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Newspapers and periodicals
EJ Phillips was an inveterate newspaper reader (and clipper). We still have a number of the articles mentioned in the letters. (As my friends can attest to, this habit of being relentlessly informative and forever filling envelopes with items that seem relevant to the interest of friends and family has come down to more current generations. She doesn't mention Harper's Weekly, but it is one of the most accessible texts, whether in bound volumes at Boston Public Library or electronically: http://www.harpweek.com/default.asp
Theater historian Mary Shortt mentions following EJP career in the 1870's in the New York Clipper, which was an "authority on sporting and theatrical events" and founded in 1853 [King's NYC].
Chicago, June 30, 1886 I recd Sunday's World from you this morning, "Dear old Mrs. Phillips" has been, worked harder than any of the other ladies, all but I having been out of the bill, or else not in the new play. I have regained all the prestige I lost while under Collier's management.
New
York, Feby 13th /87 I have enclosed the Herald's report of Joe
Howard's alleged fight with Pulitzer. And my portrait from last Sunday's "urnal".
Presumably
this is the Morning Journal founded in 1882 and edited by Albert
Pulitzer. "It became gradually a wealthy, popular, distinctive
newspaper" (Kings
NYC).
April 18, 1887 AM Palmer's Madison Square Company's trip to Washington DC for an Actors' Fund Benefit performance of Jim the Penman received extensive press coverage.
Tacoma, June 23, 1890 I have addressed two of the Morning papers to you. I believe there is an afternoon paper published also, but I have not yet seen it.
Crane & Co played here last week and yesterday met them halfway between here and Portland. Both companies got out of the cars, and each greeted the other very warmly and ended in singing "Auld Lang Syne" in a very high key.
It was very funny, and was thoroughly enjoyed by ourselves, as well as the natives, the latter looking on in blank amazement, but I do not think there were a quarter of the number Mr. Jarrett gives in his interview with the newspaper reporter. I think 40 would be nearer the mark than 400.
New York, Dec. 22, 1891 I read the article in the Herald concerning the Gregory [murder] case that you told me of in a previous letter. Seems to have been a very cruel cold blooded affair, but there are so many dreadful things happening every day, that one ceases to wonder at them.
Philadelphia, May 5, 1895, John Dolman is now the Phila correspondent of the New York "Clipper" and has to go in search of news. He visits the various theatres in town nearly every night now, and I tell him he is getting very giddy. He was rather bashful at first, but is beginning to like it.
Philadelphia, June 27, 1892 We took dinner & supper yesterday at 1738 [Franklin Street, Philadelphia, Mr. and Mrs. John Dolman Sr.]. While at the dinner table Mr. Dolman made very kind inquiries for you. I said I thought you had been very busy with convention work. He smiled and said that Newspapers were generally pretty busy at such times.
Albert started out as a printer, worked for the Middletown Argus, but also wrote for it. We still have the columns, photographs and letters he wrote from California and Hawaii when he was sent to the Spanish American War in 1898.
Look into the Herald, World, and other contemporary newspapers. The New York Clipper (Mary Shortt mentions following EJP's career in the 1870's in it) was an "authority on sporting and theatrical events" and founded in 1853 [King's NYC].
The World in particular "revolutionized journalism ... jingoistic in its demand for war with Spain [1898], sensational in its crusade for reform, it became the foremost paper in New York" [Encyclopedia Am Facts & Dates]. Pulitzer bought the paper in 1883 and the flamboyant competition between it and William Randolph Hearst's Journal gave rise to the term 'yellow journalism'.
Bibliography
Making of America Journal Collection,
Cornell University http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_browse.html
New York Newspaper Indexes, Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/ind/ny.html
Frank
Leslie http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_052700_lesliefrank.htm
Budd L. Gambee, Frank Leslie and His Illustrated Newspaper, 1855-1860
(1964)
Madeleine B. Stern, Purple Passage: The Life of Mrs. Frank Leslie
(1953). Mrs. Frank Leslie writes about California
New
York Herald, Mather, James P.
Index to marriages and deaths in the New York Herald , volume 1, 1835-
1855, volume 2, 1856-1863 / ... -- Baltimore : Genealogical Pub. Co., 1987.
v1, 560 p., v2, 685 p. F118.M27 1987
New York Sun
New York Times Index, New York: New York Times, semi-annual, 1851- present.
New York Times Theater Reviews, New York: New York Times, 1975. Vol. 1. 1870-1885, Vol. 2 1886-1895
New
York Tribune
New-York Daily Tribune index for 1875-
New York, The Tribune association, 1876-[1907].
Annual. LC Call Number AI21.N5
Holdings : 1875-1881, 1883-1902, 1904-1906
New
York World 1860-1931, Joseph Pulitzer http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAnyworld.htm
http://www.virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofhistory/hallofrhetoric/journalism/NewYorkWorld.org/
American Newspaper Repository http://home.gwi.net/~dnb/newsrep.html
New York State Newspaper Project http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/
Theatrical
and sporting news
New York Clipper,
New York: 1853-1924 (absorbed by Variety). The Harvard Theatre
Collection has microfilm. The Library of Congress catalog lists microform
1853-1923
New York Dramatic Mirror (title varies) 1879-1922.
Juergens,
George, Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World, Princeton NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1966
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691045216/qid=1077082734/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-7351289-1775216?v=glance&s=books
Making of America journal collection, Cornell Univ. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_browse.html
Newspaper
Archive.com http://www.newspaperarchive.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=1
North American
Review, 1815- http://www.webdelsol.com/NorthAmReview/NAR/HTMLpages/NARToday.htm
Albert Ruger Collection, Panoramic maps of U.S. cities, late
nineteenth century, Library of Congress
http://lcweb.loc.gov/spcoll/213.html
no longer at LC accessed 10/20/2006
Seitz, Don C., Joseph Pulitzer His Life & Letters, New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1924. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0404056997/qid=1076980115/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7351289-1775216?v=glance&s=books
Swanberg, WA, Pulitzer: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967.
Thaddeus
M. Fowler Collection, Panoramic maps of American cities, late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/spcoll/085.html
no longer maintained by LC accessed 10/20/2006
Who built America; From the Centennial Celebration of 1876 to the Great War of 1914, American Social History Project http://www.whobuiltamerica.org/index.html
Last updated Oct. 20, 2006