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Newspaper Burt's Among the Clouds (Mount Washington, N.H.) 1877-1884 Among the clouds

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About Burt's Among the Clouds (Mount Washington, N.H.) 1877-1884

Among the Clouds was the first summer-resort newspaper in America, published daily on the summit of Mount Washington during the golden age of hotel tourism in New Hampshire’s rugged White Mountains region. The paper was the brainchild of Henry Martyn Burt (1831-1899), a career publisher based in Springfield, MA. Burt was drawn north in his thirties after reading the influential traveler’s guide The White Hills by Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King. Inspired, Burt endeavored to publish his own guide to the White Mountains and greater Connecticut River valley, and he began taking frequent summer trips north to research. While preparing the second edition in 1874, Burt became storm-bound at the summit of Mt. Washington, and quickly grew bored. According to his eulogy in the July 14, 1899, issue of Among the Clouds, “the absence of reading material suggested to his keen journalistic intellect the publication of a paper on the mountain.” Three years later, having arranged for a Campbell cylinder press to be hauled up Mt. Washington by rail and stowed in the stone Tip Top House, the paper, initially titled Burt’s Among the Clouds, was born.

In his first editorial, issued July 20, 1877, Burt described the paper’s mountain home in transcendent terms: “We never feel so infinite as when we are looking upon these lofty mountains and the thousand beauties that are limited only by human vision.” His prose belies the difficulty of publishing a newspaper at 6,288 feet above sea level. In the early years, Burt’s employees frequently contended with extreme cold, high winds, a leaking roof, and an old smokey stovepipe in place of proper ventilation. Burt himself survived a lightning strike while typesetting the paper in 1883.

Demand was high, despite these hardships, and Among the Clouds grew into one of the summit’s main attractions. Burt planned press runs to correspond with the schedule of the mountain’s cog railroad, and printed the names of those arriving by the morning train so they could buy a souvenir copy on their way down in the afternoon. The paper’s office in the little Tip Top House was often tourists’ first exposure to a newspaper printing plant, and Burt would put visitors to work typesetting. In the paper’s second issue on July 21, 1877, he declared: “The visitors at this office who cannot set type are permitted to exercise themselves after walking up Mount Washington by turning the wheel of our press. It is very healthful.”

Not merely a tourist attraction, Among the Clouds grew into a vital source of news for summer visitors to the region. The paper regularly included columns on science, history, weather, and local attractions. Each day, reporters stationed in the surrounding resort towns of Bethlehem, Fabyan, and North Conway would rush up Mt. Washington on the last train. The paper was set and printed all night, then sent down the mountain to be distributed to subscribers. On slide boards, the bundles of newspapers could descend the three-mile cog railroad track in minutes.

By 1884, Burt’s Among the Clouds had outgrown its original home, and in the summer of 1885, moved into a new printing office near the Mt. Washington Summit House hotel. The paper was enlarged, its title changed to Among the Clouds, and a linotype machine was added to the office in 1898, vastly reducing the need for compositors. After Burt’s death in 1899, his son Frank Burt (1861-1946) followed him as the paper’s editor and publisher.

The paper’s success continued until 1908, when a devastating fire on Mt. Washington left nearly every summit structure in ashes. After a two-season hiatus, the paper returned in 1910, with Frank Burt as publisher, and Reginald Buckler as business manager. Not able to find a suitable home on the summit, Burt and Buckler moved the paper to the cog railroad base station near Fabyan, where they continued to print it for another eight seasons. When the cog suspended operation during World War I, Among the Clouds was forced to discontinue publication, ending its 40-year run.

Provided By: Dartmouth College

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Burt's Among the Clouds (Mount Washington, N.H.) 1877-1884

Other Title

  • Among the clouds

Names

  • Burt, Henry M. (Henry Martyn), 1831-1899

Dates of Publication

  • 1877-1884

Created / Published

  • Mount Washington, N.H. : Henry M. Burt, 1877-1884.

Headings

  • -  White Mountains (N.H. and Me.)--Newspapers
  • -  Washington, Mount (N.H.)--Newspapers
  • -  New Hampshire--Description and travel
  • -  New Hampshire--Social life and customs
  • -  Hotels--New Hampshire
  • -  Hotels
  • -  Manners and customs
  • -  Travel
  • -  New Hampshire
  • -  New Hampshire--Mount Washington
  • -  United States--White Mountains (New Hampshire and Maine)
  • -  United States--New Hampshire--Coos--Mount Washington

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sun.), July 16, 1883-Sept. 25, 1884
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 20, 1877)-v. 8, no. 46 (Sept. 25, 1884).
  • -  "The first daily newspaper printed on the summit of Mount Washington."
  • -  Published only during summer months.
  • -  Among the clouds (DLC)ca 05000846 (OCoLC)4998591

Medium

  • 8 volumes : illustrations ; 31-49 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • F41.6.W3 A5

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84031497

OCLC Number

  • 8429644

Succeeding Titles

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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:

Burt's Among the Clouds Mount Washington, N.H. -1884. (Mount Washington, NH), Jan. 1 1877. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84031497/.

APA citation style:

(1877, January 1) Burt's Among the Clouds Mount Washington, N.H. -1884. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84031497/.

MLA citation style:

Burt's Among the Clouds Mount Washington, N.H. -1884. (Mount Washington, NH) 1 Jan. 1877. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn84031497/.