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Category: Newspapers

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

The Soldier’s Letter: The Civil War from the Western Frontier

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library recently acquired a rare surviving copy of the complete run of a Civil War regimental newspaper, the Soldier's Letter of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry of the American military. More than a hundred regiments on both sides of the conflict printed at least one edition of a camp newspaper, but few survive and a complete run of one paper is even harder fo find today. The four-page Soldier's Letter, staunchly against slavery and the Confederacy, ran for 50 editions between 1864 until after the war ended in 1865. Though mostly concerned with the regiment's history and daily details of camp life, the paper shows that soldiers were more concerned about warring Native American tribes than they were Confederate units, and they would eventually form a military bridge between the Civil War and the Indian Wars that followed.

Posted in: Civil War, Native Americans, Newspapers

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Len Downie: The Washington Post Papers

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The papers of Leonard Downie Jr., who started as an intern at The Washington Post in the 1960s concluded his career with a 17-year run as executive editor, are now available for researchers in the Library's Manuscript Division. They offer insight on the Post's inner workings on such stories as Watergate, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, the Valerie Plame affair, 9/11, the Unabomber and much more.

Posted in: Manuscripts, New Online, Newspapers, Washington DC