Newspaper The Weekly Sun (New York [N.Y.]) 1851-1869 Sun / Issues for <July 3, 1861, Apr. 11, 1863, June 3-Dec. 30, 1865> called: Sun
About The Weekly Sun (New York [N.Y.]) 1851-1869
The New York Sun debuted on September 3, 1833, becoming the first successful penny daily, popular with the city’s less affluent, working classes. Its publisher, Benjamin H. Day, emphasized local events, police court reports, and sports in his four-page morning newspaper. Advertisements, notably help-wanted ads, were plentiful. By 1834, the Sun had the largest circulation in the United States. Its rising popularity was attributed to its readers’ passion for the Sun‘s sensational and sometimes fabricated stories and the paper’s exaggerated coverage of sundry scandals. Its success was also the result of the efforts of the city’s ubiquitous newsboys, who the innovative Day had hired to hawk the paper. The Sun added a Saturday edition in 1836. A number of weekly and semiweekly titles were also published, such as the Weekly Sun (1851-69), which shares the same masthead as the Sun with “Weekly” appearing in the title ornament.
The paper’s true glory days began in 1868 when Charles A. Dana, former managing editor of the New York Tribune, became part owner and editor. Dana endeavored to apply the art of literary craftsmanship to the news. Under him, the Sun became known as “the newspaperman’s newspaper,” featuring editorials, society news, and human-interest stories. A Sunday edition was added in 1875 and, later, a Saturday supplement appeared, offering book notices, essays, and fictional sketches by Bret Harte, Henry James, and other well-known writers. In the 1880s, the paper’s size increased to eight pages and in 1887 the Evening Sun hit the streets in two editions: Wall Street and Night
On September 21, 1897, in response to a letter from eight-year-old reader Virginia O’Hanlon (“Papa says ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?”), the paper published “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” This opinion piece by veteran newspaperman Francis P. Church, insisting that Santa Claus “exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,” caused an immediate sensation. It became one of the most famous editorials in newspaper publishing history; the Sun would reprint this editorial annually until 1949.
By 1910 the paper averaged some 15 pages, with Sunday editions triple that length. In 1916 entrepreneur Frank A. Munsey, owner of multiple other newspapers, purchased the Sun, and a series of mergers followed. In July 1916, the Sun briefly became the Sun and New York Press and then reverted to the Sun by the end of the month. In 1920, the Sun merged with the New York Herald, and the titles were combined to create the Sun and the New York Herald which appeared daily from February to September of 1920. In October 1920, the daily was split into the New York Herald and the Sun, absorbing the Evening Sun in the process. The Sun continued until January 5, 1950, when it merged with the New York World-Telegram and became the New York World-Telegram and the Sun. In 1966 that title became part of the World Journal Tribune; the latter folded the following year.
The Sun morgue of clipped newspaper articles is held by the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library. The Library of Congress Prints and Photograph Division holds an estimated one million photographs, which were assembled by the Sun and subsequent papers between the 1890s and 1967, in the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection.
Provided By: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden FoundationAbout this Newspaper
Title
- The Weekly Sun (New York [N.Y.]) 1851-1869
Other Title
- Sun
- Issues for called: Sun
Dates of Publication
- 1851-1869
Created / Published
- New York [N.Y.] : Beach Bros., -1869.
Headings
- - New York (N.Y.)--Newspapers
- - New York County (N.Y.)--Newspapers
- - New York (State)--New York
- - New York (State)--New York County
- - United States--New York--New York--New York
Genre
- Newspapers
Notes
- - Weekly
- - Began in 1851.
- - -v. 34, no. 1770 (Dec. 29, 1869).
- - "Weekly" appears within title ornament, 1851-1868.
- - Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
- - Daily eds.: Sun (New York, N.Y. : 1833), 1851-1869, and: Evening sun (New York, N.Y. : 1852), <1852>.
- - Semiweekly ed.: Semi-weekly sun (New York, N.Y.).
- - Description based on: July 5, 1851.
- - Dollar weekly sun (New York, N.Y.) (DLC)sn 99066041 (OCoLC)42843110
Medium
- v.
Call Number/Physical Location
- Newspaper
Library of Congress Control Number
- sn99066040
OCLC Number
- 42842812
ISSN Number
- 2330-5789
Preceding Titles
Succeeding Titles
Related Titles
- The Sun (New York [N.Y.]) 1833 to 1916
- The Evening Sun (New York [N.Y.]) 1852-185?
- The Semi-Weekly Sun ([New York, N.Y.]) 18??-18??
LCCN Permalink
Additional Metadata Formats
Availability
- View All Front Pages
- Check the “Libraries that Have It” tab for additional newspaper issues, or, if present, select the LCCN Permalink for more LC holdings