About Evening capital. [volume] (Annapolis, Md.) 1922-1981
Annapolis, Md. (1922-1981)

Evening capital, Evening capital and Maryland gazette, and Evening capital

The Evening Capital was the first daily newspaper published in Annapolis, Maryland's capital city. William M. Abbott (1839-1912), a former compositor for the Baltimore Sun newspaper, commenced publication in 1883. In 1910, Abbott purchased the weekly Maryland Gazette from Colonel Phillip E. Porter and merged the two titles. William Abbott employed his daughter Emma Abbott Gage as the newspaper's editor and his son Charles B. Abbott as business manager. The Abbott family sold the Evening Capital and Maryland Gazette to the Capital Publishing Company in 1918, which in turn was sold to Ridgely P. Melvin in 1919. In 1922, the title returned to Evening Capital. The Capital-Gazette Press Company acquired the paper from Melvin in 1926 and hired Francis O. White, Jr. as its managing editor.

In the years following the Civil War, Annapolis faded economically, although it continued as a center of boat building and other maritime industries. The presence of the state government and the U.S. Naval Academy provided some fodder for local journalism, but overall the Evening Capital chronicled the everyday life of a sleepy, provincial town. The development in the 1880s and 90s of Bay Ridge as a nearby bayside resort attracted wealthy families from Baltimore and Washington who used newly established short line railroads to escape the summer heat. The colonial heritage of Annapolis was the topic of coverage when the town celebrated its bicentennial in 1894, but the modern world intruded in 1898 when a captured Spanish admiral and 45 of his officers were housed at the Naval Academy during the Spanish-American War. In the early years of the 20^th century, the expansion of the Academy was simultaneously a source of cautious optimism for its economic impact and some concern as Annapolitans made their first steps toward preserving the town's historic buildings.

At various times, the Evening Capital claimed to be the oldest newspaper in America because of its association with the Maryland Gazette; however, this is a dubious claim at best. Two Annapolis newspapers named the Maryland Gazette began publication in 1727 and 1745. The first published by William Parks ceased in 1734, while the second title founded by Jonas Green and continued by his family was published until 1839 as the Maryland Gazette and Political Intelligencer, the Maryland Gazette and State Register, and Maryland Gazette. In 1854, R.D. Sellman and Thomas J. Wilson started the Annapolis Gazette newspaper and a later owner continued the numbering sequence of the old Maryland Gazette. There appears, however, to have been no continuity in ownership or editorial succession. The Annapolis Gazette renamed itself the Maryland Gazette in 1874.

Provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD