The Day Book (Norfolk, Va.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
618 issues from 1857 to 1866, published in Norfolk, Virginia, digitised for Chronicling America.
Norfolk, located on the southeastern corner of Virginia where the Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake Bay meet, was a bustling hub of maritime activity when the Day Book circulated its first copy in October 1857. Initially edited by John R. Hathaway and published by Thomas O. Wise, the six column, four-page daily carried local news and advertisements, editorials, upcoming events, railroad schedules, as well as market, naval, and maritime shipping news. A subscription to the paper cost a penny per day, one dollar for three months, two dollars for six months, or four dollars a year. By 1860, Hathaway claimed his paper had, “Circulation in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and all surrounding country greater than all the papers of both cities combined.”
During the Civil War, the Day Book provided coverage of war related events, including the historic naval battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, the first recorded conflict between ironclad ships. On May 12, 1862, months after the initial skirmish, the Day Book continued to provide hour-by-hour analysis of the Merrimac’s movement: “2:45 o’clock,–The Rebel monster Merrimac has just passed out from behind Sewell’s Point and is moving down towards the Federal fleet. Her black hull can be seen moving slowly against the shore, in front of the Craney Island batteries.”
Around that time, on May 10, 1862, Norfolk surrendered to the Union Army. The same May 12 issue of the Day Book that reported on the Merrimac’s movements also detailed the…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Norfolk, Virginia, 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