“The Newsgirl Question”: Competing Frames of Progressive Era Girl Newsies

Abstract

It was a much-repeated line in newspapers across the US: While newsboys could make money selling papers by keeping their eyes peeled, their female counterparts could only sell papers by keeping their eyes appealing. This oft-repeated adage is an example of the gendered experiences of Progressive Era newsgirls—girls and young women who hawked newspapers as newsies on city streets. Newsgirls took up a disproportionate amount of public conversation during this period compared to their male counterparts, yet they have been brushed past by historians. This research suggests the image of newsgirls was strategically framed and exploited to further reformer’s causes, bolster newspapers’ business, or excuse the public’s equal parts of apathy and fascination.

Notes

1 “News-girls of New York,” Sun (New York, NY), December 6, 1896.

2 “Newsgirl Queen Dead in New York,” Washington Times (Washington, DC), November 29, 1910; “Winnie Horn, ‘Newsy’ Queen Found Dead,” Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), November 29, 1910.

3 Jones, Mary Graham, “The Newsgirl Question,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), February 11, 1905.

4 “New York Notes,” Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA), April 16, 1896.

5 “Bride of a Jolly Tar,” Topeka State Journal (Topeka, KS), April 25, 1899.

6 “Winnie, the Newsgirl,” Sun (New York, NY), November 29, 1896.

7 “Winnie Horn, ‘Newsy’ Queen Found Dead,” Record-Journal (Meriden, CT),

November 29, 1910.

8 See “Winnie, the Newsgirl,” Sun (New York, NY), November 29, 1896; “Winnie Horn’s Engagement,” Sun (New York, NY), December 26, 1904; “Winnie Horn, ‘Newsy’ Queen Found Dead,” Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), November 29, 1910; “Winsome Winnie is Dead,” Topeka State Journal (Topeka, KS), November 29, 1910; “PROTESTS AGAINST NEWSGIRLS HERE,” Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, WA), June 17, 1911.

9 Raymond Fuller and Mabel A. Strong, Child Labor in Massachusetts (Boston: Massachusetts Child Labor Committee, 1926), 47.

10 Vincent DiGirolamo, Crying the News: A History of America’s Newsboys (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 8.

11 Of the many sources that discuss newsies, Peter C. Baldwin’s Domesticating the Street includes the most description of newsgirls. Other sources, such as Vincent DiGirolamo’s 2019 Crying the News, choose purposely not to include in-depth analysis of newsgirls. See DiGirolamo, Crying the News, 8; Peter C. Baldwin, Domesticating the Street: The Reform of Public Space in Hartford, 1850-1930 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999). See also Vincent DiGirolamo, “Newsboy Funerals: Tales of Sorrow and Solidarity in Urban America,” Journal of Social History 36, no. 1 (Autumn 2002): 5–30; David Nasaw, Children of the City at Work and at Play, (New York, NY: Anchor Books, 1985); Jon Bekken, “Crumbs from the Publishers’ Golden Tables: The Plight of the Chicago Newsboy,” Media History 6, no. 1 (2000): 45–57; Jon Bekken, “Newsboys: The Exploitation of ‘Little Merchants’ by the Newspaper Industry,” in Newsworkers: Toward a History of the Rank and File (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).

12 For example, neither the Broadway play Newsies! Nor the 1992 film Newsies include any newsgirls at all. Newsies, directed by Kenny Ortega.

13 Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), 21.

14 Goffman, Frame Analysis, 21.

15 Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality (New York: Free Press, 1978), 192.

16 Robert M. Entman, “Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power,” Journal of Communication 57, no. 1 (March 2007): 164.

17 John A. Fliter, Child Labor in America: The Epic Legal Struggle to Protect Children (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2018), 242.

18 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 1921), 57.

19 Massachusetts became the first state on April 16, 1852 to pass a law that made school attendance compulsory. See John A. Fliter, Child Labor in America: The Epic Legal Struggle to Protect Children (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2018), 241.

20 DiGirolamo, Crying the News, 1.

21 DiGirolamo, Crying the News, 28, 168.

22 Trattner, Crusade for the Children, 11.

23 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” PhD diss., (Catholic University of America, 1921), 57-59.

24 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” 19.

25 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” 77.

26 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” 87.

27 Miriam E. Loughran, “The Historical Development of Child-Labor Legislation in the United States,” 12; Paige Gray, Cub Reporters: American Children’s Literature and Journalism in the Golden Age (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019), 94.

28 Ann Taylor Allen, “Gender, Professionalization, and the Child in the Progressive Era: Patty Smith Hill, 1868-1946,” Journal of Women’s History 23, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 112–36; Baldwin, Domesticating the Street; Baldwin, “‘Nocturnal Habits and Dark Wisdom,’” 593–611; Eileen Boris, “Reconstructing the ‘Family’: Women, Progressive Reform, and the Problem of Social Control,” in Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1991); Elizabeth V. Burt, The Progressive Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1890 to 1914 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004); Coclanis and Bruchey, Ideas, Ideologies, and Social Movements; Noralee Frankel and Nancy S. Dye, eds., Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1991); Fuller and Strong, Child Labor; Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes.”

29 Quoted in Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 853.

30 Elizabeth V. Burt, The Progressive Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1890 to 1914(Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004), 24.

31 US Department of Labor Children’s Bureau, Handbook of Federal Statistics of Children, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913) 32; “CHILD STREET-TRADING.” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), January 29, 1902; Nasaw, Children of the City, 72-73.

32 US Department of Labor Children’s Bureau, Handbook, 32.

33 US Department of Labor Children’s Bureau, Handbook, 25; Baldwin, Domesticating the Street, 95-96.

34 McGerr, A Fierce Discontent, 108; Burt, The Progressive Era, 2.

35 McGerr, A Fierce Discontent 107-108.

36 “Miss Loveliness,” Somerset Herald (Somerset, PA), September 6, 1893; “News Girls Increase,” Times (Philadelphia), April 1, 1894; “Union for Home Work,” Hartford (CT) Courant (Hartford, CT), May 16, 1894; Burt, The Progressive Era, 7.

37 See John George Brown, Morning Papers, 1899, oil on canvas, 24 by 16 in., 1899, Collection of David C. Copley, La Jolla, California; “Types of the Newsboys and Newsgirls of Boston,” Boston Globe (Boston, MA), January 15, 1905.

38 George R. Scott, “My Honey,” Solomon Valley Democrat (Minneapolis, KS), August

31, 1899.

39 DiGirolamo, Crying the News, 328; “Oldest ‘Newsgirl’ is 17,” Daily Record (Long Branch, NJ), March 2, 1912; “Sacrificed Herself to Love,” Brunswick Times (Brunswick, NJ), July 18, 1897; George A. Hall, “The Newsboy,” in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Supplement: Uniform Child Labor Laws, vol. 38 (New York: New York Child Labor Committee, 1911); “Woman’s Sacrifice,” Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana), July 6, 1897.

40 Nasaw, Children of the City, 67; Burt, The Progressive Era, 12.

41 Bekken, “Crumbs”: 54; Trattner, Crusade for the Children, 9-10.

42 Nasaw, Children of the City, 67.

43 Elizabeth V. Burt, “A Bid for Legitimacy: The Woman’s Press Club Movement, 1881-1900,” Journalism History, 23, no. 2 (1996): 9.

44 “Waifs of the Midnight,” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), December 1890.

45 “In Woman’s Realm,” Gazette (Montreal, QC), January 7, 1893.

46 Bureau of the Census Library, “Children in Gainful Occupations,” Fourteenth Census of the United States (Washington, DC: Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census, 1924).

47 “Salt Lake City’s First Newsgirl is On Streets,” Salt Lake Telegram (Salt Lake City, UT), August 19, 1902; “Courageouus Women of the Street,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City, UT), February 28, 1903; Edward N. Clopper, “Child Merchants of the Street,” Child Merchants of the Street, May 1914.

48 “Newsgirls of the City,” Chicago Chronicle (Chicago, IL), November 1896.

49 Bureau of the Census Library, “Children,” 53.

50 “Annual Report” (New York: New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1905 1901) 10; “Sympathy for Mrs. Hayes,” World (New York), August 13, 1890; “To Care for Children,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), January 20, 1909; World (New York), Gerry Agent Who Arrested News-Girls Almost Mobbed, July 23, 1896, newspaper photograph, July 23, 1896.

51 “Newsgirls of the City,” Chicago Chronicle, November 29, 1896.

52 “Two Old Pals Were They,” Princeton Union (Princeton, MN), November 24, 1892.

53 “Newsgirl in a Near-Seal Coat,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), March 8, 1903.

54 “Winnie, the Newsgirl,” Sun (New York, NY), November 29, 1896; “Newsgirls of the City,” Chicago Chronicle (Chicago, IL), November 29, 1896.

55 “Newsgirls of Brussels,” Phillipsburg Herald (Phillipsburgh, KS), December 6, 1894; “Newsgirls of the City,” Chicago Chronicle, November 1896.

56 “The Eternal Feminine Crops Out in the ‘Newsgirl,’” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), July 7, 1907.

57 “News-Girls of New York,” Sun (New York), December 6, 1896, sec. 2.

58 “The Eternal Feminine Crops Out in the ‘Newsgirl,’” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), July 7, 1907.

59 Rock Island Daily Argus (Rock Island, IL), November 25, 1890; “Shreds and Patches,” Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA), November 22, 1890; “Shreds and Patches,” Nashville Banner (Nashville, TN), November 25, 1890; “Light Comedy,” News-Journal (Lancaster, PA), November 18, 1890; “Along the Hudson,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (Poughkeepsie, NY), November 18, 1890; Daily Commercial Herald (Vicksburg, MS), November 21, 1890.

60 “In Woman’s Realm,” Saint Paul Globe (St. Paul, MN), May 17, 1898.

61 “A Picturesque Newsgirl,” Atchison Daily Globe (Atchison, KS), May 12, 1896.

62 Fuller and Strong, Child Labor in Massachusetts, 49.

63 Fuller and Strong, Child Labor in Massachusetts, 49.

64 Fuller and Strong, Child Labor in Massachusetts, 49.

65 Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890); Charles Loring Brace, “The Life of the Street Rats,” in The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty Years Among Them (New York, 1872).

66 Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes”; Baldwin, “‘Nocturnal Habits and Dark Wisdom,’” 600-601.

67 Baldwin, “‘Nocturnal Habits and Dark Wisdom,’” 600.

68 Nasaw, Children of the City, 113.

69 Nasaw, Children of the City, 113.

70 Hindman, “Coming to Terms.”

71 Laura S. Abrams, “Guardians of Virtue: The Social Reformers and the ‘Girl Problem,’ 1890–1920,” Social Service Review 74, no. 3 (September 2000): 438.

72 Jennifer Scanlon, Inarticulate Longings: The Ladies’ Home Journal, Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture (New York: Routledge, 1995), 7; Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 13, 245.

73 Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 867.

74 Mrs. Hillyer, “How We Can Make Hartford Better,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), November 30, 1909.

75 Lewis Wickes Hine, Exhibit Panel, 1913, exhibit panel, 1913, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA. Capitalization as in original.

76 Mary Graham Jones, “The Newsgirl Question,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), February 11, 1905.

77 “Day Laborers Before Their Time,” The New Outlook (City, State), October 23, 1909.

78 Phillip Davis, Street-Land: It’s Little People and Big Problems (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1915), 53.

79 Straughan, “Rousing the Conscience,” 22.

80 McGerr, A Fierce Discontent, 79.

81 Straughan, “‘The Children Are Working Tonight,’” 187.

82 “Mothers Accused of Neglecting Children,” Gazette (York, PA), January 29, 1910; “Ban on Newsgirls,” Daily Press (Newport News, VA), February 6, 1907; “Would Save Newsgirls,” Chicago Chronicle (Chicago, IL), October 17, 1897.

83 “Held Up By Girls,” Wichita Daily Eagle (Wichita, KS), May 31, 1895; “After the Newsgirls,” Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, NY), September 9, 1892; “Newsgirl is Indicted,” Lincoln Star (Lincoln, NE), November 23, 1912; Newsgirl’s Story,” Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, CT), January 31, 1901; “Two Newsgirls Arrested,” Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), September 3, 1890; Lewis Wickes Hine. Newsgirls Waiting for Papers. Largest Girl, Alice Goldman Has Been Selling for 4 Years. Newsdealer Says She Uses Viler Language than the Newsboys Do. Besie Goldman and Bessie Brownstein Are 9 Years Old and Have Been Selling about One Year. All Sell until 7:00 or 7:30 P.M. Daily. Location: Hartford, Connecticut. March 1909. Photographic print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA.

84 Fuller and Strong, Child Labor in Massachusetts, 49; See also Stepenoff, The Dead End Kids, 72; “Child Labor Evil Next to Liquor,” University Missourian (Columbia, MO), March 10, 1914.

85 National Child Labor Committee, “Child Labor, a Menace to Industry, Education, and Good Citizenship,” New York, 1906.

86 Scott Nearing, “The Newsboy at Night in Philadelphia,” Charities and the Commons 17 (February 2, 1906), quoted in Clopper, Child Labor in City Streets, 135.

87 Lewis Wickes Hine, Have Been Selling 2 Years. Youngest, Yedda Welled, Is 11 Years Old. Next, Rebecca Cohen, Is 12. Next, Rebecca Kirwin, Is 14. Location: Hartford, Connecticut, March 1909, photographic print, March 1909, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA.

88 “The Newsgirl,” The Buffalo (NY) Enquirer. September 9, 1892.

89 Lewis Wickes Hine, Newsgirls Waiting for Papers. Largest Girl, Alice Goldman Has Been Selling for 4 Years. Newsdealer Says She Uses Viler Language than the Newsboys Do. Besie Goldman and Bessie Brownstein Are 9 Years Old and Have Been Selling about One Year. All Sell until 7:00 or 7:30 P.M. Daily. Location: Hartford, Connecticut, March 1909, photographic print, March 1909, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA.

90 Lewis Wickes Hine, Girls Coming through the Alley. The Smallest Girl Has Been Selling for 2 Years. Hartford, Conn. Location: Hartford, Connecticut, March 1909, photographic print, 5 x 7 in., March 1909, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA.

91 “Winnie, the Newsgirl,” Sun (New York), November 29, 1896.

92 DiGirolamo, Crying the News, 170, 327, 329; Abrams, “Guardians of Virtue” 436–52; Mark Thomas Connelly, The Response to Prostitution in the Progressive Era (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 12; Kubie, “Reading Lewis Hine’s,” 873–97; Connelly, The Response 12.

93 Kubie, “Reading Lewis Hine’s,” 876-877.

94 Edward N. Clopper, Child Labor in City Streets (New York: MacMillan Company, 1913).

95 William Howe and Abraham Hummel, Danger! A True History of a Great City’s Wiles and Temptations, 2008 ebook (J.S. Ogilvie Publishing Co., 1888); See also Gilfoyle, “Street-Rats and Gutter-Snipes,” 865.

96 Nasaw, Children of the City, 113.

97 George Frank Lydston, Diseases of Society (the Vice and Crime Problem)

(Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1904), 328-329.

98 “The Newsgirl,” Buffalo Enquirer (Buffalo, NY), September 9, 1892.

99 “Small Newsgirl Has Man Jailed, Charging Annoyance,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), March 22, 1908; “Newsgirl Makes Charges,” Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake, UT), September 2, 1904; “Make Leniency Pleas,” Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake, UT), September 3, 1904.

100 “Robbed of Her Earnings,” Fall River Daily Evening News (City, State), April 27, 1903.

101 Daily Inter Mountain (Butte, MT), March 4, 1901; “Missing for Two Weeks,” World (New York, NY), September 12, 1890; “Where is Lillie Slitzka?,” Evening World (New York, NY), September 12, 1890, 5 o'clock special edition; “Fathers Of Knoxville Should Run Down Villain,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), November 28, 1889; “Fondness for Little Girls,” Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, NY), November 8, 1891; “Held for Assault,” Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), August 28, 1895; “Assault Case,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 5, 1900; “17 Years in Penitentiary is Ed McNichols’ Sentence,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 23, 1900; “Story of a Vicious Crime Is Told By a Newsgirl,” Lima News (Lima, OH), November 25, 1904; “Girl Assaulted,” Marion Star (Marion, OH), November 26, 1904; “Held for Assault on Young Newsgirl,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), December 4, 1914; “Assailants of News Girl Will be Run Down and Prosecuted,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), November 29, 1999.

102 “Rhett Identified,” Brooklyn Citizen (Brooklyn, NY), January 23, 1891; “Horrible Disclosures,” Jersey City News, January 29, 1891; “Rhett is Held,” Jersey City News (Jersey City, NJ), February 10, 1891; “Assault Case,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 5, 1900.

103 “Rhett was Acquitted,” Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA), June 24, 1891.

104 “Maggie Murphy Case,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), February 3, 1900; “Assault Case,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 5, 1900; “Ten Years Given James Dinwiddie by Criminal Jury,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 8, 1900; “Three Big Cases,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 15, 1900; “M’Nichols Up,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 21, 1900; “17 Years in Penitentiary is Ed McNichols’ Sentence,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 23, 1900; “New Trials Are Denied,” Journal and Tribune (Knoxville, TN), July 1, 1900.

105 “Assault Case,” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), June 5, 1900.

106 Burt, The Progressive Era; Clopper, Child Labor; “Culture Doesn’t Influence Vice,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), November 25, 1913; “Waifs of the Midnight,” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), December 1890.

107 Baldwin, Domesticating the Street, 113.

108 Baldwin, Domesticating the Street, 113.

109 “The Newsgirls,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), May 10, 1895.

110 “The Newsgirls,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), July 15, 1895; Birmingham Age- Herald (Birmingham, AL), April 24, 1903; Abbeville Press and Banner (Abbeville, SC), February 28, 1900.

111 “Waifs of the Midnight,” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), December 1890.

112 “Newsgirls About Town,” Sun (New York, NY), April 26, 1896.

113 “A Sensational Star,” Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT), January 18, 1891; Butte Daily Post (Butte, UT), July 9, 1910; Washington Herald (Washington, DC), December 25, 1910; Durham Recorder (Durham, NC), April 11, 1911; “Under Difficulties From…. Lowly Life,” Saint Paul Globe (Saint Paul, MN), January 13, 1901.

114 “Newsgirl Has $50,000,” Prescott Daily News (Prescott, AK), October 23, 1913; “AGED NEWSGIRL HAS $50,000,” Logan Republican (Logan, UT), November 25, 1913.

115 “For 7 Years a Newsgirl,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), October 3, 1908.

116 “Her Mite,” News Journal (Wilmington, DE), May 17, 1895.

117 John Acton, “A Little Newsgirl,” in The Pilgrim of Our Lady of Martyrs (New York: Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs, 1916).

118 Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, NC), July 6, 1894.

119 “New York Notes,” Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA), April 16, 1896.

120 “News-Girls of New York,” Sun (New York, NY), December 6, 1896.

121 “Newsgirl a Heroine,” White Pine News (Ely, Nevada), June 4, 1910.

122 “Married to Millionaire,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), May 4, 1907;

“Newsgirl Bride Makes Third for Millionaire Bates,” Evening World (New York), June 4, 1912.

123 “Emerson Hotel Newsgirl is Missing,” Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), February 19, 1912; “Newsgirl Edna’s Wedding,” Boston Globe, July 4, 1893; “Emerson Newsgirl May Be Released,” Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), February 22, 1912; Norman Transcript (Norman, OK), September 1, 1899.

124 “The Eternal Feminine Crops Out in the ‘Newsgirl,’” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), July 7, 1907.

125 “Encounters Enemies on Every Side,” Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, CA), April 17, 1907; Virginia Leila Wentz, “After Fifteen Years,” Montour American (Danville, PA), November 30, 1905.

126 “Two Old Pals Were They,” Princeton Union (Princeton, MN), November 24, 1892.

127 “Newsgirl’s Hard Life,” Boston Globe (Boston, MA), May 9, 1890.

128 “Gerry Agent Who Arrested News Girls Almost Mobbed,” World (New York, NY), July 23, 1896.

129 “Gerry Agent Who Arrested,” World.

130 Helena Frederick, Nell, the Newsgirl, sketch script, 1904.

131 “Smiles, Thanks, but No Change,” Buffalo (NY) Evening News, December 21, 1889; “Money for the Newsboys,” Buffalo (NY) Evening News, October 30, 1895; “Society Women to Sell Papers,” Buffalo (NY) Enquirer, December 19, 1898; “Annual Paper Sale for Charity,” Buffalo (NY) Courier, December 12, 1900; “‘Newsies with Skirts Today,” Buffalo (NY) Courier, October 3, 1906; “Pretty Newsgirl Will Sell Papers For Charity,” Birmingham (AL) News, February 9, 1910; “Not a Man Helps,” Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), November 15, 1911; “We’re Back on the Job Again Feeling like so many Pikers After Woman’s Sweet Invasion,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, The Evening News (Wilkes, PA), March 19, 1914.

132 “‘Newsies’ with Skirts Today,” Buffalo (NY) Courier, October 3, 1906.

133 “Money for the Newsboys,” Buffalo (NY) Evening News, October 30, 1895; “Pretty Newsgirl Will Sell Papers For Charity,” Birmingham (AL) News, February 9, 1910.

134 “The Eternal Feminine Crops Out in the ‘Newsgirl,’” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 7, 1907; “Unnecessary for Women and Children to Work,” Hartford (CT) Courant, March 17, 1909; “New York Suffragettes to Turn Newsgirls,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City, UT), November 10, 1909, Last edition; “Turn ‘Newsies,’” Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, November 10, 1909; “Our Butterfly Contemporary,” Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), April 10, 1912; “Women Sell Eagles for Suffrage Cause,” Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, October 12, 1912; “The Prettier the Better,” Lancaster (WI) Teller, January 16, 1913; “Society Women of Washington for Suffrage,” San Francisco Call, January 17, 1913; Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), March 13, 1913; Birmingham (AL) Age-Herald, August 10, 1913, sec. Editorial; “Suffragettes Will Act as Newsgirls,” Washington (DC) Times, November 12, 1913, Last and Home edition; “Pretty Young Suffs As Newsgirls Throng Washington Streets,” Bridgeport (CT) Evening Farmer, November 13, 1913.

135 “Pretty Young Suffs As Newsgirls Throng Washington Streets,” Bridgeport

Evening Farmer (Bridgeport, CT), November 13, 1913.

136 DiCenzo, Maria, “Gutter Politics: Women Newsies and the Suffrage Press.”

Women’s History Review 12, no. 1 (2003): 15–33.

137 “The Prettier the Better,” Lancaster Teller (Lancaster, WI), January 16, 1913.

138 “New York Suffragettes to Turn Newsgirls,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City, UT), November 10, 1909; “Suffragettes Will Act as Newsgirls,” Washington Times (Washington, DC), November 12, 1913; “Pretty Girls as ‘Newsies,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA), November 14, 1913; “Wilson Will Greet 500 Jersey Women,” Washington Times (Washington, DC), November 14, 1913.

139 “Our Butterfly Contemporary,” Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), April 10, 1912; “Women Sell Eagles for Suffrage Cause,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, NY), October 12, 1912; Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), March 13, 1913.

140 “The Jolly Masqueraders,” New Ulm Weekly Review (New Ulm, MN), January 28, 1891; “San Juan Society,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA), March 8, 1891; “The Merry Feast of Purim,” Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), March 16, 1892; “Local News Matters,” Mitchell Capital (Mitchell, SD), February 16, 1900; “Wore an ‘Evening News’ Costume,” Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, NY), February 24, 1903; “Dancing Party,” Evening Standard (Ogden City, UT), February 19, 1913; “Ball Ruled by Rex,” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), April 5, 1895.

141 Hall, “The Newsboy”; William J. Hamersley, “Second Annual Report of the Juvenile Commission to the Mayor and Court of Common Council of the City of Hartford, Conn. for the Year Ending April 30, 1911” (Hartford, Connecticut: Juvenile Commission to the Mayor and Court of Common Council of the City of Hartford, Conn., 1911); “Newsgirls Under 16 Barred,” New York Times (New York, NY), June 9, 1901; “Wants to Bar the Newsgirls,” Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), December 13, 1904; “Against Newsgirls,” Tribune (Scranton, PA), February 15, 1905; “Ban on Newsgirls,” Daily Press (Newport News, VA), February 6, 1907; “Newsgirls Causing Unfavorable Comment,” Daily Press (Newport News, VA), August 16, 1907; “Council to Put Ban on Newsgirls on Streets,” Los Angeles Herald, March 3, 1908; “Newsgirls Forbidden to Sell Papers on Streets,” Los Angeles Herald, June 6, 1908; “Discussion of Child Labor Bills,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), March 6, 1909.

142 “News-Girls of New York,” Sun (New York), December 6, 1896.

143 Lewis Wickes Hine, Newsgirl, Park Row. Against the Law, but “Who Cares.” Location: New York, New York (State), July 1910, photographic print, July 1910, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC, 20540 USA.

144 William A. Gamson and Andre Modigliani, “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach,” American Journal of Sociology 95, no. 1 (1989): 11.

145 “News Girls Increase,” Times (Philadelphia, PA), April 1, 1894.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Autumn Lorimer Linford

Autumn Lorimer Linford is an assistant professor in the School of Communication & Journalism in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. She is a gender and media historian who earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She specializes in women and girl newsworkers and their contributions to journalism.