Top of page

Notice
In observance of the Federal holiday on Monday, February 16, the Jefferson Building Great Hall and exhibitions will be open from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. to guests with timed-entry passes. Reading rooms will be closed to researchers.
Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Seattle Star (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947

View All Front Pages

About The Seattle Star (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947

Newspaper magnate E. W. (Edward Willis) Scripps once wrote that “the best community in which to found a newspaper is one that is comparatively young and whose population has in very recent time increased.” With a population of 40,000 and growing, Seattle at the turn of the century fit Scripps’ description well. Scripps hired editor E. Hazard Wells to found his latest venture, the Seattle Star, on February 2, 1899.

Scripps’ papers generally supported the principle of public ownership. The Star was a strong advocate of a 1902 ballot initiative to allow the city of Seattle to generate its own power, for instance. When Editor Wells planned to start a newspaper in Tacoma (the Tacoma Times), Scripps proposed borrowing money for the venture from employees. The notes promised to pay 6 percent interest for two years. This idea grew into the Newspaper Saving Society and the First Investment Company, a form of employee ownership.

Scripps thought that advertising had a corrupting effect on journalism. In 1903 the Bon Marché department store stopped advertising in the Star because the editorial staff refused to suppress unfavorable articles about the store. When the Star‘s business manager Edwin Foster Chase told Scripps that he regretted losing the contract, Scripps congratulated him instead. To reduce his papers’ reliance on advertising, Scripps focused on increasing circulation and limiting advertising space in order to inflate the value of that space.

Though Scripps generally took a hands-off approach to the daily management of his newspapers, he conceived of his business as a service to the working people. Occasionally his editorial staff would drift from the central mission of supporting the interests of labor and the poor, and Scripps felt the need to intervene. For instance, when Star Editor Byron Hilton Canfield opposed the Seattle General Strike of 1919, Scripps wrote a heated “disquisition” in response. It appears under the title of “Ingratitude?” in I Protest: Selected Disquisitions of E. W. Scripps, edited by Oliver Knight (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966). The Seattle Star remained in publication until 1947.

Provided By: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Seattle Star (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947

Dates of Publication

  • 1899-1947

Created / Published

  • Seattle, Wash. : E.H. Wells & Co.

Headings

  • -  Seattle (Wash.)--Newspapers
  • -  Washington (State)--Seattle
  • -  United States--Washington--King--Seattle

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sunday)
  • -  Began in 1899.
  • -  -v. 49, no. 144 (Aug. 13, 1947).
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 2 (Feb. 27, 1899).

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn87093407

OCLC Number

  • 17285351

ISSN Number

  • 2159-5577

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.

The NEH awardee responsible for producing each digital object is presented in the Chronicling America page display, below the page image – e.g. Image produced by the Library of Congress. For more information on current NDNP awardees, see https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/listawardees.html.

For more information on Library of Congress policies and disclaimers regarding rights and reproductions, see https://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html

Cite This Item

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

Chicago citation style:

The Seattle Star Seattle, Wash. -1947. (Seattle, WA), Jan. 1 1899. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87093407/.

APA citation style:

(1899, January 1) The Seattle Star Seattle, Wash. -1947. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87093407/.

MLA citation style:

The Seattle Star Seattle, Wash. -1947. (Seattle, WA) 1 Jan. 1899. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn87093407/.