ABSTRACT
The culture of Western Maryland and the role of its newspapers as a mirror of that culture deserve attention. The inland portion of a “middle state,” by the mid-nineteenth century Western Maryland no longer formed the frontier, yet remained remote in character from bustling eastern cities. Advertisements might appear on any page in newspapers which seemed to have few rules about where different types of material appeared. Western Maryland newspapers reveal that the culture of the area in the early nineteenth century equated Schudson’s “community.” Western Maryland had begun to develop a commercial culture where shop keepers saw holidays as commercial opportunities. The newspapers of Western Maryland, during the decades of the 1820s to the 1850s, embodied much continuity of traditional American values while carrying ever increasing examples of a commercialized culture. Even farmers were urged to participate by new periodicals teaching them how to extend profits dramatically.
