An American Paper
A history of the News American

Documenting the City
Some of the many facets of Baltimore life

Good Sports
Sports in the Baltimore area

Politics and Government
The world of Baltimore and Maryland politics

Views of the Day: The Baltimore News American Photograph Collection

On May 27, 1986 the News American printed its final issue ending a Baltimore newspaper dynasty that began in 1773 with the Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser. An enduring legacy of this 213-year newspaper publishing tradition is the collection of over 1.5 million photographic images from the News American which the Hearst Corporation donated to the University of Maryland.

Photographs began appearing regularly in American newspapers in the early years of the twentieth century. To an American public already accustomed to illustrated books and magazines, newspaper photographs were yet another technological advance that wetted an appetite for visual documentation of the world. Fierce competition among daily newspapers forced editors and publishers to adopt the potent combination of words and images or face certain extinction.

Like their competitors in Baltimore, the papers that later became the News American assembled a stable of staff photographers whose pictures would draw readers into the story. The images produced by this activity were stored in the "morgue" which, over time, grew into a massive photographic collection. This exhibit seeks to display some of the diversity of images in the News American photo archives: from politics and sports to everyday life in Baltimore. These photographs represent the "Views of the Day."

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