Snapshot 1820 – Considering a Cure for Hard Times…

September 6, 2024 by · 3 Comments 
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One would need to search far and wide to find someone who doesn’t acknowledge that we’re living in hard times. Harder than those who lived through any major war… any great famine… any weather-born catastrophe… any form of slavery (or similar form of oppression)… any horrific accident… any economic depression… any…??? Most would say no, but “felt” hard times are often relative, and “counting our blessings and naming them one by one” – a practice well-known to be an effective pain-soothing salve for “felt needs” and more, is not often our default response to hardship. To be honest, I’m not among the few who often get this right. Perhaps this is why an article (not a key report by any means) in a Niles’ Register for July 1, 1820 caught my attention. It features a portion of a judge’s rather unusual admonition to the members of the grand jury set before him. If you decide to take a gander at the article (which is posted below), while contemplating his advice, please try to read it through the contextual eyes of the era in which he gave it. Whether you agree with his counsel or not, it would be hard to argue that the setting seems quite familiar. I’d love to hear what others think. 

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Filed under: Food for Thought, Pre Civil War
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“Just a Moment Before”… The Wild West is Romanticized…

September 2, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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Our lives are filled with “Just a Moment Before” instances – the brief seconds, minutes, or day right before we hear either good or bad news which changes our lives forever. From dramatic events to small, nuanced changes, our life’s path is littered with turning points. On July 26, 1881, a newspaper editor set about his daily work of printing the day’s news in THE TOMBSTONE EPITAPH, without any inkling of what he would be printing exactly 3 months later.

“Few could argue for a more recognizable title from the Old West, nor could any town be more linked to the romance of the West than this one. Tombstone is steeped in Western lore, and the several movies done concerning the gunfight at the O.K. Corral have kept this town in popular culture.” ~ Tim Hughes

But on this July day, the editor only gave brief mention to the Earp brothers, with a page 3 legal notice for a mining claim beginning: “United States Land Office…Notice is hereby given that Robert J. Winders for himself and his co-claimants, Virgil W. Earp, Wyatt [misspelled at Eyatt] S. Earp, and James C. Earp, whose post office address is Tombstone, Cochise county…”

Little did he know that just 3 short months later he would be printing a defining moment in the epic drama of the United States’ Wild West era.

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Filed under: Noteworthy Issues, Old West Era, Post Civil War, The 19th Century
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Announcing: Catalog #346 for September, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…

August 30, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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The September catalog (#346) is now available. Shown below are links to various segments of the catalog, our currently discounted newspapers, and recent posts to the History’s Newsstand Blog. Please enjoy.

CATALOG #346 – This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes the following noteworthy issues: the Constitution of the United States in an American newspaper, a great issue on the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Lincoln’s famous Cooper Union speech, an American newspaper dated 1735, a wonderful political cartoon on the Revolutionary War, a 1666 newspaper with Great Fire of London content, and more.

 

Helpful Links to the Catalog:
————–
DISCOUNTED ISSUES – What remains of last month’s discounted issues may be viewed at: Discount (select items at 50% off) 
————–
Thanks for collecting with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

570-326-1045

[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days

upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]

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Filed under: Announcements, Catalog Release Announcements, Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Colonial, Confederate, Death Reports, Great Headlines, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Old West Era, Post Civil War, Pre Civil War, Revolutionary War, Sports, The 1500's, The 1500's - 1700's, The 1600's, The 1700's, The 19th Century, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, The War of 1812, Yankee
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Leading up to the Political Season… Late 1800’s Edition…

August 26, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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Here it comes – at about this same time on a 4-year rotating basis… the autumn media ramp-up to our presidential election. Although it can seem a bit overwhelming at times – like a tsunami of ads and interviews, I thought it might be fun to look to the past at a more humorous version of political culture and embrace the comedy and satire that accompanied the mid-to-late 1800’s press. So, feel free to join me as I peruse Puck and Judge Magazines – not to mention the endless stream of Harper’s Weekly Nast Cartoons. We could all use a chuckle right about now.

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Filed under: Harper's Weekly, Illustrated Newspapers, Post Civil War, The Collectible Community, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
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Snapshot 1887 – The End of the Western Frontier?

August 23, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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Although I’ve said this before, I love this collectible! If someone were to ask me what brought about the end of the Western Frontier, until today I would have likely provided guesses such as: the ongoing threat to life through danger and disease, the hardships of life in an era we now romanticize, the increasing presence of more and more little houses on the prairie, and similar. However…

As I was searching for an issue to satisfy a collector’s request, the front cover of an unrelated issue grabbed my attention (shown to the right). Over the course of the next 30 minutes I learned about the great mid-west Blizzard which occurred during the winter of 1886-1887, the corresponding floods which brought calamity to as far north as the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana, through the Great Plains of Nebraska, and all the way down to Texas – in what is now referred to as “The Great Die Up”. Many believe it is this event which triggered the end to the America’s Western Frontier. Scores of lives lost, entire small towns washed away, innumerable ranches vanquished, and a loss of cattle beyond imagination. Although the reasons are actually a bit more complex, the accidental “find” of a Frank Leslie’s Illustrated for April 2, 1887, and the related rabbit trails it inspired, make offering and collecting “old newspapers” quite satisfying.

The following is a photo of an inside page which included several related illustrations. Note: the link to the issue includes access to a couple of the online resources I accessed during my exploration).

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Filed under: Illustrated Newspapers, Post Civil War
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The reason I collected it: Ai Anglo Sacsun…

August 19, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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Sometimes stepping outside the normal categories of historic, rare, or early when it comes to collecting newspapers can turn up some intriguing items. The odd, strange, unusual, and outright bizarre can be attractive additions as well.
The Ai Anglo Sacsun fits that bill.
This newspaper attempted to exploit a movement to spell words phonetically, just as they sounded. So their motto in the dateline is: “Devoted Tu Ai Difyushun ov Nolej and Nuz, Tru Ai Medium of Fonotipi, or the Tru System ov Spelin Wurdz As Iz, Just Az ae are Pronnst.” (difficult to translate as they use some characters not in the traditional alphabet. Their alphabet is found on page 3).
The entire issue has various articles spelled phonetically, making it difficult to read. Otherwise the layout is much like other newspapers of the era, with a very decorative masthead.
Obviously a movement that never caught on. Yet it produced a fascinating newspaper worthy of collecting.

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Filed under: Food for Thought, Pre Civil War, The Collectible Community, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
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A Picture Paints a Thousand Words… The Beginning of a Series…

August 12, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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On March 22, 2021, I created a post titled, “A Picture paints a Thousand Words”. Using that post as a jumping off point, today begins a series of the same name. Of course, by calling this a “series”, the pressure is on to (somewhat) regularly find front pages worthy of this age-old adage. However, here I go…

There are issues we come across in the Rare Newspapers Archives in which the image on the front page stops us dead in our tracks. The event may be new to us or a historical event of which we’re familiar. However, regardless of the category the images fall into, their impact gives us cause us to stop and contemplate what is before us. Sometimes the pause brings a smile… sometimes it brings a chill. Either way, these newspapers (often front pages) were able to capture the entirety of the impact the journalist and publishers hoped for with just an illustration or photo.

My 1st choice to kick off this series is a bit of an obvious one. As a hint, this event brought forth the dramatic statement of, “Oh, the humanity!” and was captured in THE EVENING BULLETIN, May 7, 1937. 

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Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Collectible Community
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An open letter to those currently holding the reigns at Disney…

August 7, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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Dear current Disney board and top-level staff,

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Signed: “Those of us who collect authentic newspapers (including reports related to the Wonderful World of Disney) to be reminded of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past… that is, to keep us tethered to the good, to learn from the bad (and to be encouraged by how far we’ve come), and to help us gain sobering perspective from the ugly. In this case, while an imperfect man, we put Walt Disney in column #1.”

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Filed under: Food for Thought, The 20th & 21st Centuries
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This Month in History – August…

August 5, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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We often are asked how we find newspaper reports covering such a wide variety of topics. Part of the answer is simply longevity. We’ve been collecting and offering issues for a half-century, and time itself as helped us amass an extensive database of notable events. Customer requests, what we’ve learned in school, the news, historical books and movies, etc. have all contributed to the cause. However, our capacity for discovery exploded with the development of the internet. Thanks to an abundance of historical websites, we can now search by day, week, month, era, event, and more in our quest to “mine” our archives. One such resource (among many) is The History Place. Through this online database one can find events by the day, week, month, and year.

As each month approaches we often access this (or a similar) resource to search for new/fresh topics to explore. In our most recent effort, we search for historic events, discovers, accomplishments, etc. which occurred in the month of August. Our results were found here: The History Place – Month of August.

If you take a few moments to scan their index of August events, perhaps you’ll see an overlap between some of those shown and our currently listed newspapers dated in August through time (see below). If you decide to explore, we hope you enjoy.

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN AUGUST

 

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Filed under: Death Reports, Great Headlines, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Sports, The 1500's - 1700's, The 19th Century, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby
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Announcing: Catalog #345 for August, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…

August 2, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 
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The August catalog (#345) is now available. Shown below are links to various segments of the catalog, our currently discounted newspapers, and recent posts to the History’s Newsstand Blog. Please enjoy.

CATALOG #345 – This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes the following noteworthy issues: “Virginia Gazette” from Williamsburg (1775), a very rare title – “The American Gazette” (1776), “The Pennsylvania Gazette” with Ben Franklin’s imprint, the historic “Funding Act” of 1790, the “Townshend Act” of 1767, Thomas Paine’s “American Crisis” essay, and more.

 

Helpful Links to the Catalog:
————–
DISCOUNTED ISSUES – What remains of last month’s discounted issues may be viewed at: Discount (select items at 50% off) 
————–
Thanks for collecting with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

570-326-1045

[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days

upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]

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Filed under: Announcements, Catalog Release Announcements, Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Colonial, Confederate, Death Reports, Great Headlines, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Old West Era, Post Civil War, Pre Civil War, Revolutionary War, Sports, The 1500's, The 1500's - 1700's, The 1600's, The 1700's, The 19th Century, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, The War of 1812, Yankee
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