Browse Items (116 total)

Just as before the war, sermons were still an important means of reflecting on and spreading news. This sermon, preached by Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) at Northampton, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1781, puts news of the British surrender at Yorktown…

This broadside announcing the Treaty of Paris was published by Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) in Worcester, Massachusetts. The subtitle—”Sure and Certain”—immediately tries to dispel any worries about the treaty being a rumor. But…

As with many other reform movements of the day, abolitionists used all available forms of mass communication to disseminate their message, including almanacs. Antebellum reform organizations published almanacs that included—among their charts…

As with many other reform movements of the day, temperance activists made use of a variety of print media to further their cause, including the long-popular genre of almanacs. It became common for antebellum reform organizations to publish almanacs…

The Cherokee Phoenix was the first newspaper published by Native Americans. In 1825 the Cherokee Council pledged $1,500 for the purchase of a printing press and type; the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions also pledged assistance.…

This paper is an example of a presidential campaign newspaper, a form that became very popular during the 1840s and 1850s. This one supports the election of William Henry Harrison (1773-1841). The hotly contested presidential election of 1840…

As the number of newspapers grew throughout the United States, so did the frequency of publication. The first daily newspaper in America appeared in Philadelphia in 1783, and by 1800 Philadelphia had six dailies, New York had five, Baltimore three,…

As the country grew in the antebellum years, so did the diversity of its population. This diversity, which included linguistic, religious, and ethnic differences, was reflected in the types of newspapers that appeared. This paper, The Truth Teller,…

This is the first volume of the Horseneck Truth-Teller, and Gossip’s Journal, an example of a popular genre of newspaper new in the antebellum era: the gossip and moral-exposure paper. The publisher was given as Diedrich van Tod, but it was…

Newspapers in foreign languages catering to the growing immigrant populations popped up throughout the antebellum era. They appeared in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Welsh, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Hawaiian. Chinese…