The Morning Journal-Courier Archive

Founded in 1848, the Morning Journal and Courier was an important source of news in the bustling industrial and railroad center of New Haven, Connecticut. The masthead proclaimed it as the "Largest Daily Newspaper in the City." In 1885, Rowell's advertising directory situated the Journal and Courier as one of five publications, including the New Haven Morning News, the New Haven Union, the New Haven Evening Register, and the New Haven Daily Palladium, that sold between 3,000 and 5,000 issues in a city of 70,000. The prominent Republican businessman John Bennett Carrington, Sr. (1811-1881), who took over full ownership of the Journal and Courier in 1875, directed a horse railroad company, a bank, a utility company, and several manufacturing firms. As editor, the senior Carrington aimed to create a "family paper," "conservative in tone," consistently Republican in outlook, but not "unduly partisan." After his death, his son, John B. Carrington (1849-1929), became president and treasurer of the Carrington Publishing Company, making the family name integral to the history of journalism in New Haven. The junior Carrington was also deeply involved in the business and finance of the city, serving at various times as a bank president and the vice-president of a local railroad company.

Not surprisingly, the Journal and Courier carried numerous columns and features devoted to financial news and municipal affairs. Annual round-ups of special interest to the business community, including incidents of fire damage and the state of railroad financing, were prominent New Year features. Local social and court news was covered in "Brief Mentions" and "In and About the Courts." Regional, national, and international news appeared in "News by Telegraph," "New England," and "The National Capitol." In addition, a reader could find reports from the nearby towns of North Haven, Southington, Fair Haven, Wallingford, and Westville. Being aligned with the "party of Lincoln," the Journal and Courier reprinted items from the house organ of a Connecticut-based African American civil rights group, the Sumner League. Articles published between 1894 and 1904 document efforts to end discrimination in Connecticut public accommodations.

The Journal and Courier editorial team liked to claim a lineage that began with a weekly called the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy that was first issued in 1767, but this relationship is difficult to document. More certainly related are numerous titles that succeeded the Morning Journal and Courier, including the Daily Morning Journal and Courier (1894-1907). The family of newspapers also includes the Morning Journal-Courier (1907-13) and the New Haven Journal-Courier(1913-32). The latter reportedly merged with the New Haven Times, a title that is documented in the city directories but for which there seems to be no extant copies or catalog records. The merger led to the debut of the New Haven Journal-Courier and New Haven Times in 1932. The paper's title reverted to New Haven Journal-Courier in 1959, and changed to the Journal-Courier in 1973. Finally, in 1987, the Journal-Courier was absorbed by the long-lived New Haven Register.