Maryland State Archives

Images in electronic series are from originals from MSA SC 6044, on deposit from the Dorchester County Historical Society

The Daily Banner began publication in September 1897. It published daily, except Saturday and Sunday beginning March 8, 1973; daily, except Sunday [September 22, 1902]-March 7, 1973. Title history based on September 22, 1902 [v. 6, no. 1]. It was also published as the Cambridge Daily Banner and the Daily Banner and Cambridge Record February 3, 1941-February 14, 1942. Other editions include the Daily Banner (Cambridge: Talbot County ed.), the Talbot Banner (Cambridge: 1973), and the Banner (Cambridge: 1975). The newspaper absorbed the Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge: 1871) and the Cambridge Record (Cambridge: 1905).

The Daily Banner was first issued September 22, 1897 by Lindsay C. Marshall and Armistead R. Michie, the first daily paper published on the Eastern Shore. The Daily Banner absorbed the Cambridge Chronicle in 1907. Marshall and Lindsay sold the paper to P. Watson Webb in 1910. Webb had established the Cambridge Record in 1906. The Daily Banner was owned and edited by Webb and his brother, Edward J. Webb until it was sold to Arnold Daane, February 10, 1940. Webb and Webb continued to appear as editors until November 28, 1942. Elsie McNamara became managing editor December 3, 1942. Apparently, Daane also acquired the Cambridge Record when he purchased the Daily Banner, and merged the titles from February 3, 1941 until February 14, 1942, publishing the paper as the Daily Banner and Cambridge Record. Arnold Daane died in December 1964 and control of the paper passed to his wife, Fannie Greene Daane and Herman J. Stevens. They sold the Daily Banner to the Evening Post Company of Charleston, South Carolina in 1974. Stevens remained with the paper as president and publisher until his retirement in September 1983 and was succeeded as publisher by Travis O. Rockey.

Some of the issues of the Daily Banner were lent to the Maryland State Archives for filming in 1968 through the efforts of the Dorchester County Historical Society. Issues are from the D. L. Noble Collection, Mrs. T. R. Geoghegan, R. C. Orem, Jordan Home, the Ivy Woolford Estate, the G. Steele Papers, Nellie Carroll, and Mrs. William C. Johnston.

Other issues of the newspaper are from the collections of the Dorchester County Public Library. These were filmed by the Maryland State Archives with funds provided by the Maryland Heritage Committee in 1984.