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Newspaper Lietuva (Chicago, Ill.) 1892-1920 Published with English title: Lithuania

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About Lietuva (Chicago, Ill.) 1892-1920

On December 10, 1892, Stanley Rokos (Rokosas) founded Lietuva (“Lithuania”) in the Chicago printing house of Reforma (“Reform”),his unsuccessful Polish-American weekly newspaper. After publishing only seven issues and at odds with his editor, John Grinius, Rokos sold Lietuva to A.V. Zaliauskas. The latter moved the printing shop without notifying Rokos, who held the shop under mortgage. Caught in the enduring feud between the two associates, Zaliauskas found himself arrested. In the end, Rokos sold the newspaper to Peter Zacharevicius and Simon Lelasius for the mortgaged value. Faced with financial turmoil, the new owners soon sold Lietuva to Anthony Olsevskis (Olšauskis), who went on to manage the newspaper for the next 24 years. Olsevskis functioned as Lietuva‘s sole proprietor until December 14, 1895, when he hired L. Sernas (Joseph Adomaitis) as editor. Together, Sernas and Olsevskis successfully edited and published Lietuva as an independent, Lithuanian-American newspaper that celebrated full family immigration to America. At the same time, the paper encouraged the immigrants to remember their Lithuanian heritage rather than succumbing to total assimilation. Lietuva featured nationalistic undertones in its coverage of affairs both in the United States and abroad. Despite the Lithuanian-American community’s effort to promote its contributions to United States’ economy, Lietuva also supported the community’s economic solidarity with such ferocity that non-Lithuanian populations were sometimes pushed out of Lithuanian neighborhoods and business districts in Chicago. The result was greater segregation rather than mainstreaming for Lithuanian-Americans.

In later years, Lietuva featured installments from current literature, claiming status as a “Literary” newspaper in N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual from 1905 to 1913. In 1909, Sernas was joined by two assistant editors to cope with the exponential growth of the newspaper. With constant changes in editorial policy, Sernas eventually decided to resign, leaving his position as editor with Bruno K. Balutis (Bronius K. Balutis). With changes of editor, alongside changes in the world-wide political environment with the outbreak of World War I, Lietuva shifted its focus to cover topics related to the war and the Lithuanian homeland. An inevitable shift in the newspaper’s voice was indicative of the conflict’s impact on Lithuanians, both in Europe and the United States. Stories about “Didysis Karas,” (the “Great War”) later “Didēji Karē,” appeared throughout the newspaper. A front-page spread, sometimes spanning several pages recounted events of the war in photographs, illustrations, and the text.

In 1916, Olsevskis’s work in reorganizing the Universal State Bank took priority over his other business pursuits. He sold Lietuva to Joseph J. Baciunas and John. P. Pajauskas. In 1918, the two men reinvented Lietuva as a daily, publishing features representative of nations and peoples affected by war. Under the editorship of J. Gedminas, Lietuva continued as a daily publication through May 8, 1920.

Provided By: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Lietuva (Chicago, Ill.) 1892-1920

Other Title

  • Published with English title: Lithuania

Dates of Publication

  • 1892-1920

Created / Published

  • Chicago, Ill. : Lithuanian Pub. Co., 1892-1920.

Headings

  • -  Lithuanian Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanians--United States--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian American newspapers--Illinois--Chicago
  • -  Chicago (Ill.)--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian American newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian Americans
  • -  Lithuanians
  • -  Illinois--Chicago
  • -  United States
  • -  United States--Illinois--Cook--Chicago

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sunday), Nov. 23, 1918-May 8, 1920
  • -  Met. 1, no. 1 (gr. 10, 1892)-m. 26, no. 110 (geg. 8, 1920).
  • -  Issues for Nov. 23, 1918-May 8, 1920 called also: M. 1-3.
  • -  Aug. 31, 1917-Dec. 1919 Available on microfilm; Center for Research Libraries.
  • -  Preservation microfilmed in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library as part of the United States Newspaper Program; the years 1908-1916, 1920 (on 4 microfilm reels) are available for purchase from OCLC Preservation Service Centers. Issues for Jan. 2-May 8, 1920 filmed with: Amerikos Lietuva, Aug. 26, 1914-May 25, 1915.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In Lithuanian.

Medium

  • 26 volumes : illustrations ; 56 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83045284

OCLC Number

  • 9406688

ISSN Number

  • 2643-6361

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Lietuva Chicago, Ill. -1920. (Chicago, IL), Jan. 1 1892. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83045284/.

APA citation style:

(1892, January 1) Lietuva Chicago, Ill. -1920. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83045284/.

MLA citation style:

Lietuva Chicago, Ill. -1920. (Chicago, IL) 1 Jan. 1892. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83045284/.