Collection of New York City newspaper reportage on the Lincoln assassination 1865-1866 1865

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Summary

Abstract:
An artificial archive of 56 issues from six different daily and weekly New York newspapers covering the six weeks after Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865.
Extent:
5 boxes
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of 56 different issues from six different daily and weekly New York newspapers, covering the six weeks after Abraham Lincoln's assassination and was purchased as an assembled collection. Coverage includes the assassination, the assassin, the funerals in New York and Springfield, and the hunt for the conspirators. One issue from July 1865 covers the execution of the conspirators and another issue from February 1866 features coverage of a memorial service in Lincoln's honor.

Biographical / historical:

Reaction to the assassination of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, on April 14, 1865 by stage actor John Wilkes Booth was a mix of grief, vengefulness, fear, and horror. Lincoln was the first United States president to be assassinated. His death ushered in an extended period of national mourning. Booth was killed after a 12 day chase and conspirators Lewis Thornton Powell, David E. Herold, George A. Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.

The newspapers in the collection are:

Harper's Weekly, an American political magazine, based in New York City and carried extensive coverage of the American Civil War, including illustrations. It had a wide readership throughout the United States during the Civil War.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper was an American illustrated literary and news magazine that provided illustrations and reporting during the Civil War. It had a large readership throughout the United States and reportedly, one of its reporters, James R. O'Neill, is believed to be the only Civil War correspondent to be killed in action.

The New-York Tribune, an American newspaper, was founded by Horace Greeley in 1841. Over time it achieved a circulation of approximately 200,000 in the 1850s, making it the largest daily paper in New York City at the time.

The New York Evening Post was a prominent New York City newspaper that was founded by Alexander Hamiliton and other Federalist supporters in 1801.

The New-York Times was founded in 1851 with offices on "Newspaper Row" across the street from New York's City Hall during the Civil War.

New York Herald's first issue was published in 1835 and was a successful daily newspaper in the United States. The paper was later acquired in 1924 by its smaller rival, the New-York Tribune and became the New York Herald Tribune.

Arrangement:

There are six different daily and weekly New York newspapers featured in the collection. Each newspaper is a series and inside each series the issues are arranged chronologically.

Series 1: Harper's Weekly

Series 2: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

Series 3: New-York Tribune

Series 4: Evening Post

Series 5: New-York Times

Series 6: New York Herald

Access and use

Location of this collection:
SFSU - J. Paul Leonard Library
1630 Holloway Ave, Room 610
San Francisco, CA 94132-4030, US
Contact:
(415) 469-6100
sutro@library.ca.gov
Website