In the spring of 1869, a two-column-inch piece titled “The Great New York Fire in 1835” began appearing in newspapers around the country. Written as a reminiscence “clipped from the columns of the Philadelphia Inquirer,” the piece was actually an advertisement for Aetna Insurance, describing the moment when Aetna’s president had first informed his board…

This post was written by Mariam Touba, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections It was to hit the newsstands fifty years ago this week:  a desperate effort to save the great New York City daily newspaper.  The new paper’s hybrid name, World Journal Tribune, sounded forlorn even then. The new title represented an attempt to merge…