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I’m New Here: Week Sixteen…
May 31, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
Here in “our neck of the woods” Spring frequently brings tornado warnings. Yesterday, radios, smartphones, and computer displays all sounded the alarm. One of the part-time people working on the labels for Catalog 283 asked what I would choose for my last meal before the tornado hit. I parried with “what would you take into your safe space from the annals?” And my contribution, quickly and easily, was “The American Museum” issues — as many as I could grab from the shelf.
I have one collector who looks for these and he contacts me by email with a list of five or six dates. Every time I search, thinking “there is no way we have any from that month.” Each time I locate one or two, and he happily buys them. During that brief interaction studying dates and verifying the appropriate appendices I have come to find this publication ridiculously beautiful. If I were trapped in a tornado shelter, 18th Century American Magazines would suffice for amusement and instruction. In a single issue there are lexicons for four different Native American languages, methods for preparing dye, a treatise on the Biblical perspective of capital punishment, and political news from around the world. Stock prices are listed alongside poetry. In fact, the complete title enthralls me: “The American Museum: or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces, &c. Prose and Poetical”.
Subscriber names, by state, are listed alphabetically over the first ten pages. The issue I randomly pulled has a touching inscription: “Henry Wayman Woods presented by his dear mother August 6, 1832. Wisdom is the principle thing, Henry.” The content feature is Lexington and Concord, but buried within one of the random sections is an article about the first reported African-American doctor and details of the “Virginia Calculator”, a slave from New Orleans who was described as a savant by Dr. Benjamin Rush (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence).
There is so much to learn, packed within these octavo-sized (8” x 5”) papers. Knowledge was culled from every imaginable subject, in order to educate and enlighten. A well-informed public, it seems, was deemed critical for the development of the young country. In my opinion, that’s a lofty goal that would translate well to any civilization at any point in history.
Wisdom is, quite possibly, the principle thing.
MyAuctionFinds’ Interview of Tim…
September 17, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · 1 Comment
MyAuctionFinds recently interviewed Tim (Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers) to obtain his thoughts on the value of Kennedy Assassination and Obama Election newspapers. Please enjoy:
Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. On that fateful day, newspapers around the country – some of them still afternoon papers– blared the story in big bold headlines.
Millions of newspapers were printed and sold, and families scooped them up to read every morsel about a shooting that was unbelievable. Many saved those papers as a reminder of that day and time, likely not thinking that someday they may be worth more than the few coins they paid for them…
Read The Entire Interview At: The value of your JFK and Obama newspapers…
“The United States of America”… humble beginnings?
September 14, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
One of our rare newspaper friends recently discovered an interesting news item regarding the (potential) first use of “The United States of America” as referring to the American colonies. If true, the first use appeared in a newspaper – a Revolutionary War Era issue of The Virginia Gazette. To add to the intrigue, the origin of the phrase still retains an element of mystery as the article in which it appears was merely signed, A Planter. Thanks to the Byron DeLear of The Christian Science Monitor, and to NBCNEWS.com for bringing this to light. To view the entire article, please see: Who coined ‘United States of America’? New twist to mystery…