United Press was created in 1907 when publisher E.W. Scripps combined three smaller organizations.  The company provided stories to newspapers which subscribed to the service by telegraph, and, later, by teletype. In 1958 it acquired International News Service and was renamed United Press International (UPI) and was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s. The Company had 2,000 full-time employees with 200 bureaus in 92 countries. In the 1980s newspapers began to trim their pages and some could not afford UPI and AP (Associated Press) news services. With the advent of television and then internet, business severely declined. In 2000, UPI was sold to News World Communications, a news media company founded in 1976. Today, the company provides a service called News Track, in addition to a premium service providing more in-depth coverage of world news.

This collection consists of United Press wire dispatches from World War II, covering a wide range of wartime topics including military news, war production (primarily of aircraft), women and industry, accidents, covering primarily issues in the United States and heavily featuring North American Aviation. 

For more about this collection, see our Descriptive Finding Guide.

Link to images on Flickr.