Ellsworth American (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-Current
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
3,749 issues from 1855 to 1926, published in Ellsworth, Maine, digitised for Chronicling America.
Among the oldest papers in Maine, the Ellsworth American is based out of the seat of Hancock County, in the region of Maine east of Penobscot Bay called Down East, near Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island, where summer communities emerged in the 19th century. The paper has received numerous awards from the Maine Press Association and New England Newspaper & Press Association, thanks in part to W.H. Titus, Russ Wiggins, and Alan Baker, the owners and editors who contributed most to its success.
Newspaper publishing in Ellsworth began in 1826 with the Independent Courier, which was the first of roughly five papers with various political bents that existed for short periods until 1851, when Elijah Couillard began publishing the Ellsworth Herald. Couillard sold the press to W.H. Chaney in December 1854, who renamed the paper the American and published between January and December of 1855, when Chaney sold it to N.K. Sawyer, who expanded the size from 20 x 17″ (four pages, six columns) to 27 x 20″ (four pages, eight columns) and ran it until 1872.
The paper leaned Republican and anti-Catholic, and it carried poetry, fiction, national and international news, and local advertisements. During the 1870s and 1880s, it belonged to the Hancock County Publishing Company and was edited by Arthur F. Drinkwater, E.P. Sampson (very briefly), H.C. Vaughan, and J.C. Chilcott. According to Miller’s The History of Current Maine Newspapers, throughout this period, “More of the American‘s four…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Ellsworth, Maine, 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