In 1846 with the Mexican-American War unfolding and most newspaper publications based in New York the immense distant news had to travel before being published created an unacceptable discrepancy between the time of an event taking place and the time it was reported to the population at large. As a way to hasten news delivery and compensate for the insufficiencies of the U.S. Postal Service five New York newspapers cooperated to fund a Pony Express route from Alabama to New York. News traveled north faster and the Associated Press was founded. Since then the AP has grown to include over 1,500 daily newspapers worldwide and is one of America’s leading news sources.
The Associated Press Collections Online brings together and makes available several decades of the Associated Press including content from AP Images, the AP Archive and the Associated Press Corporate Archives all divided into 26 easily searchable collections. A search can be limited by document type, archive, collection, language, subject, publication year, and publication title. In addition to news stories the collection includes wire copy, correspondence, and internal publications offering a behind the scenes look at the work and history of the Associated Press. Such a resource is maneuverable and valuable to researchers of varying levels across any number of disciplines.
- Tim Berge