The Bossier Banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
2,954 issues from 1859 to 1922, published in Bellevue, Louisiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Bossier Banner was a four-page weekly newspaper founded in Bellevue, Louisiana, in 1859 by William Henry Scanland (1842-1916). Born in Mississippi and orphaned at a young age, Scanland, along with his brother John, went to work for the Caddo Gazette in Shreveport, Louisiana, at the age of 11. In 1858, the Scanland brothers briefly published the Caddo Gazette, Junior, in their free time. William Henry then worked as a compositor for the Bossier Times before taking it over in July 1859, at age 17, and reissuing it as the Bossier Banner. Except for a period of service in the Confederate army during the Civil War, he would manage it until his death in 1916.
Now unincorporated, Bellevue served as the first seat of Bossier Parish from 1843 until 1888, when the parish government, along with the Banner, moved to Benton, which, unlike Bellevue, had not been bypassed by the railroad and was better connected to Shreveport, the commercial hub of northwest Louisiana.
As a “home” newspaper, the Banner‘s content was of a miscellaneous nature, ranging from local, national, and international news, to anecdotal stories, fiction, and poetry (including some written in the Lost Cause style). Many issues consisted heavily of advertisements and announcements of tax sales. The paper frequently carried religious stories and scripture, as well as sermons by Thomas De Witt Talmage, a popular late 19th-century American preacher. The discovery of oil in north Louisiana in 1908 and Bossier…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Bellevue, Louisiana, 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