Extra! Extra! Utah Women Make Newspaper History

It's hard to imagine life today without the fast-paced, up-to-the-second news that the internet provides. But for hundreds of years before the internet, printed newspapers were the primary source of information and news. In America, the first newspapers began to circulate in Boston in the early 1700s. In the Utah Territory in 1850, a mere three years after Brigham Young and the first Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, one of the first things the settlers established was a newspaper called the Deseret News, which is still in operation today. By the time Utah attained statehood in 1896, it was home to almost six hundred newspapers.1 Newspapers were a major means by which Utahns created their identity, became informed, and shared their culture. Newspapers were the backbone of disseminating information to the public, providing a place to share ideas, concerns, and problems.Newspapers have a dual nature that makes them a unique historical resource. On the one hand, newspapers were designed to be temporary, printed on inexpensive paper allowing for wide, fast, and cheap circulation, posing challenges to their preservation. On the other hand, newspapers offer an important source of stories, context, and public perception for historians. Unlike individual journals, diaries, or oral histories, newspapers influenced a much wider audience, helping to shape what people knew and thought about current events.In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, newspaper editing and reporting were male-dominated roles in which women had a limited sphere of influence, largely through consumption. However, Utah women were actively involved in all aspects of newspaper production, from typesetting to reporting, editing, and publishing from early on in Utah's history. Women's involvement in newspapers was not a passive or isolated experience; rather, they formed a strong community, even founding a Women's Press Club in 1891 to provide a space for women in the field to connect and support each other. Utah women were unusually situated in the American newspaper profession, providing an additional voice to Utah's history.While the rest of the nation wrestled with the notion of women's suffrage in the late nineteenth century, the western states and territories made significant strides toward women's equality well ahead of their eastern counterparts. In 1870, Utah became the second territory to pass women's suffrage, and local Utah women wanted to express their voices in print. While other women in the West were publishing their thoughts on suffrage and women's rights, such as Abigail Scott Duniway in her New Northwest paper, Utah women sought to do the same.2The early era of newspapers in Utah is marked by what has become known as the “Utah Newspaper War” between Mormon and non-Mormon publications.3 Historian Luther L. Heller relates the divide in Utah newspapers to the newspaper rivalries of New York, except the Utah division began from a religious stance and then expanded to include political, social, and economic issues.4 Women in newspapers were not excluded from this war, and two prominent female-run newspapers began circulating in Utah toward the end of the nineteenth century, with very different opinions.The Woman's Exponent, founded in 1872, sought to be more than a suffrage newspaper and aimed to provide a female perspective in a variety of formats and on a fairly large range of issues—from poetry and short stories to a defense of suffrage and polygamy (fig. 1). In few other publications at the time could you find discussions of the cost of lace directly adjacent to information regarding immigration and legal issues.5The Woman's Exponent, which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not officially endorse, strove to inform Utah women, a majority of whom were members of the church, while simultaneously representing Utah women to the greater public. Women's suffrage and the church's practice of polygamy were inherently intertwined, and the women of the Exponent wanted to publish their own words and share their own experiences, which they believed were a “more accurate depiction” of Mormon women. Excerpts were often read at Relief Society meetings for Latter-day Saint women, and readers outside of the church were exposed to Utah women's thoughts and perspectives through the Exponent's more than five hundred issues. Beyond its content, the very concept of the Exponent garnered attention and respect. The acclaimed Utah writer Edward Tullidge proclaimed in 1887 that the Exponent's “editorial department is fully up to the standard of American journalism.”6 Leading the editorial charge was the first female editor in Utah, Lula Greene Richards, who edited the paper for the first five years before she passed the torch to Emmeline B. Wells. National suffrage leaders took note of Wells's efforts in 1878, when she used the Exponent to gather over seven thousand signatures of Utah women in support of a national amendment for women's suffrage.7Not everyone in Utah agreed with the material contained in the Exponent. After the founding of the Anti-Polygamy Society in 1878, the organization published a newspaper called the Anti-Polygamy Standard, edited by Jennie Froiseth (fig. 2).8 Froiseth was an active leader of the non-Mormon community for women, founding the first women's club in Utah called the Blue Tea for literary discussions only, and then the Anti-Polygamy Society for more political discussions and actions.9 The Standard's goal was to “shed light” on the realities of polygamy within Utah and to report on the Anti-Polygamy Society's efforts in changing those realities. Although it only ran for three years, the Standard provided an important counterbalance to the Exponent. While also serving as a pro-suffrage paper, the Standard sought to exclude those who practiced polygamy from the right to vote. Using poetry, directed open letters, and convincing exposés, the Anti-Polygamy Standard also worked within and beyond Utah's borders.The debut edition of the Standard indicates the editors intended that “these articles should be read by every wife and mother in the country,” proving an ambitious goal for circulation.10 The anti-polygamy movement slowed following the passage of the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882, which made it unlawful for those participating in the practice to vote, hold office, or serve on a jury. Although it was more limited in its scope and number of editions than the Exponent, the Standard provides a fuller understanding of the complex realities of women's suffrage and polygamy in Utah in the late 1800s.The contrast between the Woman's Exponent and the Anti-Polygamy Standard provides an excellent case study in the early and popular stages of newspaper publishing. Utah women's involvement in the industry did not stop there, nor were these newspapers an isolated experience. Utah women became heavily involved in nearly every aspect of the newspaper process. To understand the scope of participation, it's important to examine the variety of roles that women have played throughout Utah's newspaper history and explore examples of women who filled those roles.Many women served as typesetters or “lady compositors,” as they were sometimes called. It was one of the few acceptable professions young women could enter. Typesetting and composing the physical papers were critical roles in newspaper production. At times—for example, as reported in the Manti Home Sentinel—there were instances when the women were sick or died, which limited or delayed the publication of such newspaper editions.11 Newspapers played such an important role in communities that they were often included in floats for celebratory parades, such as one held in Manti, honoring those same lady compositors (fig. 3).12Kuniko Muramatsu Terasawa immigrated from Japan to the United States in the early 1900s. In 1921, she married Uneo Terasawa, who founded one of Salt Lake City's Japanese American newspapers, called the Utah Nippo (pronounced nee-poh, meaning “Japanese people”). Terasawa initially helped her husband publish the dual-language newspaper, but after his death in 1939, Terasawa took ownership of the paper, working to write, edit, typeset, and publish the paper for over seventy years (fig. 4). Utah Nippo was printed in both Japanese and English, making it accessible for the growing and multigenerational Japanese American community in Salt Lake.The dual-language newspaper reached an even greater audience when the events of World War II brought many discriminatory practices and laws, forcing the relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans. The United States government banned most Japanese newspapers during this time, but Utah Nippo was chosen as one of three Japanese/English newspapers in the country that was allowed to continue publishing during the war.13 Terasawa wrote and typeset important information about wartime relocations, curfews, and other information the Japanese American community needed to know. During the war, the circulation of Utah Nippo increased from 2,500 to over 10,000. Utah Nippo was a crucial part of the Japanese American community, and Terasawa dedicated her life to helping Japanese Americans in her community and across the country.14 Terasawa typeset the paper by hand until her death in 1991.15 Doing so required the use of over five thousand Japanese characters in addition to setting the English translation for every single issue.Throughout Utah newspaper history, especially for smaller publications, it was common practice for women to fill multiple positions at once. Like Terasawa, often those who typeset were also responsible for writing, editing, and publishing the newspaper. This meant an increased workload for these women, but it also greatly expanded their sphere of influence in the field. Some women assumed all responsibilities for the paper when their husbands died, while others began a newspaper all on their own. Many of these important primary sources would not have existed or continued to exist without women's increased participation in the field of journalism.The predecessor of today's Vernal Express was once known as the Uintah Pappoose, a name that reflected its era.16 The paper was founded, edited, and published in 1891 by Kate Jean Boan, one of the first female graduates from the University of Colorado, who had experience working for the Salt Lake Tribune. Boan moved to Vernal to become matron at the Whiterocks Indian School, where she became fluent in the Ute language. Purchasing her printing press from a Sears and Roebuck mail-order catalog for $300, Boan set out to create the first newspaper in Uintah County.17 Recognizing that she was young and relatively inexperienced, Boan wrote in her debut edition, “My ‘newspaper talk’ will be limited, but I shall use my eyes and ears, and let you all know what is going on from one end of the county to the other.”18 The Uintah Pappoose was in print for one year before Boan sold the paper and the name was changed to the Vernal Express. Despite being “young in years and experience,” Kate Jean Boan created the first newspaper in eastern Utah and wrote, edited, and published a weekly paper for a year largely on her own, leaving a legacy that continues through the Vernal Express, which now has produced over six thousand issues.Elizabeth “Lizzie” Taylor and her husband, William Wesley Taylor, began the Utah Plain Dealer in 1895 to serve the Black community in Salt Lake City; at the time there were five other Black newspapers in Utah (fig. 5). Initially Taylor typeset and composed the weekly paper, but after her husband's death in 1907, she also assumed his responsibilities as editor and publisher. She published the paper until 1909 or 1910, making it the longest-lasting Black newspaper in Utah from that era.19 As typesetter and editor of the Plain Dealer, Taylor helped to advocate for social and political equality throughout the state. Many other newspapers from that era, including the Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake Herald, and the Deseret News, claimed the Utah Plain Dealer was “the organ” of the Black community in Utah, an institution that worked to keep the community connected and engaged. Unfortunately, with only one known surviving copy of the Plain Dealer, much of what remains about the newspaper comes from other newspapers from the same era; still, what we know helps preserve Taylor's legacy and efforts for her community.20In the newly founded Utah Territory, the Woman's Exponent not only made newspaper history, but its editor Louisa Lula Greene Richards also became the territory's first female periodical editor (fig. 6). Richards began as a poet and a writer, often submitting works to the Salt Lake Herald and the Deseret News. In 1872, the editor of the Salt Lake Herald began to organize the Woman's Exponent and asked Richards to serve as editor. Under her editorship, the paper argued on behalf of women's suffrage, education, and occupations. Richards continued to write after she passed the position to Emmeline B. Wells in 1877, and a wide variety of publications throughout the Salt Lake Valley published her work, especially her poems.21Born in 1889 in Wyoming, Florabel Muir would go on to live a storied life as a pioneer in sensational journalism. Muir attended the University of Washington and worked briefly as a teacher; she then moved to Salt Lake City, where she began her newspaper career, around 1918. Starting at the Salt Lake Herald and moving to the Salt Lake Tribune, Muir became the first general assignment female reporter for both papers. Muir wanted to work beyond the usual social and event pages that were deemed appropriate for women and conduct more investigative and hard-hitting journalism (fig. 7). When a murder case she had been working on turned to execution, Muir was told that she would not be permitted to witness or report on the event because the law stated that execution witnesses must be male. Muir appealed to the state attorney general, who ruled that she was a newspaper reporter and not a woman, therefore allowing her to attend in that capacity. Her editor was still concerned about assigning the event to a woman and sent a backup reporter, William Iglehart, to cover for Muir in case she could not handle witnessing such an event. Ironically, it was Iglehart who could not cope and almost fainted while Muir witnessed and wrote an account that won respect and praise from her male editors. Her time at the Tribune prepared her for what was to become a “violence-studded career,” according to one biographer of Muir, as her reporting emphasis became covering “murders, gang wars, executions, and sensational trials.”22 Muir was a trailblazer who contributed her voice and further expanded the roles of women in journalism.Miné Okubo was a second-generation Japanese American, or Nisei. She was an avid and prolific artist, graduating from the University of California, Berkeley and studying abroad in Paris with the artist Fernand Léger.23 After the outbreak of World War II, Okubo returned to the United States from France and continued her art practice until the signing of Executive Order 9066, when she and her family were then forcibly removed to Japanese incarceration camps first in California and then later in Utah. While at the Topaz incarceration camp in Utah, Okubo continued her art, drawing thousands of depictions of what life in camp was like and teaching art to children in the camp. She also served as an illustrator for the camp's newspaper the Topaz Times and as the art director and illustrator for Trek, a literary magazine produced in the camp. Okubo compiled her art and commentary into a book entitled Citizen 13660 that was published in 1946 and produced the first eyewitness account from a formerly incarcerated person. Okubo's illustrations were a critical contribution to the documentation of life within the camps (fig. 8). She was released from Topaz in 1944 when she was recruited by Fortune magazine to be an illustrator. From there, she produced illustrations for Time, Life, and the New York Times. Illustrations are another key piece of newspapers, with their ability to depict information and news. Illustrators like Okubo were responsible for both capturing the information and presenting it with an artistic sense of style.24An important part of female participation in the newspaper field included the creation of communities. Across the United States in the late 1800s, women formed a great number of clubs and other associations, including clubs for literature and other intellectual pursuits, clubs dedicated to social causes, and groups for women of the press. These organizations were key to women's coordinating efforts on a range of topics and provided them with an opportunity to discuss the issues of the day.Prominent women involved in journalistic or newspaper work gathered in Salt Lake City to form the Utah Women's Press Club in 1891; they designed it as a space where writers could receive critical feedback on their work (fig. 9). As one historian noted, “The women of the Press Club met not only to promote their literary efforts and discuss the important issues of the day but also to promote sisterhood in an atmosphere of sociability.”25 A number of prominent members—including the driving force behind the organization, Emmeline B. Wells—served as editors of publications such as the Woman's Exponent. This provided a vehicle for the work that club members presented and discussed to then be published. This ecosystem for women's expanding roles in the newspaper field was a defining characteristic of the sense of community that was critical for the women involved in the early days of journalism in the Utah Territory and beyond.Newspapers are a crucial part of understanding the past, and Utah women played varied and important roles in producing them. Although some publications, such as the Utah Nippo and the Woman's Exponent, have left an extensive record, with thousands of extant issues, and others like the Utah Plain Dealer have only one known surviving copy, the contributions of all these newspapers to Utah's history are essential to understanding the past and how it was interpreted and presented. Utah women's contributions to newspapers helped to shape the narratives of news throughout the state and in some cases across the United States.