The largest industrial disaster ever to have occurred on American soil at the time, the gruesome January 10, 1860, collapse of the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, provides an opportunity to study early breaking news reporting in the nineteenth century narrative and illustrated press. Using newspapers at the local, regional, and national level, the study examines reporting strategies, story structures, and the journalistic standards undergirding this content. This research finds that by 1860 newspapers had adopted a scope of reporting strategies and editorial practices that fulfilled complex, evolving roles for the press. It also reveals that, despite the scope and sensational nature of the calamity, the story quickly transitioned from news, to myth, to forgotten in national memory.

1860 年 1 月 10 日，马萨诸塞州劳伦斯彭伯顿工厂倒塌，这是当时美国土地上发生的最大规模的工业灾难，这为研究 19 世纪叙事和插图媒体中的早期突发新闻报道提供了一个机会。该研究利用地方、地区和国家层面的报纸，考察了报道策略、故事结构以及支撑这些内容的新闻标准。这项研究发现，到 1860 年，报纸已经采用了一系列报道策略和编辑实践，以满足媒体复杂、不断变化的角色。它还表明，尽管这场灾难的规模和耸人听闻的性质，但这个故事很快从新闻转变为神话，最后被遗忘在国家记忆中。