Las Vegas Daily Optic (Las Vegas, N.M.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
2,462 issues from 1896 to 1907, published in Las Vegas, New Mexico, digitised for Chronicling America.
Las Vegas, the seat of San Miguel County in New Mexico, dates back to 1850. The community was originally known as San Miguel del Bado, founded in 1794. Spanish settlers and officials saw the plains near the Rio Gallina to the north as an outlet for expansion, so in 1821 Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca petitioned for a land grant at Las Vegas Grandes, the “big meadow.” The formal name of the resulting settlement was Nuestra Senora de Las Vegas or “Our Lady of the Meadows.” An 1829 military report referred to the area as Begas de Las Gallinas, and sometimes residents referred to the area simply as Las Gallinas.
In later years, Las Vegas became an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. With the arrival of the Atlantic & Santa Fe Railroad in 1879, Las Vegas quickly evolved into three towns: West Las Vegas, East Las Vegas, and a suburb. Its population peaked in 1870 with 796 residents and then declined. Cultural differences created strong rivalries between the new and predominantly Anglo east Las Vegas and the older and prominently Hispanic west Las Vegas. The two communities once had separate post offices.
Founded in 1880, the Las Vegas Daily Optic, an English-only newspaper was printed daily except Sundays. It followed the Las Vegas Weekly Optic. Russell A. Kistler was editor and owner of the paper which was published by the Las Vegas Publishing Co. In October 1879, Kistler revamped his struggling weekly into a daily paper. At first glance, this seemed to be a foolish move, but the…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Las Vegas, New Mexico, 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