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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
A courageous, dead-shot Western cowboy, Bat Masterson (1853-1921) famously ran the bad men “the hell out of Dodge”. In his wild, boisterous life, Masterson was a marshal, a sheriff, a criminal, a scout, a journalist and a sportsman. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| 1877 | Masterson settles in Dodge City and is elected county sheriff. |
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| 1881 | Reportedly meets Wyatt Earp, another Old West lawman. |
| 1902 | After various arrests, Masterson settles in New York. |
| 1903-1921 | Restarts his career as a journalist through his thrice weekly column "Masterson's View on Timely Topics." |
| 1905-1909 | Appointed by Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York. |
| October 25, 1921 | Dies from a heart attack after writing his final column for the New York Morning Telegraph. |
