October is American Archives Month! In its 80 years of covering the news of, by and for U.S. service members, veterans and their families, Stars and Stripes has amassed decades’ worth of images and articles. Over the last two decades, the History page at stripes.com has shared some of those treasures with you as Archive Photos of the Day and From the Archives features. As we ramp up our digitization efforts, we hope to bring you many more in the future.

To celebrate American Archives Month this October, Stars and Stripes’ History page will occasionally highlight some of our own history and the people responsible for capturing it.

Also, Stars and Stripes’ archivist Catharine Giordano will join archivists around the country on Twitter for #AskAnArchivist Day Oct. 12. To ask a question, tweet at the Stars and Stripes account, @starsandstripes, with the hashtag #AskAnArchivist.

First edition

When Stars and Stripes’ editors compiled the first issue of the London edition of Stars and Stripes published April 18, 1942, they designated it Vol 2., Issue No. 1, in honor and acknowledgement of its World War I predecessor printed in France by and for the “doughboys” serving in the American Expeditionary Forces (see the attached PDF below). The London edition was the first edition to be published during World War II. Over 30-plus Stars and Stripes editions would eventually follow, as “Stripers” reported on the Allied forces over the next three years of war and new editions were created as the fronts advanced across the European and Pacific Theaters of War.

Read more about the history of Stars and Stripes here.

Want to see and read more of Stars and Stripes’ historic editions? Subscribe to Stars and Stripes’ historic newspaper archive! We have digitized our 1948-1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/