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, who were, at that time, the official state printers 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, becoming 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. An early version of "America the Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates first appeared in The Boston Evening Transcript on November 19, 1904. Hazel Hall's first published poem "To an English Sparrow", first appeared in The Transcript in 1916.
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 19,730 tons, from Liverpool on 24 September 1940 bound for Boston.
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
Justin Brooks Atkinson, police reporter, assistant to the drama critic, H. T. Parker,.
David Washburn Bailey, sports reporter and drama critic, assistant dramatic editor.
Clarence W. Barron, Transcript reporter.
William Stanley Braithwaite, served as literary editor.
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. Huckins letter to Rachel Carson inspired the book Silent Spring.
Charles E. Hurd, literary editor, 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.
John P. Marquand, was a staff writer on the paper and later on its bi-weekly magazine after he graduated from Harvard College.
Howard Mumford Jones, book editor.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., reporter.
Kenneth Macgowan, drama critic.
Joseph Palmer, acting editor.
Henry Taylor Parker, music, dance and drama critic.
Edmund Pearson, writer of the column, The Librarian from 1906 to 1920.
Lucien Price, 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.
Cornelia Wells Walter, editor, and theater critic.
Anne Wiesman society editor.
Lynde M. Walter, editor, and one of the Transcript's founders.
