Kodiak Mirror (Kodiak, Alaska)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,035 issues from 1940 to 1963, published in Kodiak, Alaska, digitised for Chronicling America.
The first issue of the Kodiak mirror was published on June 15, 1940 by Gene Dawson, a newcomer to Kodiak, who used a mimeograph machine at the Kodiak U.S. naval station to print his new 12-page weekly paper. Dawson advocated for more defenses around Kodiak, citing the threat of a Soviet airbase in construction on Diomede Island. He also pushed for incorporation of Kodiak as a city so that it would qualify for more funding. He began printing on a flatbed press in January 1941, when the circulation was nearing 2,000. Dawson sold the mirror on December 6, 1941 to Bill and Lillian Lamme, whose first issue was an extra the next day saying that the U.S. had declared war.
The paper traded hands several times after the Lammes sold it in 1948. In 1955 the new owners, Sig and Bertha Digree, improved the printing plant and added a linotype machine. Under the Digrees, the mirror took a position against statehood, arguing that Alaska was not ready for it. In 1964, the massive Good Friday earthquake in Alaska triggered a tsunami that wiped out the mirror plant along with much of Kodiak. The first issue after the wave hit was printed on an elementary school’s mimeograph machine. Afterwards, the mirror arranged to use the press of The Kenai Peninsula cheechako news in Soldotna and have it transported to Kodiak by boat, while their plant was being rebuilt. After several months of rebuilding efforts, the Digrees gave up and sold the plant to Wayne and Nancy Kotula, who ran it for the next…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Kodiak, Alaska, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress