The Wichita City Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
575 issues from 1872 to 1883, published in Wichita, Kansas, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1872, the Wichita City Eagle debuted as the dominant newspaper of south-central Kansas and a pioneer newspaper of the state. Established in 1870 and named after an Indian tribe, Wichita was the seat and largest city of Sedgwick County. The first issue of what would later become widely known as the Eagle was published on April 12, 1872. It boasted a circulation of nearly 400 in a city of only 1,500 people. By 1877, the Eagle‘s readership reached 1,500 as Wichita’s population grew to over 4,800; five years later circulation swelled to more than 2,500 in a county of 18,000. On April 19, 1883, the Wichita City Eagle changed its name to the Wichita Eagle, which, like its predecessor, was a Republican weekly. As Wichita grew so too did the Eagle. In 1888, when the population of the county surpassed 48,800, with 31,700 living within the city limits, the Eagle‘s readership reached 6,000.
In order to become better acquainted with the people of Wichita, Eagle founder Marshall M. Murdock (1837-1908) had personally delivered the first issue of the newspaper to every home and business. Murdock’s younger brother, Roland P. Murdock (1843-1906), assisted him as publisher and editor. Marshall Murdock began his journalistic career at the Burlingame Osage Chronicle in 1863 before moving to Wichita. In 1864, Murdock enlisted as a lieutenant colonel of the Osage and Lyon county militia in the wake of Confederate General, and former Missouri governor, Sterling Price’s raid on Kansas. As…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Wichita, Kansas, 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