Related Items

• Ask a librarian
• How do I find?
• Help by subject
• Liaison librarians
• Citing sources
• Tutorials

Quick Links

• Ask a Librarian
• Help by Subject
• Databases
• E-Journal Finder
• Citing Sources
• RefWorks
• Interlibrary Loan
• Course Reserves
• Forms

Home / Research Help / Research Guides / How Do I Find... / A Checklist of Selected 18th and 19th Century American Newspapers in the Vassar College Library

A Checklist of Selected 18th and 19th Century American Newspapers in the Vassar College Library

This listing includes primarily those newspapers which Vassar holds in substantial runs. However, single issues and incomplete runs of special interest have been noted. In addition, the library has a large collection of uncatalogued newspapers in short runs and single issues. These uncataloged newspapers are kept in Special Collections. The location Grille also refers to Special Collections. Chronological and title indexes to the collection are located there as well.

Eighteenth Century Newspapers

Connecticut

Microprint 17
Connecticut Courant
October 29, 1764 - December 26, 1860
Scattered short runs also in Special Collections.

Massachusetts

Microprint 6
Boston Chronicle
December 21, 1767 - June 25, 1770

Microprint 15
The Boston Gazette
December 21, 1719 - September 17, 1798

Microprint 11
Boston News-Letter
April 14, 1704 - February 22, 1776
The first long-running paper in the Colonies.
Title varies.

Microprint 10
Boston Post-Boy
April 21, 1735 - April 17, 1775
Title varies.

Microprint 6
The Censor (Boston)
November 23, 1771 - May 2, 1772

Microprint 6
The Massachusetts Spy or Thomas's Boston Journal (Boston)
July 17, 1770 - April 6, 1775
Scattered issues also in Special Collections.

New Jersey

Grille F 071 P6
The Plain Dealer (Bridgeton, NJ)
December 25, 1775 - February 12, 1776
New Jersey's first newspaper.

New York

Freedom's Journal
The first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the U.S. Published weekly in N.Y. City from 1827-1829.

Microfilm 168
The Independent Reflector or Weekly Essays on Sundry Important Subjects (New York)
November 30, 1752 - November 22, 1753

Microprint 16
New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury
January 4, 1768 - November 10, 1783

Grille F 071 N485
The New York Packet and the American Advertiser (Fishkill, NY)
1782
Holdings incomplete
A locally published newspaper.

Microprint 13
New York Weekly Journal
November 5, 1733 - March 18, 1751

Microfilm 184
Poughkeepsie Journal
October 13, 1785 - January 3, 1844
Title varies.

The Poughkeepsie Journal is one of the country's oldest newspapers in continuous publication. In its earliest years, its pages were primarily devoted to the usual "foreign advices" arriving from abroad, with some news of general interest. A few items of "local" news and its advertisements make it a useful historical source. The Journal was absorbed by the Poughkeepsie Eagle in 1844.

Pennsylvania

Microprint 12
American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia)
December 22, 1719 - May 22, 1746

Folio AP 2 A2 A838
American Weekly Mercury (Philadelphia)
December 22, 1719 - January 7, 1723
Fascimile edition.

Microprint 14
The Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser (Philadelphia)
January 17, 1767 - February 8, 1774

ANNEX PN 4899 P45 P4x
Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia)
December 24, 1728 - September 10, 1777
Reprint edition.

Grille 071 P534p
Philadelphische Zeitung
June 24, 1732
The first German newspaper in the United States.

Grille F 071 G25
United States Gazette (Philadelphia)
1792 - 1793

South Carolina

Microfilm 605: Reel 9
Charlestown Gazette
1778 - 1780

Microfilm 605
Gazette of the State of South Carolina (Charleston)
1777 - 1780

Microfilm 605: Reels 11-12
Royal Gazette (Charleston)
1781 - 1782

Microfilm 605: Reel 11
Royal South Carolina Gazette (Charleston)
1780 - 1782

Microfilm 605: Reels 9-11
South Carolina and American General Gazette (Charleston)
1765 - 1775

Microfilm 605: Reels 1-7
South Carolina Gazette (Charleston)
1732 - 1775

Microfilm 605: Reels 7-9
South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (Charleston)
1765 - 1775

Microfilm 605: Reel 9
South Carolina Weekly Gazette (Charleston)
1758 - 1764

Virginia

Microfilm 388
The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg)
September 10, 1736 - December 9, 1780
Indexed.

---

Nineteenth Century Newspapers

California

Grille F 071 A11
Alameda County Herald (Oakland Ca.)
July 1859 - July 1860
The second Oakland paper.

Indiana

Microfilm 167
New Harmony Gazette (New Harmony, Ind.)
October 10, 1827 - June 28, 1835
Title varies.

Louisiana

Microfilm 436
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
December 15, 1857 - February 1, 1867

Foundedin 1837, the Picayune was one of six dailies in New Orleans during the Civil War. It was a high quality paper, impartial in its political affiliations, with a tradition of enterprising journalism. The Picayune derived its name from a coin then in circulation worth six and a quarter cents, the price of the paper.

Maryland

Grille F 071 B199
American and Commercial Advertiser (Baltimore)
October 9, 1861-September 7, 1863
Holdings incomplete.

Started in 1799, the American was a leading mercantile paper. Like other border state papers, it had readers sympathetic to both sides. Although partisan to the Union cause, the American survived the war by a policy of complete silence on political issues.

Special Collections. Uncatalogued.
Baltimore Clipper
November 1860 - February 1862
Holdings incomplete.

JK 1 L8 and Microfiche
Niles Weekly Register
1811-1849
CD-ROM index to the Register is in Microtext Room.

Massachusetts

Grille F 071 B657
Boston Investigator
1847 - 1850
Holdings incomplete.

Grille 071 B65
Boston Weekly Advertiser
October 25, 1811 - May 27, 1824
Title varies.
Holdings incomplete.

James Cutler founded this weekly for those who could not afford the cost of a daily paper. With excellent type and paper, the first edition stated its purpose: "Political information does, indeed, constitute its leading and primary object."

Microfilm 170 (1831-1858)
Grille F 071 L615 (1840-1865)
The Liberator (Boston)
January 1, 1831 - December 29, 1865

Published by William Lloyd Garrison, it was the most famous and eloquent of all the anti-slavery papers. It was so violently opposed in the South that its distribution was prohibited in some Southern states. With the Emancipation Proclamation, the Liberator had finished its crusade and suspended publication.

Grille F 071 M38
Massachusetts Spy or Worcester Gazette (Worcester)
1801 - 1817
Holdings incomplete.

Relocated in Worcester after it was forced to remove from Boston, the Spy continued as an important paper and a strong supporter of the Whigs.

Grille F 071 M53
New England Palladium and Commercial Advertiser (Boston)
January 2, 1801 - December 30, 1803
Title varies.

As official printer to the state, the publisher of the Palladium printed all legal notices. Commercial advertising of all kinds comprised another large share of its 4-page issues. It was strongly Federalist in its political loyalties.

New York

Grille F 071 AY 134
Albany Journal
April 18, 1845 - December 25, 1846
Holdings incomplete.

Begun in 1830 by Thurlow Weed, the Albany Journal was the leading Whig paper in New York State. Weed had great personal political influence both in national and state politics and his newspapers were instrumental in electing two Whig presidents. Bound with this are issues of the Albany Evening Journal and the Albany Weekly Journal, both Weed papers.

Grille F 071 B79
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
1887, 1894 - 1896, 1899 - 1900
Holdings incomplete.

Grille Folio AP 2 B847
Brother Jonathan (New York)
1842 - 1843
Holdings incomplete.

ANNEX AP 2 H32
Harper's Weekly (New York)
January 3, 1857 - May 29, 1916

An illustrated political and literary weekly noted for its engravings and woodcuts. The great war pictures and political cartoons of Thomas Nast began in 1862.

Microfilm 314
Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper (New York)
1855 - 1900

Largely a pictorial weekly, it was the Life magazine of its day. It claimed to have published nearly 300 pictures on the Civil War. The paper continued publication until 1922.

Microfilm 307
New York Herald
August 31, 1835 - May 1886

Under the flamboyant James Gordon Bennett, the father of "yellow journalism," the Herald emphasized that a newspaper should report "News." Sympathetic to the Southern cause, the Herald pioneered in sending correspondents to cover the Civil War. The paper continued publication until 1922.

Microfilm 311
New York Herald Tribune
1886 - 1906 (indexed)

Microfilm N48
New York Times
September 18, 1851 - current

From its earliest days, the Times was regarded as an excellent newspaper with a sound editorial policy, responsible accurate reporting, and one giving special coverage of foreign news.

Grille F 071 N489
The New Yorker
1840, 1841, 1845-46
Holdings incomplete
Horace Greeley's newspaper

Microfilm 320
Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle
1860-1942
Title varies.

Microfilm 185
Poughkeepsie Eagle Weekly
December 4, 1860 - August 30, 1880
Title varies.

The Poughkeepsie Eagle was published by various members of the Platt family. Staunchly Republican and anti-slavery, it was a strong and influential voice in Poughkeepsie affairs.

Microfilm 658
Poughkeepsie Telegraph and Poughkeepsie News Telegraph
1831-1903

Grille R 071 R88
Rural New Yorker (Rochester, NY)
1854 -1859, 1861, 1869, 1870
Holdings incomplete

Microfilm 185
The Semi-Weekly Eagle and News Telegraph (Poughkeepsie)
January 6, 1844 - December 29, 1860

F 071 P862
The Semi-Weekly Eagle and News Telegraph (Poughkeepsie)
July 1861 - 1907

Grille F 071 C449
The World (New York)
Scattered issues for 1861

Pennsylvania

Grille F 071 C499
Philadelphia Inquirer
1861 - 1865
Holdings incomplete.
Scattered single issues for election days, 1830's - 1870's.

Grille F 071 C499
The Press (Philadelphia)
1861 - 1865
Holdings incomplete.

Founded in 1857 by John W. Forney, The Press became the leading Republican paper in Pennsylvania. A weekly edition called the War Press was widely distributed to the Union troops.

Special Collections, Greene Collection
The Woman's Advocate (Philadelphia)
November 1856 - February 1857

Virginia

Microfilm 435
Richmond Dispatch
January 1858 - December 1866

Probably the most important of the Richmond dailies and the one with the largest circulation. The Dispatch, which began publication in 1850, claimed to be "devoted to the interest of the city and free and independent in its political views," but it soon became an ardent voice for the Confederate cause.

---

Other Newspapers of Note

Special Collections. Uncatalogued.
Public Occurrences (Boston)
September 25, 1690
Fascimile edition of the first American newspaper.