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1903 East St. Louis flooding disaster...
1903 East St. Louis flooding disaster...
Item # 723796
June 10, 1903
THE EVENING TRIBUNE, San Diego, California, June 10, 1903
* East St. Louis flooding
* Mississippi River disaster
The top of the front page has a three column headline: "EAST ST. LOUIS IS TOTALLY SUBMERGED" with subhead. (see) Surprisingly this issue is in good condition being from the "wood pulp" era. Very hard to find issues that are not totally fragile from this era in paper.
Complete with 6 pages, small library stamps within the masthead, a few small binding holes along the spine, generally very nice.
background: The June 10, 1903, edition of The Evening Tribune documents a catastrophic climax to the "Great Flood" of that year, capturing the moment the Mississippi River breached its defenses and effectively erased East St. Louis from the dry map. The "three-column headline" reflects the sheer scale of the disaster, as the river reached a terrifying crest of nearly 38 feet, forcing thousands of residents to seek refuge on rooftops or in second-story windows while the city's industrial heart was swallowed by silty currents. Finding this specific issue in stable condition is a minor miracle of preservation; during this "wood pulp" era, manufacturers used acidic groundwood that typically causes pages to become brittle and brown within decades. This six-page artifact serves as a rare, tangible link to a pre-World War I era, offering a glimpse into a time when San Diegans—thousands of miles away—waited with bated breath for telegraphic updates on one of the most destructive inland maritime disasters in American history.
Category: The 20th Century
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$37.00
