The Sunday Herald Archive

The Sunday Herald was published by Captain Ira N. Burritt. Born in Pennsylvania, Burritt joined the Union Army and fought at the battle of Gettysburg where he was wounded. He recovered and served out the rest of the Civil War rising to the rank of captain. After leaving the army, he settled in Washington, DC and founded the Sunday Herald on April 1, 1866.

The paper primarily covered national and international politics. Popular topics included party in-fighting and pubic squabbles between politicians. The paper featured some local news but it catered to the interests of political and local elites, such as the front-page society column which chronicled travels of prominent politicians as they shuttled back and forth between Washington, DC, and their constituencies or their summer retreats. It also covered weddings, parties, and occasional social scandals. The newspaper also featured coverage of sporting and theatrical events.

Burritt claimed the paper was politically independent, but it leaned strongly towards the Democratic Party. During election campaigns, the papers usually supported the Democratic Party candidate such as Horace Greeley's Presidential bid in 1872. The scandals surrounding the Republican administration of Ulysses S Grant were cover in detail. Burritt also sparred with his rivals at the National Republican, another Washington, DC paper, that leaned toward the Republican Party.

In 1888, doctors diagnosed Burritt with bladder cancer. He died in November of that year. The paper suspended publication.

As noted in the Washington Critic on June 17, 1889, Washington, DC editors, J.H. Soule and A.T. Hensey revived the title on June 16, 1889. Soule previously edited the United States Record and Gazette, a monthly publication "devoted to pension, bounties, land claims, patents, postal affairs and the Army and Navy."

Soule expanded the number of pages from 4 to 16. He continued the publication's affinity for the Democratic Party. He also maintained the society column as an important feature, and it was moved from the front page to an inner full page. The newspaper was also renamed the Sunday Herald and National Intelligencer, unrelated to the earlier National Intelligencer that had folded in 1869. The title ceased publication in 1892.