Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

To our readers

Welcome to our special section commemorating the 175th year that The Providence Journal has been published.

Long before our day and several years before there was a daily newspaper in Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday, Jan. 3, 1820, Publisher John Miller and Editor William Richmond made public the objectives for their new enterprise. Included was the promise that they would be "a faithful reporter of the passing news."

Nine years later John Miller would found The Providence Daily Journal. Today we celebrate that founding and tip our hats to the thousands of men and women who for almost two centuries have remained true to that promise.

We hope you will find their story informative and fascinating. It is the story of our state and our country and how one newspaper covered it.

We have been led by a scoundrel, John Rathom, and by a visionary, Sevellon Brown. We have covered storms, both meteorological and political. We have reported wars abroad and at home. We have recorded the price of apartment rentals and the cost of shoes. We have printed on a press made of stone and with press plates made of plastic polymer. We have carried our newspaper with horses, trains, steamships, trucks, airplanes and microwaves.

We have printed our own opinions and the opinions of those who disagree with us. We have been called many things -- a few of which were even flattering.

We have an unblemished record of publishing and delivering our newspaper through hurricanes and blizzards, Depressions and elections, every day we were scheduled to since 1829.

Please see this as a salute to you, our loyal readers, and to those men and women who faithfully work day and night to bring you the passing news 365 days a year. It is our honor to be the stewards of The Providence Journal's promise.

Howard G. Sutton

Publisher

Joel P. Rawson

Executive Editor