Addendum to byline story

Joe Campbell has pointed out that, according to one scholar, some writers put their names on newspaper stories as early as the mid-1830s. In my own reading of newspapers of that era, I have not seen writer's names on stories, but I trust that is the case. So to say that the the byline was "born" during the Civil War is not accurate.

It is worth noting, I believe, that during the Civil War no reporters put their names on stories for various reasons until General Joseph Hooker's order.  The reason for the order--that writers should be held responsible for what they wrote--is what I would argue is significant about the event.

In any case, I apologize for being misleading in my account and want to set the record straight.

Marathon runner now a photo icon

The Washington Post has an interesting story this week about how the runner captured in the Boston bombing photograph has joined the ranks of history's icons. The runner, Bill Iffrig, 78, of Lake Stevens, Wash., is now part of a group that includes the firefighter from Oklahoma City and the young woman at Kent State, among others.

As the story notes, “Historically, the photographs we tend to remember are not the ones that capture the whole of a tragedy — a broad battlefield — but the ones that depict the personal effects of one . .  .” A single image of a single person “can be tremendously evocative and distill the essence of a tragedy,” says Ann Shumard, the curator of photographs for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “To focus on just one person in the midst of all this swirling chaos — I think that’s probably the first step to coming to terms with what has happened.”

Iffrig did not see the photograph until several days after the bombing. He had seen on the news the widely circulated video of him falling, and he knew that a lot of people wanted to interview him. But he had not seen the photograph until a gate agent at the airport pulled him aside and said, “I have something for you.” Like others captured in tragic events, he doesn't know what to make of his new place in history. But he certainly has a place.

Birth of the byline

Here's my account of the birth of the byline during the Civil War, published in the "Disunion" blog of the New York Times. The blog, which uses contemporary accounts, diaries, and images, is one of the best places to read about various aspects of the Civil War as it unfolded 150 years ago. I'm proud to have contributed two articles to it.

A great visit to the University of Mobile

Thanks to Lonnie Burnett and the good folks at the University of Mobile for their warm hospitality during my visit last week. I gave the university's annual Hinson Lecture and the title of my talk was "Blue and Gray in Black and White: Civil War Journalism." I enjoyed talking to students, faculty and residents, including members of the Civil War Roundtable.

Historic trial newspaper discovered

Few things get historians more excited than discovering new sources. That's what has happened to Davis Houck, a professor at Florida State University and the author of a book about media coverage of the infamous Emmett Till murder. Till was the 14-year-old boy who allegedly whistled at a white woman and was brutally killed.

The trial of the two men accused of the murder drews reporters from the white and black press. Houck has studied the reporting of the trial, but a few years ago found that that another black newspaper, the St. Louis Argus, also had a journalist there.  The problem was that the newspaper's archive was missing.

But recently Houck and his students at FSU discovered the missing issues in a historical archive in Missouri. The discovery is already a treasure trove, with never-before-seen pictures of the NAACP's Medgar Evers, as well as stories written during the trial. "This is just going to be another layer for us to process," he told National Public Radio. "Another layer of what it was like to be black in the Jim Crow South covering this case."