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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.
Billy Sunday (1862-1935) began his career as a baseball player for the Chicago White Stockings, but later became one of the country's best known evangelists. Between 1896 and 1935 he gave an estimated 20,000 sermons. 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.
| 1872-1876 | Sunday, as a youth, resides in Soldiers' Orphans Homes in Glenwood and Davenport, Iowa. |
|---|---|
| 1880 | Sunday moves to Marshalltown, Iowa and plays on fire brigade and town baseball teams while working odd jobs. |
| 1883 | Sunday is signed to play for the Chicago White Stockings. |
| 1886-1887 | Sunday experiences a conversion to Christianity. |
| 1891 | Sunday turns down a $3,000 baseball contract to work at the Chicago YMCA for $80 a week. |
| 1893 | Sunday becomes full time assistant to J. Wilbur Chapman, a well known evangelist. |
| 1896-1935 | Billy Sunday preaches an estimated 20,000 sermons to audiences at revival meetings held throughout the US. |
