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Secondary sourceNewspaper article21 April 1917

Truth Seeker magazine cover honouring Thomas Paine, April 1917

The Truth Seeker (publisher Roderick Bradford) · 21 April 1917

An April 1917 front page of The Truth Seeker featuring an engraved portrait of Thomas Paine and the headline 'Paine's Defense Ideas'.

A 1917 tribute cover showing that Paine's ideas were still being honoured in the American freethought press more than a century after his death.

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Front page of The Truth Seeker newspaper, April 21, 1917, with the headline 'Paine's Defense Ideas' and a central engraved portrait of Thomas Paine standing on a rocky hillside, pointing upward and holding a paper. Dense article columns surround the illustration.
The Truth Seeker, front page, 21 April 1917. Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the publisher Roderick Bradford.

About this source

What it is

This is the front page of The Truth Seeker newspaper for 21 April 1917. Its central image is an engraved portrait of Thomas Paine standing on a rocky hillside, pointing upward and holding a paper. The headline reads 'Paine's Defense Ideas', and dense article columns surround the illustration. The cover is held on Wikimedia Commons, with permission from the publisher.

Why it matters

The cover was printed more than a hundred years after Paine's death in 1809, so it is a later commemoration rather than a contemporary account. It shows that freethought publications kept Paine's ideas in public view during the early twentieth century, a period when the United States was entering the First World War.

Look closer

  • What does the pose of the engraved Paine, pointing upward, suggest about the message the editors wanted to send?
  • Why would a newspaper choose a headline about Paine's ideas in April 1917?
  • Which parts of Paine's life and work does this cover leave out?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Thomas Paine on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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