The New York Clipper

By Patrick Mondout

On April 30, 1853, the first issue of the the biweekly was published by Frank Queen. It is among the most important periodicals to "early baseball" historians. Though cricket coverage would remain more important to the paper for years to come, it played a major role in popularizing baseball by publishing rules and accounts of the early games.

Among the early writers for the Clipper was a young Henry Chadwick, who would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport.

As the 20th Century approached, other publications, such as Sporting Life and The Sporting News began to dominate baseball coverage and the Clipper, which by then was appealing more to the theatre-going crowd rather than sports fans, finally dropped baseball coverage altogether in 1894 and instead focused nearly exclusively on theatrical coverage.

Today the Clipper lives on through the pages of Variety, as the latter absorbed the former in a 1924 transaction.