The Irish Standard (Minneapolis, Minn. ; St. Paul, Minn.)

• 1886–1920
• Newspaper

Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.

1,769 issues from 1886 to 1920, published in Saint Paul, Minnesota, digitised for Chronicling America.

On November 7, 1885, the first issue of the Northwestern Standard, an Irish-American newspaper was published in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by printers William Kilday, Benjamin McNally, and William Malone. By April 10, 1886, this group had sold its interests in the paper to Editor Edward O’Brien, who with his brother and business manager John rechristened the title the Irish Standard. The Democratic paper was an important source of information on Irish life and culture for the next 34 years.

Irish-born Minnesotans made up 20 percent of the state’s foreign-born population in 1860, and their numbers grew rapidly with the expansion of the railroads and immigrant colonization and settlement programs. However, by 1890 when the Irish population peaked in Minnesota, they only made up 6 percent of the foreign-born population, and demand for an Irish-centered publication lessened. O’Brien subsequently worked to expand the Irish Standard’s reader base outside the state by soliciting areas with high Irish-born populations, distributing materials for the country’s largest Irish-American lobbying group–the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and promoting Catholic and Presbyterian content in regions without dedicated religious newspapers. With its broad readership, the Irish Standard came to focus primarily on national and international news, with smaller sections devoted to Minnesota news and church directories. The paper appeared in an eight-page, seven-column weekly format. Of greatest concern…

Genres

News

Published in

Saint Paul, Minnesota, 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