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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Hatchet (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19?? Washington hatchet

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About The Hatchet (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??

The Washington Hatchet began as a weekly humor newspaper, with its first issue published on Saturday, December 1, 1883. Its earliest known editor was William T. Talbott and its first publisher was William H. Pope. Taking its title from the famous anecdote of a youthful George Washington confessing to chopping down the cherry tree, the newspaper cheekily adopted the slogan “I can’t tell a lie” despite its fictionalized “reporting.” The paper often included satirical political commentary, and its front page regularly featured political cartoons by the eminent George Y. Coffin (later the Washington Post’s official cartoonist). As one of its own advertisements aptly described, the Hatchet was a publication full of “amusing anecdotes, edifying editorials, racy reading, short stories, pathetic poems, light literature, funny pictures, and other literary and humorous features.” The eight-page paper, which cost readers a nickel, enjoyed a circulation of 12,470 at its peak in 1884, when it sold in as many as 26 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

After its initial success, however, the Hatchet underwent a dramatic transformation. Isaac LaRue Johnson briefly took over as proprietor but was quickly replaced by publisher William J. Armstrong and his business manager J. E. Armstrong. William Armstrong formerly published the National Free Press, a serious, independent newspaper in Washington, and he brought a more thoughtful tone to his newly acquired publication. The collection digitized here represents this later incarnation of the Hatchet, with coverage of actual news events like the Pan American Exposition mixed in with articles on sports, theater, history, moral issues, and anecdotes of interesting local and international happenings. The heavily pictorial format of the earlier issues was replaced by a four-page, text-heavy layout.

The last decade of the Hatchet was a period of tumultuous decline; the paper moved offices five times and by 1887 circulation had dropped to 2,000 subscribers. While the exact causes of its decline are unknown, the vague and rather incoherent vision of its later incarnation may have played a role. The early Hatchet modeled itself on national humor magazines like Puck and the Judge, but even then its vision of a national audience never became a reality. After its reincarnation as a mixed bag of news, sports, and drama, the Hatchet failed to locate an exploitable niche in the competitive world of Washington newspapers. By 1902 it had ceased publication.

Provided By: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Hatchet (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??

Other Title

  • Washington hatchet

Dates of Publication

  • 1883-19??

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : The Hatchet Pub. Co., 1883-

Headings

  • -  Washington (D.C.)--Newspapers
  • -  Washington (D.C.)
  • -  United States--District of Columbia--Washington

Genre

  • Electronic journals
  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Dec. 1, 1883)-
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 5, no. 13 (Feb. 18, 1888).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn82014159

OCLC Number

  • 8766407

ISSN Number

  • 1934-1806

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://aj.sunback.homes/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://aj.sunback.homes/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Hatchet Washington, D.-19??. (Washington, DC), Jan. 1 1883. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82014159/.

APA citation style:

(1883, January 1) The Hatchet Washington, D.-19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82014159/.

MLA citation style:

The Hatchet Washington, D.-19??. (Washington, DC) 1 Jan. 1883. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82014159/.