The Rochester Journal-American was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 in Rochester

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

History

Sometime prior to 1935, the Rochester Journal-American was published by Meyer Jacobstein, Ph.D. During the early 1930s, when the paper was owned by William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

, it came under scrutiny for flouting Section 7-a of the National Recovery Act, which certified workers' rights to form labor unions. After three weeks of conferences with the fledgling Newspaper Guild

Newspaper Guild

The Newspaper Guild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933 who noticed that unionized printers and truck drivers were making more money than they did...

, the newspaper's management posted on the bulletin board notice that read in part:
Journalist, author, and poet Arch Merrill

Arch Merrill

Archie Hayes Merrill was an American journalist, author, and poet sometimes called the "Poet Laureate of Upstate New York".-Biography:...

, who would be a reporter at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Democrat and Chronicle

The Democrat and Chronicle is the most widely circulated daily newspaper in the greater Rochester, New York area. Located at 55 Exchange Boulevard in downtown Rochester, the Democrat and Chronicle operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's production facility is located in the town of...

for 30 years beginning in 1933, worked at the Rochester Journal-American from 1927 to 1937.

Joe Simon

Joe Simon

Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon is an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.With his...

, who with Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....

 would create the comic-book character Captain America

Captain America

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...

 in 1940, had his first job out of high school at the Journal-American in 1932. He was hired by art director Adolph Edler as an assistant, replacing Simon's future comics colleague Al Liederman, who had quit. In-between production duties, he did occasional sports and editorial cartoon

Editorial cartoon

An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities....

s for the paper.