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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 bomb rips through the reception room of the Capitol building blowing out windows and doors and damaging the Senate chamber. A day later, Frank Holt armed with two pistols and a few sticks of dynamite shoots banking mogul, JP Morgan, before being subdued and severely beaten by Morgan’s servants. An Ivy League professor of many names, Erich Muenter is known “one of the most dangerous criminals of the age.” 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.
| April 16, 1906 | Leona Muenter dies of arsenic poison. |
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| April 27, 1906 | Cambridge police issue a warrant for the arrest of Erich Muenter in connection with his wife’s murder. |
| June 5, 1906 | Muenter mails a pamphlet entitled “Protest” to his wife’s family. It was mailed from New Orleans and was the last lead in the man hunt for Muenter. |
| July 2, 1915 | Frank Holt sets off a bomb in the reception room of the Capitol and then fled immediately to New York. The Washington Times received a note shortly before the explosion that called it “the exclamation point to my plea for peace.” The note was signed R. Pearce. |
| July 3, 1915 | Holt shoots J.P. Morgan twice before being subdued by Morgan’s servants and arrested. |
| July 4, 1915 | A bomb goes off at New York Police headquarters and arouses suspicions that Holt had accomplices who were responsible for the bombing. |
| July 5, 1915 | The New-York Tribune publishes a jailhouse letter from Muenter that lays out his intention to hold J.P. Morgan’s family hostage to prevent the shipment of explosives and arms to allies and create “real neutrality.” |
| July 6, 1915 | Muenter commits suicide in his jail cell. |
| July 7, 1915 | An explosion occurs in the cargo hold of the Minnehaha, a ship carrying arms and supplies for the British military. Holt is suspected, as he had warned that the Saxonia or Philadelphia would be attacked on July 7th. |
