Baltimore News American collection

The Newspaper

The News American was a daily newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, which possibly had a continuous existence in print form for 214 years. Its editors and writers produced notable stories and helped make events more vivid and immediate for readers. For example, in 1814, the American & Commercial Advertiser became the first publication in the nation to print Francis Scott Key's poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry," which later became known as The Star Spangled Banner. In 1923, one of the most influential owners in the history of the newspaper, William Randolph Hearst, Sr., bought several of the News American's predecessor papers. Under the management of the Hearst family, the News American became the largest newspaper in Baltimore in terms of circulation by the middle of the twentieth century. On May 27, 1986, the News American published its last edition and shuttered its operations.

During its over 200 year existence, the News American experienced a number of transformations in its management, many of which were the result of business mergers. According to some historians and former employees of the newspaper, the News American traces its lineage back to Baltimore's first newspaper, the Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser, begun by William Goddard on August 20, 1773. Under the leadership of William Goddard's sister, Mary Katherine Goddard, the newspaper was the first to print the Declaration of Independence with the names of its signatories. Goddard's newspaper passed through several proprietors and ultimately ceased publication on June 29, 1797.

A competing argument suggests that the true originator of the News American newspaper may actually have been Alexander Martin, who likely began a new publication called the American and Daily Advertiser on May 14, 1799. Martin was a former partner of William Pechin, who once wrote for the old Maryland Journal. A partisan Republican-Democratic paper at that time, the American and Daily Advertiser was subscribed by Thomas Jefferson, who had a two-year subscription beginning March 24, 1801, during his term as President (see Founders Online, Thomas Jefferson, "List of Newspapers [circa April 23, 1802]").

Some other notable newspaper titles in the history of the newspaper include the Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser (1857-1861) which was sometimes published under the title of the Baltimore American, the American and Commercial Advertiser (January 1-August 1858) and the American and Commercial Advertiser (1862-1869). Under the leadership of Charles Carroll Fulton, these newspaper titles were among the few major Baltimore newspapers to be pro-Union during the American Civil War. Other important nineteenth century predecessors to the News American newspapers were: General Felix Angus's Baltimore American (1883), Edmond V. Hermanage's Evening News (1872) which was Baltimore's first successful evening newspaper, and Charles H. Grasty's progressive Baltimore News (1892), where H. L. Mencken, the well-known Sun journalist, briefly worked as an editor.

During the late nineteenth century, a rivalry between the News American and the Sun began, one that would help to shape the history of Baltimore journalism into the 20th century. The Sun, while having a strong readership among the general masses, also increasingly gained a reputation as the newspaper of choice for Baltimore's elites. In contrast, the News American, and its predecessors beginning with the Baltimore News, began to be viewed, first as a progressive newspaper, and later, as a populist paper, which resonated with Baltimore's working-class and ethnic minorities.

In 1908, Frank A. Munsey bought the evening Baltimore News from General Felix Angus, and in 1920 Munsey purchased the morning Baltimore American. Three years later, Munsey decided to sell both papers to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Sr., who helped to introduce tabloid journalism and sensational headlines to readers in Baltimore. During the 1920s, the newspaper published many stories about crime and violence, and emphasized visual elements such as photographs and attention-grabbing headlines in large fonts. In 1928, the Baltimore American was discontinued as a morning newspaper, but the name was continued as a Sunday newspaper. Also in 1928, the Baltimore News gained the circulation lead over the rival Sun papers, which it held until the decline of the American beginning in the late 1970's.

In 1934, the Hearst Corporation bought the Baltimore Post from the Scripps-Howard Newspaper Syndicate, to form the Baltimore News and the Baltimore Post. In 1936, the company merged the two titles to form the Baltimore News-Post. The last newspaper title change in the history of the News American occurred on January 13, 1964, when the Baltimore News-Post and its Sunday edition, the Baltimore American, merged to form the News American.

For most of the 1970's, the News American continued to lead the Sun in circulation. In addition, in 1973 the newspaper reached a major milestone and celebrated its bicentennial anniversary. But the 1970's also signaled the beginning of the end for the News American. A number of social and economic factors, such as the rise of television, a demographic shift of Baltimoreans from the city to the suburbs, Baltimore's stagnant economy, and the loss of blue-collar manufacturing jobs contributed to the News American's demise. These issues, combined with the decline of evening newspapers in most U.S. markets, and internal management and labor related problems at the newspaper, effectively doomed the News American. During the 1980's, the difficulties facing the News American intensified and the Hearst Corporation, unable to find a buyer, decided to stop printing the newspaper. On May 27, 1986, the newspaper was closed for business.

The Buildings

The antecedent newspapers found in this collection were printed in a variety of locations, but always in Baltimore proper. Between 1849 and 1875, the Baltimore American was located at Nos. 126 and 128 West Baltimore Street. That latter year, a new iron building was constructed to house the American at Baltimore and Fourth Streets. Moving in 1905 to Baltimore and South Street, the new Baltimore American building occupied the site of a building destroyed in the great fire of 1904.

Beginning in the 1870s, the Baltimore News was published from a building at 119-121 East Baltimore Street until it moved to Calvert and Fayette streets around 1905. Five years later, the Baltimore News vacated that space and soon re-occupied it within the new Munsey Building, named after its owner-publisher Frank A. Munsey.

It was inside the Munsey Building on Calvert Street in 1920, where the American merged with Munsey's News. Upon Hearst's purchase of both papers from Munsey in 1923, the joint newspapers moved to Pratt and Commerce streets in 1924. On September 8, 1962, the Baltimore News-Post/News American moved into a new building at 400 East Pratt Street (bounded also by Commerce, Lombard, and South streets), presumably the location where the large advertising eagle (series 9) was hung. This complex of buildings contained the News American offices and printing presses. It was demolished partly by wrecking ball in 1990. (See series IV, boxes 2 and 4, for more information.)

The Library

The first known internal library of the newspaper was established around 1902 under the leadership of Charles H. Grasty, at the time general manager of the Baltimore News. As a result, most of the collected documentation about the internal workings of the newspaper dates only as far back as the early twentieth century. The first librarians were Ida Herzog, Marie Lambert, and Roxanne Duvall. In 1923, with the purchase of the Baltimore News and Baltimore American by William Randolph Hearst, Sr., the library expanded to include daily photographs and local news clippings. Arthur Curley was librarian between 1923 and 1926, followed by Louisa Doetsch until 1954. By that time, the library was used by writers and editors so heavily that it required a staff of more than one. By 1962, the library had over 2600 catalogued books. Head librarian, Earl S. Pruce, who worked from 1954 until the closure of the newspaper in 1986, studied the history of the newspaper, and took copious notes detailing previous owners, managers, and transactions. (See series III, box 3, and series IV, box 4, for more information.)

The Photographs

At the beginning of the 20th-century, as photographs began to appear in print with greater frequency, newspapers stored print versions of negative and positive film images in what came to be known as photo morgues. The photo morgue of the Baltimore News American was composed largely of photographic prints developed specifically to cover news stories in and around Baltimore. Perhaps only a fraction of these photos appeared in the print pages of the newspaper. With the development of wirephoto and laserphoto technologies, copies of photographs taken around the world for UPI (United Press International) and AP (Associated Press) were also added to the photo archive of the newspaper. Rather than keeping together photos taken for each individual news story, the newspaper staff organized the photographs by subjects and names of the individuals or organizations depicted in the photos.

Reference Works

Jefferson, Thomas. "List of Newspapers [circa April 23, 1802]"

Minick, A. Rachel. A History of Printing in Maryland 1791-1800 (M.Sc. Thesis, Columbia University, 1949).

Nasaw, David. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000).

Steadman, John. The Best (and Worst) of Steadman: A Collection of Stories by the Sports Editor of the Baltimore News American ([Baltimore]: Press Box Publishers, 1974).

Whyte, Kenneth. The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst (Berkeley: Counterpoint, Publishers Group West, 2009).

Winchester, Paul, and Frank D. Webb. Newspapers and Newspaper Men of Maryland: Past and Present (Baltimore: Frank L. Sibley & Co., 1905).

Winkler, John K. "William Randolph Hearst: A New Appraisal." (University of Maryland Master's Thesis, 1989).