Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Telegram, St. John's NL

Image of first issue from Heritage Newfoundland

Now called simply The Telegram, this newspaper soldiers on, including of course, an online version. Notice the biggest headline: "Latest by Telegraph." At the time, the undersea cable had recently been laid across the Atlantic from Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, now a historic site.

This evening paper got its start in April 1879. It would be another 70 years, however, before the final province joined the Canadian federation, so this was not a Canadian paper -- yet. From 1879 to 1958, it was published daily except Sundays.

As a Newfoundlander, my mother had to emigrate when she married: she left in 1946, three years before Newfoundland joined Confederation. She had fond memories of the Evening Telegram, and I remember, even as a child, being surprised that this paper came out in the evening from its early beginnings. In their heyday, of course. many newspapers had both early and late editions.

There were Newfoundland papers more venerable than the Telegram. The Public Ledger, the Patriot, the Times and the Newfoundlander, However, though they started as early as the 1820s, did not last out the nineteenth century.

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