El Paso Daily Herald (El Paso, Tex.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,330 issues from 1896 to 1901, published in El Paso, Texas, digitised for Chronicling America.
As railroads arrived in El Paso in 1881 and 1882, the town quickly outgrew its existing news source, the “Notice Tree” in Pioneer Plaza. A predominantly Mexican town of approximately 800 residents at the start of 1881, El Paso doubled in size between May and June of that year, with the population exceeding 10,000 by 1888. Barron F. Deal and James P. Baker profited from this remarkable growth, publishing the first issue of the El Paso Herald on April 2, 1881.
The Herald began as a four-page weekly. Although briefly published daily as the El Paso Herald, the paper retained its weekly format for several years, becoming the Sunday Herald in 1884; a daily edition was added in 1888. The Herald circulated throughout West Texas and Northern Mexico. A true border publication, the paper printed advertisements from businesses in El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez), some of which ran in Spanish. The Herald went through several owners in the 1880s, only gaining stability in 1889 when it switched political allegiances and became the official paper of the Republican Party.
In the late 19th century, El Paso was teeming with brothels, saloons, and gambling establishments. Nicknamed “Sin City,” the town was a magnet for gunslingers and outlaws from across the Southwest. In the 1880s, the Herald reported on crime and corruption, but it did not actively oppose it until J. A. “Uncle Jimmy” Smith began managing the paper in 1891. Despite receiving threats from the likes of John Wesley…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- El Paso, Texas, 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