This map, which documents the growth of newspapers across the nation, shows that in 1725, The New-York Gazette became Gotham’s first newspaper. As you can imagine, it wasn’t that great.

The Gazette was a “small two-page paper, poorly printed, and containing chiefly foreign news from three to six months old, state papers, lists of ships entered and cleared, and a few advertisements,” said Frank Luther Mott in his book, American Journalism, A History: 1690-1960.

While we’re sure the ads were probably hilarious (the finest ‘coon skin caps this side of the woods!) we have to appreciate the pioneering efforts of the media companies of old.

In order to do that, we suggest you click through to Stanford’s website, and play with the interactive map yourself. You can slide the date and watch as dots document papers springing up.

While 1725 didn’t have much going on, check out our region in 1925:

Pretty cool, right? Wonder if that coon skin company was still around…