The Boston Transcript

The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.

Beginnings

''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, at 29, the editor of the ''Transcript'', the first woman to become the editor of a major American daily. 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’” in 1925.

Features and columns

Features and columns included: "Suburban Scenes", "The Listener", "The Nomad", "The Librarian", "Saturday Night Thoughts", as well as extensive book reviews and music criticism. ''The Transcript'' also had a Washington bureau, a 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 when 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 (Cunard Line) 19,730 tons, 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'' 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

*Justin Brooks Atkinson, police reporter, assistant to the drama critic, H. T. Parker, (1919–1922).
* David Washburn Bailey, sports reporter and drama critic, assistant dramatic editor (1922–1928).
* Clarence W. Barron, ''Transcript'' reporter (1875–1887).
*William Stanley Braithwaite, (1906–1931) served as literary editor.
*Virginia Lee Burton, sketch artist.
*Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, editor.
*Edward Henry Clement, editor-in-chief (1881–1906) and co-founder of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS).
* Albert C. Dieffenbach, editor of religion (1933–1941).
*Edward Downes, music critic.
*Edwin Francis Edgett, literary editor (1894–1938).
* Dr. Herbert H. Fletcher, editor of religion, associate managing editor, and founder and sole editor of ''The Churchman Afield'' department of ''The Saturday Evening Transcript''.
*Jeannette Leonard Gilder, writing under the pen name "Brunswick", Gilder was the New York correspondent of the ''Transcript''
* John A. Holmes, served as poetry editor for eight years.
*Olga Van Slyke Owens Huckins, literary editor (1939 to 1941). Huckins letter to Rachel Carson inspired the book ''Silent Spring''.
*Charles E. Hurd, literary editor (1875–1901), originated and conducted the Notes and Queries; and Genealogical departments, contributed to the Art, Dramatic and Editorial departments.
* Francis Henry Jenks, music and dramatic editor 1881–1894.
*Franklin Jordan, aviation editor.
*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
*Joseph Palmer, acting editor (1840–1842).
*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.
*Nicolas Slonimsky, music writer.
* Cornelia Wells Walter, editor (1842 to 1847), and theater critic.
* Anne Wiesman society editor.
* Lynde M. Walter, editor (1830–1840), and one of the ''Transcript's '' founders.

In popular literature

"The Boston Evening Transcript" is also 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 Special Collections, Harvard Business School.

External links

''The Boston Transcript'': a history of its first hundred years



Issue archive
at Google News

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boston Evening Transcript

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