Alaska Citizen Archive

Written in Fairbanks and published on a weekly basis, the Alaska Citizen provided readers global wire service, as well as news from throughout the interior. Its front pages often included illustrations by hand, usually of a political nature. According to its publisher block from 1914, the Citizen billed itself as "Democratic in Policy" and "The only Democratic paper published in interior Alaska," based on editor J. Harmon Caskey's own family history. After his uncle, Ohio governor Judson Harmon, ran for president in 1912 but lost the Democratic nomination to Woodrow Wilson, Caskey himself was elected to Alaska's Fourth Division Democratic Committee in Fairbanks and sought to produce a paper that reflected his political beliefs.

The start of the paper remains in dispute. While the earliest microfilm holdings of the Alaska Citizen place May 8, 1911, as its start, Judge James Wickersham's A Bibliography of Alaskan Literature lists the first issue of the Alaska Citizen as March 6, 1910, noting that its run ended January 26, 1920. The October 12, 1914 issue of the Citizen was the "Tanana Special Terminal Edition" and listed Tanana, Alaska, as the location of the paper.

Due to its change in frequency, the paper underwent a change in title and a daily paper splintered off, the Daily Alaska Citizen, which ran from July 1, 1916, until January 30, 1920. Between September 11 and October 21, 1917, the paper was called the Weekly Alaska Citizen.

The overlap in editors and management reflected changes in the paper as well. Lafe E. Spray served as editor from 1910 until an undisclosed year. J. Harmon Caskey was editor and manager from 1910 to 1911, and again from 1913 through 1920. In the 1912 interim, R. S. McDonald served as editor and Sam Lea was manager. Between 1910 and 1911, publishers of the Alaska Citizen are listed by Wickersham as the Citizen Printing Company, Caskey, George L. Bellows, and John J. Filbin. During the concurrent run of the Daily Alaska Citizen, Caskey was proprietor and John E. Pegues worked as editor and manager "till suspended."