Martinsburg W VA Evening Journal (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.
771 issues from 1916 to 1920, published in Martinsburg, West Virginia, digitised for Chronicling America.
Martinsburg’s Evening Journal began as a six-page daily newspaper (excluding Sundays) established and managed by Harry Flood Byrd. Hailing from Berkeley County, Byrd assumed leadership of his family’s struggling newspaper, the Evening Star of nearby Winchester, Virginia. Reversing the paper’s fortunes, he ventured into his own literary enterprise by establishing the Evening Journal in Martinsburg. Only twenty, Byrd nevertheless enjoyed the backing of several prominent local citizens and publication of the Journal began in 1907.
For an annual subscription of $3.00, the Evening Journal—styled the “People’s Paper”—afforded readers a variety of news items. The paper focused extensively on local affairs, with correspondents providing news from the surrounding area. Occasional national or international news items graced the paper’s pages. Despite his own Democratic leanings, Byrd kept the paper independent from partisan politics. A litany of advertisements kept revenue coming.
In 1912, Byrd sold the newspaper and soon embarked on a noteworthy Democratic political career. Byrd eventually served in the Virginia State Senate, as Virginia’s governor, and finally as a U.S. Senator, where he gained notoriety later in life for his resistance to racial integration. He kept a link to the publishing world, however, for a time managing the Harrisonburg Daily News Record.
The Evening Journal exchanged ownership from Harry Byrd to Max von Schlegell, a local Martinsburg citizen. Schlegell…
- 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