San Francisco Chronicle

NOT EARTHQUAKES, NOT FIRES, not even the murder of one of its owners by a minister could stop the independent and often irreverent presses of the San Francisco Chronicle. Founded by two teenage brothers in 1865 when the West was still wild, this newspaper lets researchers travel back in time to experience the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the Klondike gold rush, the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, America’s entry into World War I, and many other events that shaped both the City by the Bay and the United States. During its first five decades, the San Francisco Chronicle presented issues from a young, perspective, giving researchers a window through which to study westward expansion,  Chinese immigration, machine politics, urban planning, war, public policy, and more. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Jack London, and Rex Beach are among the writers who contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle’s pages — some without benefit of a byline — during the early years. To trace San Francisco’s history from a muddy frontier town full of pistol-packing pioneers and corrupt politicians, through its entry into the Roaring ‘20s, start here.