before her death of consumption at age twenty-five. Click the image below to browse the full issue. <iframe src="https://fliphtml5.com/embed/dist/html/embed-cover.html#!/?w=0&bc=#000&p=1&l=http://online.fliphtml5.com/xohe/ecel/&t=http://online.fliphtml5.com/xohe/ecel/files/shot.jpg" frameborder="0" width="284" height="350"></iframe> Newspaper Photography https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/40d19257ef54c3adeaad346b79d5b6a9.jpg 9af1d4454827bbfafa4546570d8964ff Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Broadside Title A name given to the resource A Circumstantial Account Of an Attack that happened on the 19th of April 1775, on his Majesty's Troops Alternative Title An alternative name for the resource. The distinction between titles and alternative titles is application-specific. A Circumstantial Account Of an Attack that happened on the 19th of April 1775, on his Majesty's Troops, By a Number of the People of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1775 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 36 x 22 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Boston, Mass. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available John Howe Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=315888">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/transcription-circumstantial-account">Transcription</a> Description An account of the resource The British version of the events leading to and including the Battles of Lexington and Concord is presented in this broadside. The calm tone of the language and the lack of any graphic images is an intentional attempt to downplay the significance of the “unfortunate affair,” while it clearly blames “a few people” for instigating the violence. This broadside also accuses the Americans of scalping and mangling one British soldier while he was still alive. This broadside was printed in Boston in 1775 by John Howe (1754-1835) who, along with Margaret Draper (1727- ca.1804), published the <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/items/show/60">Massachusetts Gazette; and the Boston Post-Boy and Advertiser</a>. This paper frequently received commissions from the royal government for printing and was clearly sympathetic to the Crown and its officials in the colony. A transcription of the broadside can be found <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/transcription-circumstantial-account">here</a>. Battles of Lexington and Concord Broadside https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/7d07fba1045dc09ddab98ffb70aa8a37.JPG 9a1b92846484c3e7cc64fe3c1c5152ab Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Newspaper Title A name given to the resource The Liberator Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 10, 1838 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 39-64 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Boston, Mass. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=3662">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="http://www.theliberatorfiles.com/">Full issues can be found at The Liberator Files</a> Description An account of the resource An important category of newspapers in antebellum America was the organizational paper. Every religious or reform movement seemed to have its national and state associations and every association its newspaper. That certainly was true of the abolition movement. The major national association, the American Anti-Slavery Society, depended heavily on organizational newspapers and periodicals. William Lloyd Garrison’s (1805-79) famous antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, was different. Garrison was often a prominent figure in antislavery and reform societies, but The Liberator was always entirely his own—and that’s what makes it an especially interesting form of journalism. Garrison believed that the role of a newspaper was two-fold: strident agitation and free discussion. He insisted on declaring, in his own sure voice, the truth as he understood it. “My confidence in the unconquerable energy of Truth is absolute,” he wrote. Yet he also made The Liberator an open forum for other voices, including those hostile to his own views. Thus, the paper was always filled with letters, speeches, statements, and rebuttals from all points of view. As Garrison grew to condemn all government as inherently coercive, he idealized journalism as a kind of democracy without coercion. And he believed that “slavery and freedom of the press cannot exist together.” This issue of The Liberator offers a glimpse of the roles of journalism that Garrison championed: agitation and discussion. The nameplate banner was always one of the paper’s most provocative forms of agitation. It shows, graphically, two of the worst cruelties of slavery: brutal whippings of slaves and the sale of young children away from their parents. And both of those cruelties are shown happening in the nation’s capital. The stories on the front page include a speech by John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) on Texas and Mexico as well as a clever editing exercise in which Garrison turns a sermon on dueling by Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) into a sermon on slavery. Newspaper Slavery William Lloyd Garrison https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/70eed116346fc92ff38d60bd3fe6af79.JPG 78b07f671b597bd134478d01f9955ddd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Newspaper Title A name given to the resource Cincinnati Post and Anti-Abolitionist Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 7, 1842 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 36 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cincinnati, Ohio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available L. Greely Curtiss Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=5334">AAS Catalog Record</a> Description An account of the resource Cincinnati had a powerful pro-slavery faction that published the Cincinnati Post and Anti-Abolitionist, edited by L. Greely Curtiss, from 1841 to 1842. By 1842 the paper boasted that it had the largest circulation of any newspaper in the West. Counted among its subscribers was the Honorable N. C. Read, a member of the Ohio Supreme Court. The newspaper also frequently printed the names of abolitionists in an effort to publicly censure them. According to another sympathetic newspaper from Mississippi, the Guard, the Post was “designed as a check upon the mad proceedings of the abolitionists of the west, and a defense to Southern rights and interests.” Cincinnati was often at the center of struggles for racial equality in the nineteenth century. Situated just across the Ohio River from the slave-holding state of Kentucky, the city was the scene of three major race riots in 1829, 1834, and 1841. It was also the home of prominent abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96) of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame, who came to Ohio with her father, Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), when he became the first president of the city’s Lane Theological Seminary in 1832. In 1834 Lane was the scene of prominent “debates” on slavery that profoundly impacted the nation’s thinking about the issue.  Click the image below to browse the full issue. <iframe src="https://fliphtml5.com/embed/dist/html/embed-cover.html#!/?w=0&bc=#000&p=1&l=http://online.fliphtml5.com/xohe/ayzh/&t=http://online.fliphtml5.com/xohe/ayzh/files/shot.jpg" frameborder="0" width="280" height="350"></iframe> Newspaper Slavery https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/c102fa21659197d1613478437b30bb8a.jpg 1533de16fb4a553f8c469f5f5bb2c294 https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/2475a932db1d5228decd64f3b1808b74.jpg a963eb8b91a712afa02d775866974023 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Newspaper Title A name given to the resource "Worcester, May 3. Americans! forever bear in mind the Battle of Lexington!" Alternative Title An alternative name for the resource. The distinction between titles and alternative titles is application-specific. The Massachusetts Spy, or, American Oracle of Liberty Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 3, 1775 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 44 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Worcester, Mass. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Isaiah Thomas Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=152">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/152_">View more issues</a> Description An account of the resource While most colonial newspapers had circulations of between 300 and 600, the Massachusetts Spy had a circulation of 3,500 from subscribers throughout the thirteen colonies, making it the most popular American newspaper at the time. Designed specifically for the middle class, the paper was founded in Boston in 1770 by <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/items/browse?tag=Isaiah+Thomas">Isaiah Thomas</a> (1749-1831) and his former master, Zechariah Fowle (1724-76). Later, Thomas would buy Fowle out and publish the Spy on his own. While Thomas initially tried to make the Spy politically impartial, he soon found it impossible to do so in Boston, the epicenter of the growing imperial crisis. Thomas’s strident Whig position is evident in his writing and in his text above the masthead: “Americans!---Liberty or Death!---Join or Die!”  Thomas’s views frequently got him in trouble with the royal authorities, and under the advisement of John Hancock (1737-93) and with the assistance of Timothy Bigelow (1739-90) and Joseph Warren (1741-75), Thomas smuggled his press out of Boston during the night of April 16, 1775. He removed it to the inland Whig stronghold of Worcester, where he set it up in Bigelow’s basement. When paper finally arrived in early May, he was able to publish this issue of the Spy, the first thing ever printed in Worcester. As was customary with colonial newspapers, the breaking news appeared on the inside of the publication, and thus on page 3 in column 1 is Thomas’s account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Far from objective, Thomas’s partisanship shines through. He ends the introductory paragraph by claiming that the British troops had “wantonly, and in a most inhuman manner fired upon and killed a number of our countrymen, then robbed them of their provisions, ransacked, plundered and burnt their houses! nor could the tears of defenseless women, some of whom were in the pains of childbirth, the cries of helpless, babes, nor the prayers of old age, confined to beds of sickness, appease their thirst for blood!—or divert them from their DESIGN of MURDER and ROBBERY!” Battles of Lexington and Concord Isaiah Thomas John Hancock Newspaper Timothy Bigelow https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/61e94f76ecbaeb7d22e6d088b6badd18.jpg d1ddd651b93823d494971b14adf45efa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Broadside Title A name given to the resource Bloody Butchery, by the British Troops: or, The Runaway Fight of the Regulars. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1775 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 51 x 39 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Salem, Mass. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available E. Russell Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=314857">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/314857">View larger image</a> <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/transcription-of-a-bloody-butchery">Transcription</a> Description An account of the resource The American account of the events at Lexington and Concord is recounted in this dramatic broadside. Note the heavy black borders and the coffins that adorn the top of the broadside. Both the graphics and the inflammatory prose are designed to incite outrage in the reader and to inspire sympathy with the American cause of the rebellion.  The text of the broadside depicts the British troops as attacking the Americans or “provincials” with a “savage barbarity” that included “shooting down the unarmed, aged, and infirm, they disregarded the cries of the wounded, killing them without mercy, and mangling their bodies.” This broadside also exonerates the Americans, claiming that “not one instance of cruelty that we have heard of was committed by our victorious militia.” Rather, the Americans “listen[ed] to the merciful dictates of the Christian religion. They breathed a higher sentiment of humanity.”  This broadside was printed in Salem, Massachusetts, by Ezekiel Russell (d. 1796), a Boston printer who had moved to Salem in 1774 and established the Salem Gazette. <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/items/browse?tag=Isaiah+Thomas">Isaiah Thomas</a>, in his 1810 book, The History of Printing in America, wrote, “A young woman who lived in Russell’s family sometimes invoked the muse, and wrote ballads on recent tragical events, which being immediately printed, and set off with wooden cuts of coffins, etc., had frequently ‘a considerable run.’” It is unknown if this woman authored the elegy that appears at the bottom of this broadside, but it seems quite possible. A transcription of the broadside can be found <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/transcription-of-a-bloody-butchery">here</a>. Battles of Lexington and Concord Broadside Isaiah Thomas https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/3dac892bce10fd678b87f05130912895.jpg 4e36754e7863550e4850c1ad8cee5224 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Engraving Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jones, Alfred, 1819-1900, after Woodville, Richard Caton, 1825-1855 Title A name given to the resource Mexican News Alternative Title An alternative name for the resource. The distinction between titles and alternative titles is application-specific. Mexican News. Engraved from the Original Picture. American Art-Union 1851. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1853 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image and text 59 x 47 cm., on sheet 79 x 66 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant New York, N.Y. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available J. Dalton Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=443752">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/443752">View larger image</a> Description An account of the resource This 1853 engraving by Alfred Jones (1819-1900), called Mexican News, is based on a popular 1848 painting by <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-antebellum-america/item/10">Richard Caton Woodville</a> (1825-55) titled War News from Mexico. The image places the newspaper at center stage and illustrates how ingrained it had become in American society and politics during the antebellum years. In the image, eleven individuals gather around the porch of the fictitious American Hotel, where a man stands reading a newspaper bearing the headline “EXTRA.” The listeners react in various ways to the latest news from the Mexican-American War (1846-48). Their faces show emotions ranging from astonishment to elation to concern. Outside of the protective covering of the porch, seated on the step, is an African American man with a child in front of him, and in the window of the hotel there is a woman leaning out, straining to hear. These three listeners are physically and metaphorically outside of the conversation, separated by their race and gender from political participation, but will nonetheless be affected by the outcome of the war in Mexico. They, too, are eager for news. Woodville, the original painter, belonged to a prominent Baltimore family but left the United States for Europe at the age of twenty. There he spent several years studying under Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-67) in Düsseldorf, Germany. Woodville was known for painting contemporary interior scenes with exquisite detail and color. Many of his paintings, including War News from Mexico, were exhibited in the United States, often at the American Art-Union. The engraver, Alfred Jones, was born in Liverpool in 1819 and eventually traveled to America with his family. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York, and in 1839 took an apprenticeship with a banknote engraver. He returned to Europe in 1840, where he studied under London’s master engravers. After returning to America, he became one of the premier engravers in the country, eventually establishing a career in postage stamp engraving. He also engraved a number of images for the American Art-Union, including this one, which was originally engraved and sold by subscription to the union’s members in 1851.  Engraving Richard Caton Woodville https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/602c4ed2a7884201e6046d97631c5855.JPG c3a85f9a13b229801287ee5dd16ea2d2 https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/b1cce9e4a39e9970826b7cf7f4491335.JPG aae9e8763941d583aa01a8b9b20564f8 https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/51663c4f825b40a03af9d40413e41ed1.JPG 361ce4afc397ec3f2268a9ec459784b3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Manuscript Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Prince, Thomas, 1687-1758 Title A name given to the resource Thomas Prince Diary Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1737 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=272011">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/PDFs/Prince%20diary%20-%20Colonial%20Society%20of%20MA.pdf">Transcription of Thomas Prince's 1737 diary (Courtesy of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts)</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/272011">View more pages from the Prince Family Papers</a> Description An account of the resource <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/items/browse?tag=Thomas+Prince">Thomas Prince</a> (1687-1758), born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, was a leading public figure in Boston as senior minister of Old South Church from 1718 until his death. During that forty-year career, Prince was an avid news consumer as well as an important news maker. His surviving diary from the year 1737 illustrates how a prominent person of that era tracked local public news events and blended them together with family and professional activities. The news that Prince recorded included local deaths, fires, accidents, strange weather events, and other public occurrences. Many of the events that Prince wrote into his diary also appeared as news items in one or more of the five local weekly newspapers of Boston. Occasionally, Prince cross-referenced his diary entries with newspaper stories. The diary also illustrates a common diary format of that era: Prince wrote his diary on blank pages interleaved into a 1737 Nathaniel Ames Almanack, a popular New England almanac. In this way, the quotidian rhythms of the natural and political worlds printed in the almanac were intertwined with the rhythms of the diarist’s daily life. For example, in his entries for March 1737 Prince writes about sermons, meetings, and dinners with local ministers and political friends. He notes when his son Tommy comes home from Harvard for a family visit. But he also records public news, including a <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/106">fire in cabinetmaker John Brocas’s workshop</a> in the heart of the city, the death and funeral of Harvard President Benjamin Wadsworth (1670-1737), and the collapse of a church gallery in Northampton—events that also appeared in the Boston newspapers. In the typical laconic style of his diary entries, he also recorded the biggest news of the year in Boston: the <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/105">destruction by an angry mob of the town central market sheds</a>.  A published transcription of Prince's 1737 diary is available <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/PDFs/Prince%20diary%20-%20Colonial%20Society%20of%20MA.pdf">here</a>, courtesy of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Boston 1737 Market Riot Diary John Brocas Woodworking Shop Fire Manuscript Thomas Prince https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/926a98772cc9414886d41e9408a85b7a.jpg da0a2d544b2eae361092c66991c1f26a https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/9efbc4355d97880cfe98b40fcc7cf1c0.jpg 93e63776b7dac3ac88bb0970fece2f0c https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/files/original/13e828cbea9aff92a2b503b93b502a43.jpg 9d755da22c1b432323fcb82afba33196 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Type The nature or genre of the resource Book Title A name given to the resource A Narrative, of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's Troops Alternative Title An alternative name for the resource. The distinction between titles and alternative titles is application-specific. A Narrative, of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's Troops Under the Command of General Gage, On the nineteenth of April, 1775. Together with the Depositions Taken by Order of Congress, To support the Truth of it. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1775 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 19 cm. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Worcester, Mass. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Isaiah Thomas, by order of the Provincial Congress. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=324046">AAS Catalog Record</a> <a href="https://gigi.mwa.org/imagearchive/filename/324046">View more pages</a> Description An account of the resource This book, commissioned by the new Provincial Congress, was one of the first items printed in Worcester, Massachusetts, after printer <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/age-of-revolution/item/19">Isaiah Thomas’s arrival in April 1775</a>. As the title explains, it is A Narrative, of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops Under the Command of General Gage, on the Nineteenth of April, 1775.It includes “Depositions Taken by Order of Congress, To Support the truth of it,” as well as a list of casualties. This publication was the new Provincial Congress’s method of showing an official inquiry into what had occurred on the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. There were many <a href="https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/age-of-revolution/item/37">depositions taken</a>, all under oath, even one from a soldier “of His Majesty’s own regiment of foot” who declared that “we drew up on the Concord side of the bridge, the provincials came down upon us, upon which we engaged and gave the first fire.” This particular statement from one of King George’s own troops, along with statements from others who had seen the events of the day, were intended to prove that the British had instigated the conflict. This Narrative was commissioned by the Provincial Congress on May 22, 1775, and Thomas had it ready for distribution in July. Copies were sent to King George III, the provincial governors, and other influential personages who may have been swayed by its “official” information. This was the only official printing Thomas completed for the new congress. Battles of Lexington and Concord Book Isaiah Thomas