The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.[2]
History
Founding
The Transcript was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of Dutton and Wentworth, which was, at that time, the official state printer of Massachusetts.[3] and Lynde Walter who was also the first editor of the Transcript.[4] Dutton and Wentworth agreed to this as long as Walter would pay the expenses of the initial editions of the newspaper.[4]
In 1830, The Boston Evening Bulletin, which had been a penny paper, ceased publication. Lynde Walter decided to use the opening provided to start a new evening penny paper in Boston. Walter approached Dutton and Wentworth with the proposal that he would edit the paper and that they would do the printing and circulation.[4]
The Transcript first appeared on July 24, 1830,[1] however after three days Walter suspended publication of the paper until he could build up his patronage. After Walter canvassed the city to better develop the paper's business The Transcript resumed publication on August 28, 1830.[5]
After Lynde Walter died, his sister, Cornelia Wells Walter, who had been the Transcript's theatre critic, became editor of the Transcript at the age of 29,[6] the first woman to be appointed editor of a major American daily newspaper. Cornelia Walter served as the editor of The Transcript from 1842 to 1847.[7]
In 1847, the poet Epes Sargent became editor of the paper. Many literary and poetic works debuted in the Transcript's pages. William Stanley Braithwaite was an influential literary editor from 1906-31. He elevated the works of contemporary American poets and wrote an annual survey of poems published in American magazines.
Hazel Hall (poet)'s first published poem "To an English Sparrow", first appeared in The Transcript in 1916.[10]
T. S. Eliot wrote the poem "The 'Boston Evening Transcript" referencing the newspaper in 1915.
Features and columns
Features and columns included: "Suburban Scenes", "The Listener", "The Nomad", "The Librarian", "Saturday Night Thoughts", and an extensive book reviews and music criticism. The Transcript also had a Washington, D.C. bureau, college sports pages, and a department of Bridge. In addition, The Transcript had a well known genealogy column.
Harvard Medical School's first U.S. animal vivisection lab raised concern from then editor-in-chief Edward Clement, and the paper subsequently ran a series of anti-vivisection editorials.[11]
In the summer of 1940, as Britain faced invasion in World War II, children were being evacuated overseas under a British government scheme known as the Children's Overseas Reception Board. The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript readily responded and agreed to sponsor a group of children. A group of 48 children left England on RMS Scythia from Liverpool on 24 September 1940 bound for Boston.[12]
The Boston Evening Transcript, like the New York Times today, was a newspaper of record. Its genealogical column, which usually ran twice or more a week for several decades in the early twentieth century, was often an exchange among the most devoted and scholarly genealogists of the day. Many materials not published elsewhere are published therein.[13]
Contributors
Brooks Atkinson, police reporter, assistant to the drama critic, H. T. Parker, (1919–1922)
^ abChamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1969), The Boston Transcript: A History of Its First Hundred Years, Freeport, NY: Ayer Publishing, p. 11, ISBN0-8369-5146-8
^ ab"BOSTON TRANSCRIPT TO QUIT WEDNESDAY; Five-Cent Price Fails to Save Newspaper, Approaching Its 111th Anniversary PROFITABLE UNTIL 1929 Patron of Arts and Sciences Began Decline With Slump in 'Lush Financial Advertising'", The New York Times, New York, NY, p. 23, 24 April 1941
^King, Moses (1881), King's Handbook of Boston 4th ed., Cambridge, MA: M. King, p. 263
^ abcChamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1969). The Boston Transcript: A History of Its First Hundred Years. Freeport, NY: Ayer Publishing. p. 10. ISBN0-8369-5146-8.
^Chamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1969), The Boston Transcript: A History of Its First Hundred Years, Freeport, NY: Ayer Publishing, p. 16, ISBN0-8369-5146-8
^Chamberlin, Joseph Edgar (1969), The Boston Transcript: A History of Its First Hundred Years, Freeport, NY: Ayer Publishing, p. 69, ISBN0-8369-5146-8
^Madison, D. Soyini (2006), The SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, p. 119, ISBN0-7619-2931-2
^McLaughlin, Jeff (July 22, 1993), "A century of 'spacious skies'; Bates' 'America the Beautiful' has endured time and tinkering", The Boston Globe, Boston, MA, p. 21 Metro Region Section
^Terry, John (October 10, 2004). "Oregon's Trails: Hazel Hall's Poems a Prism to Life and Why this is so". The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. p. A23 Northwest; Oregon & The West Section.
^Glenn, Joshua (June 15, 2008), Icons of the 20th century, in Lego, Boston, MA: The Boston Globe., p. C10 Ideas Section
^De Bekker, Leander Jan (1924), Black's Dictionary of Music & Musicians: Covering the Entire Period of Musical History from the Earliest Times to 1924, London, UK: A. & C. Black, ltd., p. 296
^Wier, Albert Ernest (1943), Thesaurus of the Arts: Drama, Music, Radio, Painting, Screen, Television, Literature, Sculpture, Architecture, Ballet, New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, p. 360