Boston Evening Transcript

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.

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. and Lynde Walter who was also the first editor of the ''Transcript''. Dutton and Wentworth agreed to this as long as Walter would pay the expenses of the initial editions of the newspaper.

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.

''The Transcript'' first appeared on July 24, 1830, 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.

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, 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.

Great Fire

The ''Transcript''s offices were destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872. After the Great Fire, ''The Transcript''s offices on Washington Street were rebuilt and expanded.

Literary influence

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.

An early version of "America the Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates first appeared in ''The Boston Evening Transcript'' on November 19, 1904.

Hazel Hall (poet)'s first published poem "To an English Sparrow", first appeared in ''The Transcript'' in 1916.

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.

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.

Genealogical columns

Because of the genealogy column, ''The Transcript'' is of value to historians and others. Gary Boyd Roberts of the New England Historic Genealogical Society noted:

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.

Contributors

*Brooks Atkinson, police reporter, assistant to the drama critic, H. T. Parker, (1919–1922)
* Clarence W. Barron, ''Transcript'' reporter (1875–1887)
* William Stanley Braithwaite, literary editor (1906–1931)
* Virginia Lee Burton, sketch artist
* Edward Downes, music critic
* John A. Holmes, served as poetry editor for eight years
* Francis H. Jenks, music and dramatic editor 1881–1894
* Howard Mumford Jones, book editor
* Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., reporter
* Kenneth Macgowan, drama critic
* John P. Marquand, was a staff writer on the paper and later on its bi-weekly magazine after he graduated from Harvard College
* John U. Monro, journalist and later dean of Harvard College
* Henry Taylor Parker, music, dance and drama critic (1905–1934)
* Edmund Pearson, (1880–1937) writer of the column, ''The Librarian'' from 1906 to 1920
* Lucien Price, (1907–1914) assistant music and drama critic, editorial writer, and journalist
* Epes Sargent, editor
* Paul Secon, music critic who also co-founded the Pottery Barn
* Nicolas Slonimsky, music writer
* C. Antoinette Wood, early 20th century American woman writer and playwright

In popular literature

''The Boston Evening Transcript'' is the title of a poem by T. S. Eliot, which reads:

:The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript
:Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.
:When evening quickens faintly in the street,
:Wakening the appetites of life in some
:And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,
:I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning
:Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld,
:If the street were time and he at the end of the street,
:And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."

See also

*'' Boston Daily Advertiser''
* ''Boston Herald''
* ''The Boston Globe''
* '' The Boston Journal''
* ''The Boston News-Letter''
* '' The Boston Post''
* '' The Boston Record''

References

Archives and records

Boston Evening Transcript records
at Baker Library/Bloomberg Center's Special Collections at Harvard Business School

External links

''Daily Evening Transcript, 1830-1853''
Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
''Boston Evening Transcript, 1854-1866, 1872-1941''
Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
''Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 1866-1872''
Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
''Boston Evening Transcript''
at Library of Congress

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boston Evening Transcript

1830 establishments in Massachusetts
1941 disestablishments in Massachusetts
Daily newspapers published in the United States
Defunct companies based in Massachusetts
Defunct newspapers published in Massachusetts
Evening newspapers
Newspapers established in 1830
Newspapers published in Boston
Publications disestablished in 1941