New Digital Collection: News Dispatches from the Associated Press from 1915 to 1930 Now Online

From the Library of Congress:

Historical news reports and breaking news bulletins published by the Washington bureau of The Associated Press from 1915 to 1930, documenting a full chronology of world and national events, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress.

About the Collection

The AP collection includes 375 volumes of wire copy, totaling more than 387,000 images.

The collection includes news dispatches from key moments in history, from the sinking of the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915, drawing the U.S. into World War I, through the roaring 1920s to the stock market crash of 1929 and the outbreak of the Great Depression.

The Associated Press was formed in 1846 by five newspapers in New York City.  Other regional AP associations soon followed, as did individual bureaus in major American cities, as the telegraph and the railroad began linking the country together in the 1860s. Eventually, these later merged into one national news cooperative, headquartered in New York.

The Washington bureau gave the news dispatches to the Library of Congress in 1944. The collection provides an unbroken chronology not only of world events, but also of national and local news, such as a daily report on the “Condition of the U.S. Treasury” and a “Lead Crop Report” describing the size of the year’s winter wheat crop.

Collections Highlights

• A 1915 bulletin on the sinking of the Lusitania and Washington’s reaction;
• A report on President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress for a declaration of war to enter World War I in 1917;
• A 1918 bulletin on Wilson signing an armistice to end the war with Germany and report on Wilson signing the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919;
• News that the Senate voted 56-25 on June 4, 1919, approving a resolution for women’s suffrage and sending the constitutional amendment to the states for ratification;
• Reports that the Senate passed a prohibition act over the president’s veto in October 1919 to prevent the sale of alcoholic beverages;
• Coverage of Charles Lindbergh’s first solo trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927;
• Washington’s reaction to the stock market crash of 1929.

Direct to Complete Launch Announcement

Direct to Digital Collection: Associated Press News Dispatches, 1915 to 1930

See Also: Chronology Of Key Events in the Corporate History Of The Associated Press News Service and its Washington, D.C., Bureau (via LOC)

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News, Reports