Cartoonists Steve Benson and Russ Kazmierczak come to the Arizona Capitol Museum!

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) and the Arizona Capitol Museum (AZCM) are excited to welcome Steve Benson, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for The Arizona Republic and Russ Kazmierczak creator of Amazing Arizona Comics to the opening of our newest exhibit “Show me Arizona: Illustrations of History,” on September 12^th 2015 at 11:00 am. The exhibit will be located in the 3^rd floor rotunda of the Arizona Capitol Museum.

Our guest speakers, Steve Benson and Russ Kazmierczak will introduce the exhibit with a short presentation in the 3^rd floor’s Historic Senate chambers. “Show Me Arizona: Illustrations of History” will feature cartoons that reflect Arizona’s political journey to statehood. Visitors will also be able to interact with this display by utilizing two Surface Tablet touchscreens. So make your way down to the Arizona State Capitol Museum (AZCM) and join the Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) for more History at Your Fingertips on a Family Fun Saturday!

ADNP and the Capitol Museum

-Special Guest Post by Coleen Shull, ADNP Intern

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) and the Arizona State Capitol Museum team up again to bring you a new interactive exhibit that brings to life politics in Arizona through political cartoons! This display will be unveiled on September 12, 2015.

The ADNP and the Capitol Museum staff have brainstormed the best way to bring to life Arizona’s political history through select political cartoons found among the ADNP’s digital collection. Political cartoons were a way for Arizona to praise, attack or even ridicule the current political issues affecting Arizona’s campaign for statehood in Washington. Interested in politics during Arizona’s Territorial days? Fascinated with Arizona’s political attitude when campaigning for statehood? Want to see how Arizona’s statehood was achieved? All of this and more can be learned in a visually interesting and amusing way, through the political cartoons found in the pages of Arizona’s Territorial papers.

The exhibit will feature cartoons that reflect Arizona’s political journey to statehood. Visitors will also be able to interact with this display by utilizing two Surface Tablet touchscreens. We’ll keep you updated on this display’s progress as we move along!

Meet Arizona’s Territorial Governors

Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) – History at Your Fingertips

-Guest Post from Christopher Sloan of the ADNP 

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) is endeavoring to bring the colorful and highly informative historic Arizona newspapers and their relationship to Territorial politics to an interactive exhibit in the Arizona Capitol Museum. The exhibit, which opens April 26, 2014, will provide users with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the resources provided through the ADNP website and get a deeper look at the political lives of some of the Territorial Governors.

Newspapers and politics were nearly inseparable in Territorial Arizona.  If newspapersweren’t out-and-out owned by a political actor, they were often owned by a close associate and had a clear, partisan bent.  They did not just endorse candidates for office; newspapers could be the key to making or breaking a politician’s career.  Despite their sometimes libelous content, they were the only sources for information on the workings of their government that Arizonans had. They carried news on legislation, speeches and proclamations, and the comings and goings of elected officials as they traveled the territory…

Richard Elihu Sloan, b. June 22, 1857, d. December  14, 1933

Richard Elihu Sloan was the final Territorial Governor of Arizona, relinquishing control to George W.P. Hunt on Valentine’s Day, 1912 – when Arizona was accepted as the 48^th State. Sloan was born in Morning Sun Ohio, lived for a period of time in Colorado, and finally moved to Phoenix in 1884, where he practiced law and became an active member of the Republican Party. His legal and political careers took off soon afterwards, serving as the County Attorney for Pinal County, delegate to the Republican National Convention, and member of the Council of the fifteenth Territorial Legislature. By 1890, Sloan had been appointed Associate Justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court, serving on the federal bench longer than any other judge in the Territory.

 

Sloan was appointed as Territorial Governor in 1909 by President William H. Taft. At this point, statehood was expected and in 1910, no Territorial Legislature was elected. The Enabling Act (enabling Arizona to become a state) was signed by President Taft in June of 1910, and Governor Sloan immediately moved to create an Arizona Constitutional Convention made up of fifty-two elected delegates. Governor Sloan saw the potential problems that the majority-Democratic Constitutional Convention could encounter and warned delegates that they “must exercise extreme caution, especially when it came to initiative and referendum… emphasizing that either could cause Congress or the president to reject Arizona’s state constitution.”[1] The Arizona Constitutional Convention met from October 10 until December 9, 1910 and the Constitution they created was voted up by the people of the Territory on February 9, 1911.

 

As Governor Sloan had predicted, Congress and the President refused to ratify Arizona’s new Constitution until a provision allowing for the recall of judges was removed. This unusual delay in statehood caused Sloan to be granted the legislative powers to make appropriations and to levy taxes. The provision was finally removed and the Constitution was approved August 22, 1911.

Governor Sloan then called a special election, and on February 14, 1912 he left the office to the Governor of the new State of Arizona, George Wylie Paul Hunt – the wildly popular (and populist) Democrat who would be re-elected to six additional terms in office.

Though he was respected enough by a number of elected officials, from Presidents to Governors, he was not popular with all of them. He quarreled famously with Governor Lewis Wolfley over the appointment of one of Wolfley’s enemies to clerk of the court and later ruled against Wolfley’s business interests. Wolfley, in turn, went against popular sentiment and opposed Sloan’s appointment as a circuit judge.

Governor Sloan pursued his legal career after his governorship ended, being nominated by President Taft to be the first U.S. District Court Judge for the State of Arizona and continuing to practice law, and representing Arizona at the Colorado River Compact in 1922. Governor Sloan’s other passion was history and his greatest accomplishment as an amateur historian was as supervisory editor of the four-volume History of Arizona in 1930. Governor Sloan passed away in Phoenix, now capital of the State of Arizona, on December 14, 1933.

Special thanks to the Arizona Memory Project for use of material from the collection of Territorial Governor Portraits by William Besser (http://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/cdm/landingpage/collection/acmterr) For more information about Arizona’s territorial governors and much, much more, please visit: Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) http://adnp.azlibrary.gov/

 

 

[1] Hayostek, Cindy. “Douglas Delegates to the 1910 Constitutional Convention and Arizona’s Progressive Heritage”

 The Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 47, No. 4 (winter 2006) p. 352.

Meet Arizona’s Territorial Governors – Nathan Murphy

Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) – History at Your Fingertips

-Guest Post from Christopher Sloan of the ADNP

Nathan Oakes Murphy
(b. October 14, 1849, d. August 22, 1908)

Newspapers and politics were nearly inseparable in Territorial Arizona.  If newspapers weren’t out-and-out owned by a political actor, they were often owned by a close associate and had a clear, partisan bent.  They did not just endorse candidates for office; newspapers could be the key to making or breaking a politician’s career.  Despite their sometimes libelous content, they were the only sources for information on the workings of their government that Arizonans had. They carried news on legislation, speeches and proclamations, and the comings and goings of elected officials as they traveled the territory. 

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) is endeavoring to bring these colorful and highly informative papers and their relationship to Territorial politics to an exhibit in the Arizona Capitol Museum. The exhibit will provide users with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the resources provided through the ADNP website and get a deeper look at the political lives of some of the Territorial Governors…

Nathan Oakes Murphy was both the tenth and the fourteenth Territorial Governor of Arizona. Murphy served as the Territorial Secretary under Governor John Irwin, and successfully petitioned President Benjamin Harrison to appoint him Territorial Governor after Irwin left the office because of family business obligations in Iowa in 1892. Murphy served less than a year because incoming Democratic President Grover Cleveland replaced him with a Democrat, Louis C. Hughes. Murphy was appointed governor again by President William McKinley in 1898, and this time served until 1902. He resigned amid allegations of defrauding the Territory, to make way for his friend, Alexander O. Brodie.

Murphy’s accomplishments as governor included an unsuccessful bid for Arizona’s statehood to Congress at a time when Republicans in Washington were looking for any reason to deny entry to a majority Democratic state, and risk the possibility of tipping the scales.

In his 1893 address to the legislature, he spends much of his verbiage on increasing territorial revenue through the possibility of convict leasing for projects outside of the walls of the Territorial Prison at Yuma; and better and more complete taxation, with the exception of railroads, which should be exempt from taxation to encourage their development (Needless to say, Murphy had considerable investment in Arizona’s railroads).[1] Murphy also had the distinction of being the first governor in the new Capitol Building in Phoenix in 1901, a building which was supposed to represent Arizona’s readiness for statehood.

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Murphy was a business man and a booster for Arizona. He was involved with his brother, Frank Murphy, in the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix Railroad, as well as having his hands in several mining operations. Frank Murphy also became the owner of the Arizona Republican after Clark Churchill passed away. While there is no doubt that this must have proved beneficial for Murphy, it also played a major role in his undoing as governor. The January 30, 1902 Bisbee Daily Review outlines the charges against Murphy.  The third charge they level is that Oakes Murphy has “caused to be paid during his term, many thousands of dollars to the ‘Arizona Republican’” which is “either actually or virtually owned by himself or brother, Frank M. Murphy…” This and the other two charges, according to the Daily Review of April 25, 1902, were “investigated by President Roosevelt” and Murphy was found “to be blameless.” Four days before this had been printed, Murphy had tendered his resignation.

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Murphy spent the remainder of his life engaged in a variety of business ventures (as evidenced by a number of articles of incorporation printed in Arizona newspapers) and traveling with his second wife. Below is a legal advertisement for the articles of incorporation for a corporation which would “organize and maintain corporations under the laws of the Territory of Arizona”:

 

 

Murphy died suddenly in 1908 and his final resting place is the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Special thanks to the Arizona Memory Project for use of material from the collection of Territorial Governor Portraits by William Besser (http://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/cdm/landingpage/collection/acmterr) For more information about Arizona’s territorial governors and much, much more, please visit: Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) http://adnp.azlibrary.gov/

 

 

 

[1] Nathan O. Murphy “Biennial Message of N. O. Murphy, Governor of Arizona, to the Seventeenth Legislative Assembly, February 14^th, 1893), Arizona Memory Project, http://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/statepubs/id/12471/rec/4 (accessed 10 Feb. 2014).

Meet Arizona’s Territorial Governors – John Goodwin

Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) – History at Your Fingertips

-Guest Post from Christopher Sloan of the ADNP

John Noble Goodwin
(b. October 18th, 1824, d. April 29th, 1887)

Newspapers and politics were nearly inseparable in Territorial Arizona.  If they weren’t out-and-out owned by a political actor, they were often owned by a close associate and had a clear, partisan bent.  They did not just endorse candidates for office; newspapers could be the key to making or breaking a politician’s career.  Despite their sometimes libelous content, they were the only sources for information on the workings of their government that Arizonans had. They carried news on legislation, speeches and proclamations, and the comings and goings of elected officials as they traveled the territory. 

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) is endeavoring to bring these colorful and highly informative papers and their relationship to Territorial politics to an exhibit in the Arizona Capitol Museum. The exhibit will provide users with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the resources provided through the ADNP website and get a deeper look at the political lives of some of the Territorial Governors…

John Noble Goodwin, the first Territorial Governor of Arizona, was not plagued by some of the high-intensity partisan warfare that raged in several of Arizona’s earliest papers (his Territorial Secretary and successor, Richard McCormick, was deeply embroiled in newspaper-related libel and scandals) but neither was he ignored or immune from attack.  A quick search of the ADNP website turns up Goodwin’s territorial proclamation, announcing Arizona’s entry into the Union as territory in the March 9, 1864 issue of the Arizona Miner.

Much of the Miner’s pages for the balance of 1864 carry accounts of the Governor Goodwin’s travels throughout Arizona territory, his communiques regarding war with the Apaches, and of the codification of territorial law.  According to Those Old Yellow Dog Days by William H. Lyon, the Arizona Miner began its existence as an independent news outlet, but that “all of that changed on September 21, 1867, when John Marion announced his association with [the paper]. From that day forward politics became the lifeblood of the Prescott paper.”

Lyon goes on to sum Marion’s positions up as “supporting President Andrew Johnson, attacking radical Republicans, hating blacks, correcting California newspapers that talked down on Arizona, and castigating … Richard McCormick”[1].

After Goodwin’s stint as governor (1863-1866) he became a delegate to Congress, much to the chagrin of Arizona Democrats, of which Marion was the most notorious.  A column titled “The Past and  Present” by “C.J.E.” in the February 1, 1868 edition of the Miner, accuses Goodwin of, among other things, circumventing the democratic process by installing himself as Arizona Territory’s Congressional Delegate when it had already been promised to Colonel Charles Debrille Poston. The column goes on to purport that Goodwin’s aim was selling off the territory to further his business interests while doing absolutely nothing for Arizonans in general.

Compare this screed to a much more even-handed account from the January 24, 1866 issue of the Miner, before Marion’s arrival:

While still clearly in support of Poston, the article takes a reasonable position on Poston’s defeat and even chastises Poston for his inability to take the “high road” after his loss by “heartily co-operating with Governor Goodwin on behalf of the Territory.” Surely, if “he had done so he would still have a warm place in the hearts of our people.”

For more information about Arizona’s territorial governors and much, much more, please visit:      Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) http://adnp.azlibrary.gov/

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[1] Lyon, William H. Those Old Yellow Dog Days: Frontier Journalism In Arizona 1859-1912. (Tucson, AZ: 1994), 22

ADNP in the Capitol Museum

-Guest Post by Christopher Sloan of the Arizona Digital Newspaper Program

The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program (ADNP) and the Arizona State Capitol Museum are teaming up to bring the Territorial Governors to life through the lens of the ADNP’s digital newspaper collection in an exhibit in the Capitol Museum!

The exhibit is still in the planning stages. ADNP and the Capitol Museum staff are brainstorming the best ways to bring the ADNP’s digital collections to the public’s fingertips. The Capitol Museum has given ADNP an interactive kiosk with a touchscreen that will allow visitors to peer into the lives of the Territorial Governors through its collection of newspapers.  Want to know Anson P.K. Safford’s position on Native Americans and public schooling? Interested in Alexander Brodie’s mustering of the First Territorial Regiment during the Spanish-American War? Dying to find out what Mrs. Kibbey and the Friday Club were working on in 1909? All of this and more can be found in the pages of Arizona’s territorial papers.

The exhibit will include material from the newspapers on the major events and accomplishments of the Territorial Governors as well as a brief tutorial on how to use the ADNP database to aid in further research.  We also hope to include graphics and signage on and around the kiosk that will inform and interest visitors in the ADNP’s work. Most of this still only exists in our heads right now, but we will be keeping you updated on its progress as we move along!

ADNP Quick Response (QR) Codes

Want fast access to some of Arizona’s historical newspapers?  Just scan the newspaper’s QR Code into your smart device and start reading!  QR Codes permit considerable storage space and make information readily available. (Click the image below to download a PDF to take with you!)

Vote!

Get out and vote… to make this year’s election as historical as 1916! Click on the image below to view the page from the Bisbee Daily Review. And visit Arizona Digital Newspaper Program and Chronicling America!