Founded in 1881, and printed in Evanston, Illinois, it is staffed primarily by undergraduates, many of whom are students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

[3] The paper's offices are located on the third floor of Norris University Center on Northwestern's Evanston Campus.

[4] The Daily descends from two earlier publications, the Tripod and Vidette, the older of which began publishing in 1871.

In 1881, in what is considered The Daily's founding moment, the two papers merged to become The Northwestern, which would only gradually shed its literary-journal roots.

[5] Future Chicago Tribune reporter Genevieve Forbes Herrick (graduated 1916) was the first female editor-in-chief of The Daily Northwestern.