One of the lesser-known escapades from American history was the “Peoria Party,” a group of 16 armed adventurers who set out for the Oregon Country in 1839 intending to organize the American settlers there and drive out the British. The going was rough, the members of the party almost starved, and they fell to squabbling among themselves. Though the expedition fell apart, nine of its members did eventually make it to Oregon in small groups. read more...
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The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison’s powerful anti-slavery newspaper, was highly critical of the South’s position on slavery and the U.S. Constitution. On the day that the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War, the Liberator published this article in its April 12, 1861, issue: read more...
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Thomas Jefferson Farnham, an adventurer who helped blaze the Oregon Trail, recorded in his 1839 diary the tragic story of a mountain man who fatally shot his Indian love after discovering her betrayal. The editor of the Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), which printed excerpts from Farnham’s diary in its May 18, 1919, issue, prefaced Farnham’s description of the deadly love triangle with this remark: “In connection with the account of his visit to Fort Hall, Mr. read more...
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NewsInHistory.com is continually adding more content to our historical newspaper archive -- titles new to our collection as well as expanding the date ranges for titles we have already digitized. This current addition involves 29 newspapers from 15 states and the District of Columbia; 9 of these titles are new to our archive. A total of 8,305 issues have been added in this release. Here are the details:
Connecticut read more...
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The opening battle of the Civil War, the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor on April 12, 1861, was a fierce artillery bombardment that lasted a day and a half. Despite the intensity of the fighting, however, the Confederate forces stopped their shelling when the fort’s flagstaff and American flag were destroyed, as reported in the April 14, 1861, issue of the New York Herald (New York, New York): read more...
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By 1843 the Oregon Trail was developed enough that wagons could travel its entire 2,000-mile length, from Missouri to the Oregon Country, and America’s westward expansion began in earnest. Around 900 settlers reached the Oregon territory via the Oregon Trail in 1843, and many more followed in the years to come, tipping the balance of power in the region from Great Britain to the United States. read more...
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On Aug. 19, 1862, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley wrote a letter lecturing Abraham Lincoln that he should free the South’s slaves. The president was quick to reply. Just three days after receiving Greeley’s letter, Lincoln wrote a clear, firm response stating emphatically to Greeley that he was waging the Civil War to preserve the Union, not end slavery. Though Lincoln stipulated that he personally wished all men could be free, slavery was not his wartime priority. read more...
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During the summer of 1862, with the Civil War raging and things not going well for the Union, President Lincoln wrestled with the thought of weakening the Confederacy by freeing the South’s slaves. It was a momentous step, one he was hesitant to take. His goal in waging the war was preserving the Union, not ending slavery. read more...
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NewsInHistory.com will be continuously adding more content to its historical newspaper archive, both new titles as well as expanding the date ranges for titles we have already digitized. This current addition involves 23 newspapers from 15 states and the District of Columbia; 10 of these titles are new to our collection. A total of 11,750 issues have been added in this release. Here are the details:
California
California Gazette (Benecia). 1 issue: 1851 (new) read more...
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Scott Mingus, editor of the Civil War blog “Cannonba!!” he maintains for the York Daily Record, did a lot of research recently using NewsInHistory’s archive of historical newspapers and was very pleased with the results. He wrote an enthusiastic review, involving research that began with his interest in the Civil War and then ranged far beyond: the burning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge by Gordon’s brigade in June 1863, the Knights of the Golden Circle, the Titanic, the Hindenburg, D-Day, the Apollo moon landing, and the Cincinnati Reds sweeping the Yankees in 1976. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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