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Christian Advocate

old weekly newspaper in NewYork

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ5109259
Source-derived summary

The Christian Advocate was a weekly newspaper published in New York City by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It began publication in 1826 and by the mid-1830s had become the largest circulating weekly in the United States, with more than 30,000 subscribers and an estimated 150,000 readers. After changes of name and a split into two publications, publication ceased in 1975.

Overview

The Methodist Book concern was authorized by the General Conference to publish The Christian Advocate for 147 years. Its publishing location would change as the Methodist Church expanded westward and the slavery issue divided the church in 1844. After the church united again, what had become a monthly magazine was finally edited in Chicago and printed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1939. It was first a weekly broadsheet, and later a monthly magazine for Methodist families. In the intervening years, The Advocate name was part of the name of numerous Methodist journals published by local conferences and jurisdictions of the church.

Proliferation

The various Christian Advocates came into existence for reasons which could be appreciated only as the conditions of the time of their establishment were recalled. All of the Christian Advocates were established either before the advent of the railroad or at a time when the railroad had not brought the sections of the country together to anything like the extent which prevailed later.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Christian Advocate” as old weekly newspaper in NewYork. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1826, 1975, 1844, 1939—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1826-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Christian, Advocate and weekly can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as old weekly newspaper in NewYork. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5109259. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1826, 1975, 1844 and 1939.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Christian Advocate”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Christian Advocate primary sources, Christian Advocate archive and Christian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Christian Advocate”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Christian Advocate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.