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"A" is for the Aiken Standard

South Carolina from A to Z logo

"A" is for the Aiken Standard [daily circulation 13, 910]. The Aiken Standard is a daily newspaper published in the city of Aiken. It traces its origins to the late 1860s when the noted botanist Henry William Ravenel established a short-lived weekly, the Aiken Press. The paper then went through a number of owners, mergers and name changes until in 1930 it became the Aiken Standard & Review—published weekly. It was, at the time, the only newspaper in Aiken County. The 1952 arrival of the Savannah River atomic energy facility triggered a population and economic boom in the county. The Standard & Review became a morning daily. In 1968, the Evening Post Company of Charleston bought out the local owners. In 1969 the Aiken Standard & Review had its name shortened to the Aiken Standard.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.