The World (Martinsburg, W. Va.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
632 issues from 1891 to 1893, published in Martinsburg, West Virginia, digitised for Chronicling America.
On August 31, 1891, the first issue of the first volume of the daily newspaper the World was published in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. It would be followed shortly thereafter on November 13th of that same year by a weekly edition. The World represented its publisher and editor, author and lawyer F. Vernon Aler’s, second foray into the newspaper business. From 1886 through 1887, Aler had published the Martinsburg Gazette, and in 1887, he tried to spin it off into the Daily Gazette as well, though neither proved successful.
Yet neither Aler himself nor any of the other local or regional papers appear to have made explicit reference to Aler’s previous attempt while discussing the World, though Aler certainly gave them much else upon which to comment. An illustrative example was his mocking of a rival Hagerstown, Maryland paper’s (the Mail, which had both a daily and weekly edition) editors, facetiously claiming in the September 7, 1892 issue of the World that they had the alcohol-withdrawal syndrome delirium tremens.
In September of 1893, Aler once again left the publishing industry, turning both editions of the World over to James F. Thompson and Captain W.B. Colston. Clarksburg paper the Telegram reported Aler’s leave was due to his health, but notably this move occurred a few months after the Martinsburg Independent’s report of Aler’s “altercation” with the President of the local National Bank. Whatever the situation, the paper’s new proprietors made it…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Martinsburg, West 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