Texas
Newspapers,
1813-1939:
A
Union
List
of
Newspaper
Files
Available
in
Offices
of
Publishers,
Libraries,
and
a
Num
-
ber
of
Private
Collections.
(San Jacinto Museum of His-
tory Association Publications,
Volume I.) Prepared by
Historical Records Survey Program, Division of Profes-
sional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administra-
tion of Texas.
Houston, Texas: San Jacinto Museum of History Association, 1941.
Pp. xiii, 293.
To copy the foreword of this volume would admirably serve
the purposes of a review. Mr. Ike Moore, who wrote the fore-
word and who has for a number of years been gathering data
on Texas newspapers, gives special recognition to six men who
in 1936 worked on the initial inventory; namely, Charles W.
Hodges, Dr. James Taylor, Thomas Sutherland, Claude Keltner,
Charles Clark, and Joseph Milton Nance. To Mr. Nance credit
is also given for completing the field work and editing the
manuscript during 1939 and 1940.
In the long, or I should say short, span of 125 years 738
Texas towns and cities have seen 3,212 newspapers come into
being. Of these newspapers 830 "are currently published in
541 locations." Texans have been news-minded. Eighty-six
newspapers appeared in the period from 1813 to 1846; from
then until 1859 the number was increased by 154; during the
period of the Civil War and Reconstruction 297 made their ap-
pearance; and from 1877 to 1938 an additional 2,618 news-
papers swelled the total. Of 57 newspapers the dates could
not be determined. The reading public prefers the weekly
and daily newspaper in the ratio of 2,124 weeklies to 356 dailies.
Tri-weeklies, semi-weeklies, semi-monthlies, monthlies, quarter-
lies, and miscellaneous papers complete the list. Files of the
Texas newspapers are to be found in 65 Texas libraries and in
75 libraries outside of Texas.
The ready-reference nature of this volume is seen in the
alphabetical arrangement by towns and the further alphabeti-
cal arrangement thereunder by titles. An alphabetical index
includes all the titles in the volume. An "index of depositories
having files of Texas newspapers published prior to 1877" is
"arranged alphabetically under four chronological groupings."
The great value of this publication is seen further in the fact
that it amplifies the information on newspaper titles found in
the Texas section of the Union
List
of
Newspapers
published
in 1937. The present volume adds 884 place locations of files to
those of the Union
List,
and it supplies place locations for 1,554
files not contained in the Union
List.
The librarian, researcher,
or student who does not have a copy of this book must find
himself greatly handicapped.
The San Jacinto Museum of History Association is to be con-
gratulated for sponsoring this work as Volume I of its Publica
-
tions.
The value of this book, it is to be hoped, presages a long
list of extremely useful works, and I express my own wish and
that of many others, I am sure, that Volume II may soon appear.
The University of Texas.
R. L. BIESELE.
How to cite:
"Texas Newspapers, 1813-1939", Volume 46, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v046/n2/review_DIVL2516.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 21:58:25 CST 2009]
