Boston Evening Transcript

Boston Evening Transcript, November 5, 1903
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	The Boston Transcript Company
Founded	July 24, 1830[1]
Ceased publication	April 30, 1941
Language	English
Headquarters	324Washington Street,Boston,Massachusetts, U.S.
Price	5¢ at time that it ceased publishing.[2]

TheBoston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper inBoston,Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.^[2]

The Transcript was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of Dutton and Wentworth, which was, at that time, the official state printer ofMassachusetts.^[3] and Lynde Walter who was also the first editor of theTranscript.^[4] Dutton and Wentworth agreed to this as long as Walter would pay the expenses of the initial editions of the newspaper.^[4]

In 1830,The Boston Evening Bulletin, which had been a penny paper, ceased publication. Lynde Walter decided to use the opening provided to start a new evening penny paper in Boston. Walter approached Dutton and Wentworth with the proposal that he would edit the paper and that they would do the printing and circulation.^[4]

The Transcript first appeared on July 24, 1830,^[1] however after three days Walter suspended publication of the paper until he could build up his patronage. After Walter canvassed the city to better develop the paper's businessThe Transcript resumed publication on August 28, 1830.^[5]

After Lynde Walter died, his sister,Cornelia Wells Walter, who had been theTranscript's theatre critic, became editor of theTranscript at the age of 29,^[6] the first woman to be appointed editor of a major American daily newspaper. Cornelia Walter served as the editor ofThe Transcript from 1842 to 1847.^[7]

TheTranscript's offices were destroyed in theGreat Boston Fire of 1872. After the Great Fire,The Transcript's offices onWashington Street were rebuilt and expanded.^[8]

In 1847, the poetEpes Sargent became editor of the paper. Many literary and poetic works debuted in theTranscript's pages.William Stanley Braithwaite was an influential literary editor from 1906-31. He elevated the works of contemporary American poets and wrote an annual survey of poems published in American magazines.

An early version of "America the Beautiful" byKatharine Lee Bates first appeared inThe Boston Evening Transcript on November 19, 1904.^[9]

Hazel Hall (poet)'s first published poem "To an English Sparrow", first appeared inThe Transcript in 1916.^[10]

T. S. Eliot wrote the poem "The 'Boston Evening Transcript" referencing the newspaper in 1915.

Features and columns included: "Suburban Scenes", "The Listener", "The Nomad", "The Librarian", "Saturday Night Thoughts", and an extensive book reviews and music criticism.The Transcript also had aWashington, D.C. bureau, college sports pages, and a department of Bridge. In addition,The Transcript had a well known genealogy column.

Harvard Medical School's first U.S. animalvivisection lab raised concern from then editor-in-chief Edward Clement, and the paper subsequently ran a series of anti-vivisection editorials.^[11]

In the summer of 1940, as Britain faced invasion inWorld War II, children were being evacuated overseas under a British government scheme known as theChildren's Overseas Reception Board. The readers of theBoston Evening Transcript readily responded and agreed to sponsor a group of children. A group of 48 children left England onRMS Scythia fromLiverpool on 24 September 1940 bound forBoston.^[12]

Because of the genealogy column,The Transcript is of value to historians and others. Gary Boyd Roberts of theNew England Historic Genealogical Society noted:

TheBoston Evening Transcript, like theNew York Times today, was anewspaper of record. Its genealogical column, which usually ran twice or more a week for several decades in the early twentieth century, was often an exchange among the most devoted and scholarly genealogists of the day. Many materials not published elsewhere are published therein.^[13]

The Boston Evening Transcript is the title of a poem byT. S. Eliot, which reads:

The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript

Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.

When evening quickens faintly in the street,

Wakening the appetites of life in some

And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,

I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning

Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye toRochefoucauld,

If the street were time and he at the end of the street,

And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."

• Boston Daily Advertiser
• Boston Herald
• The Boston Globe
• The Boston Journal
• The Boston News-Letter
• The Boston Post
• The Boston Record

• Boston Evening Transcript records atBaker Library/Bloomberg Center's Special Collections atHarvard Business School

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBoston Evening Transcript.

• Daily Evening Transcript, 1830-1853 Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
• Boston Evening Transcript, 1854-1866, 1872-1941 Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
• Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 1866-1872 Issues digitized by Boston Public Library
• Boston Evening Transcript atLibrary of Congress

• Boston Evening Transcript
• 1830 establishments in Massachusetts
• 1941 disestablishments in Massachusetts
• Daily newspapers published in the United States
• Defunct companies based in Massachusetts
• Defunct newspapers published in Massachusetts
• Evening newspapers
• Newspapers established in 1830
• Newspapers published in Boston
• Publications disestablished in 1941
• Defunct daily newspapers

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2025
• Commons category link from Wikidata