The Richmond Climax (Richmond, Ky.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
751 issues from 1897 to 1914, published in Richmond, Kentucky, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Richmond Climax, a weekly newspaper published by the Climax Publishing Company, covered the town of Richmond and Madison County for nearly 30 years. The paper was established by William G. White and French Tipton in 1887 to serve as a vessel for the Democratic Party in Richmond. Despite being in constant competition with Richmond’s other Democratic newspaper, the Kentucky Register, the then four-page Climax was well received and by 1910 regularly printed eight pages per issue.
Politics played an important role in the development of the Climax. Founding editor Tipton, a Richmond lawyer and politician, was initially a staunch supporter of the paper’s Democratic mission. However, during the campaign for the 1896 presidential election, Tipton, who disagreed with William Jennings Bryan’s Free Silver platform, changed political parties and left the paper. He then became editor of Richmond’s Republican newspaper, the Pantagraph.
Richmond politician Clarence E. Woods, editor of the Climax at the turn of the century, continued the paper’s tradition of radical leadership. In 1900, the local press was involved in a debate regarding ownership of the Richmond Water and Light Company. Woods, a loyal Progressive, argued with both the Kentucky Register and the Pantagraph in favor of local ownership and declared that the Water Company was in violation of its contract with the city. After months of heated editorial debate, Woods’ commentary became so flagrant that the Climax’s owner,…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Richmond, Kentucky, 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