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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Deseret Evening News (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920

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About Deseret Evening News (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920

Within three years after Mormon pioneers settled the valley of the Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young established the Deseret News. Taking its name from the old term for the Utah Territory – a “deseret” is a honeybee, according to the Book of Mormon – the newspaper first appeared on June 15, 1850, on a $60 press that had traveled 1,100 miles by ox-cart across the country to Salt Lake City. The News began as a weekly; its first edition masthead proclaiming “Truth and Liberty.” As the official organ of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, the newspaper published gospel-related items and espoused Mormon theology. Yet it also covered national events, for Brigham Young did not want readers to find themselves isolated from the “outside world.”

In 1865, the paper became a semiweekly, appearing on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and two years later it added a daily edition called the Deseret Evening News. The newspaper printed its first “action” photographs on May 12, 1900, when it printed five images of a mine explosion at Scofield, Utah, which killed over 200 men in the nation’s worst mine disaster up to that time. Appearing eleven days after the blast, the grim photos depicted wagons loaded with coffins and stretcher-bearers bringing out the dead.

After the turn of the century, the paper began to attract readers with innovative large-type, banner headlines that extended across the entire front page. One of these appeared on September 7, 1901, the day after President William McKinley was shot, proclaiming, “GOD BLESS OUR PRESIDENT.” A week later, another banner announced McKinley’s death in inch-high letters. At that time, News employed more than 100 reporters, editors, copyboys – even a society-page maven – under the direction of general manager Horace “Bud” Whitney, who had taken over the newspaper three years earlier. Hired to raise circulation numbers, Whitney expanded the coverage of sports, introduced a regular mining, business, and stocks section, and placed a larger emphasis on society and fashion.

By the 1920s, the Deseret News had moved its operation to downtown Salt Lake, installing a 50-horsepower printing press capable of producing 32,000 copies per hour. In 1922, the newspaper discontinued the semiweekly, but branched out into new territory with a radio station. Known today as the Deseret Morning News, the paper boasts the second highest readership of any daily in Utah. It remains the longest running American newspaper west of the Missouri River and continues to operate both as a widely read news source and as an official organ of the Mormon Church.

Provided By: University of Utah, Marriott Library

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Deseret Evening News (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920

Dates of Publication

  • 1867-1920

Created / Published

  • Great Salt Lake City [Utah] : G.Q. Cannon, 1867-1920.

Headings

  • -  Salt Lake City (Utah)--Newspapers
  • -  Utah--Salt Lake City
  • -  United States--Utah--Salt Lake--Salt Lake City

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sunday)
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 21, 1867)-v. 32, no. 34 (Dec. 31, 1898); 49th yr., no. 35 (Jan. 3, 1899)-53rd yr., no. 92 (Mar. 9, 1903); 53rd yr. (Mar. 10, 1903)-70th yr. (June 14, 1920).
  • -  Editors: G.Q. Cannon, 1867-1873; D.O. Calder, 1873-1877.
  • -  "Pioneer paper of the Rocky Mountain region."
  • -  Assumes v. numbering of weekly ed., Deseret weekly, with Jan. 3, 1899 issue.
  • -  Archived issues are available as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Weekly eds.: Deseret news (Salt Lake City, Utah : 1850), 1867-1888, and: Deseret weekly, 1888-1898.
  • -  Semiweekly eds.: Deseret news (Salt Lake City, Utah : 1865), 1867-<1871>, and: Deseret news. Semi-weekly, <1873-1888>, and: Deseret semi-weekly news, <1889>-1920.
  • -  Deseret news (Salt Lake City, Utah : 1920) 2640-8783 (DLC)sn 84037033 (OCoLC)11256374

Medium

  • 54 volumes : illustrations ; 56-66 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper 9943
  • AN

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83045555

OCLC Number

  • 9505727

ISSN Number

  • 1941-0670

Succeeding Titles

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.

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Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

Deseret Evening News Great Salt Lake City Utah -1920. (Salt Lake City, UT), Jan. 1 1867. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83045555/.

APA citation style:

(1867, January 1) Deseret Evening News Great Salt Lake City Utah -1920. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83045555/.

MLA citation style:

Deseret Evening News Great Salt Lake City Utah -1920. (Salt Lake City, UT) 1 Jan. 1867. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83045555/.