Search
History of Newspapers Video (see more)
Email Subscription
Sign up to receive our latest blog updates!Buy Historic Newspapers
Before heading out to Your New Year’s Eve Party…
December 31, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
While celebrating the onset of the New Year through alcohol-blurred eyes has become an international tradition for many, before heading out to this year’s party, perhaps a gander at Dr. Benjamin Rush’s well known “Moral & Physical Thermometer” from the 18th century is in order (see below). While this work certainly holds a degree of validity, I wasn’t aware God measured morality according to such a scale, and I’ve searched without success to find such a tool within His Word. Might Dr. Rush have been using a different translation – or was this creation garnered from years of observation??? 🙂 Regardless, while no such measuring stick has been bestowed upon humanity by their Creator, taking heed to the inherit dangers of over-consumption and His warnings regarding drunkenness would be both a wise and safe way to begin the new year. The passengers and drivers of vehicles you’ll be passing on your way home thank you in advance. Cheers!
Merry Christmas… a look back into the past…
December 25, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
One-hundred years ago today the Stock Market was in turmoil (a 24% drop just a few days prior), the world was at war (WWI was in full force), Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv by the Turks, and gold miners in South Africa went on strike over abhorrent labor conditions – i.e., the world was in chaos. Death, prejudice, oppression, and fiscal uncertainty was the order of the day. So, with the arrival of Christmas, what news would go to print? Was there any “Good News” to report? Curiosity led me to search our archives for an original newspaper from December 25, 1914. Below please enjoy two front-page articles from a New York Times, Christmas Day, 1914.
Three cheers for Time Zones…
December 22, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
For those who pine for the simpler life of the past, we include an article from the Trans-Continental dated May 26, 1870 which may add a dose of reality to the rosy glasses of nostalgia. If we were to list the top 1,000 changes which have made our lives a bit easier, my guess is none of us would have “Time Zones” listed. 🙂
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Graf Zeppelin’s flight…
December 19, 2014 by The Traveler · 1 Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with The New York Times, October 16, 1928: “ ZEPPELIN SAFE AT LAKEHURST AFTER 111-HOUR FLIGHT; SOARS OVER THE WHITE HOUSE AND THEN OVER NEW YORK; MOORED TO MAST TILL WIND DROPS AT 2 A.M.; NOW IN HANGAR”…
The Traveler… capturing Pensacola… plundering away…
December 15, 2014 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled by the means of the Boston Patriot, December 17, 1814 (shown below) to Boston, Massachusetts. There I found that under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Jackson, Pensacola, West Florida, had been captured.The first portion of the report did not have details yet, however there is a “from an Office in Gen. Jackson’s army” letter. “I write you a few lines to tell you that I am alive and well. We took the town by a coup de main the 7th,… The Baranca has been blown up, and the object intended to be effected, to wit, preventing the British from entering the Bay, cannot now be obtained, so that we shall to day return to Mobile.”
Also reported is “The Brutal Enemy!”. “We learn that the enemy have descended the Rappahannock. Accounts from there state that their ascent up there was marked by a conduct every way worthy of the infamous Cockburn, plundering and burning on both shores and almost everything within their reach… They have laid in ashes the Court-house, prison, collector’s office, clerk’s office, and a large ware-house, and scarcely a building escaped plunder or damage… they broke into the family vault of Col. Richie, and ransacked the ashes of the dead…”.
~The Traveler
They sure don’t make’em like they used to…
December 12, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
How many things can you think of that are simply not made to the same quality standards as they once were? It would be fun to comprise such a list. However, when someone makes the statement, “They sure don’t make’em like they used to”, it is interesting to note the assumption that the object in question is no longer made as well. However, as the following article from a November 21, 1858 National Intelligencer reveals, thankfully, there are a few things which buck this assumption. Please enjoy… and feel free to send on your own list of things that are actually made better than they were in the past. Let’s transform this common phrase from a negative to a positive.
Note: The Hadley Falls Dam disaster (above), in what is currently Holyoke, Connecticut, drew considerable attention in the 19th century. In 1896, a Harper’s Weekly writer reflected, “The engineer took great pride in his work, and when it was finished, and the gates shut down, he is said to have irreverently exclaimed: ‘There! Those gates are shut, and God Almighty himself can not open them!’” Yet another example of man underestimating the power of God… or perhaps overestimating his own. 🙂
For United We Stand…
December 8, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
“And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”
(God, as written by Mark in Mark 3:25)
“United we stand, divided we fall.”
(Aesop)
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
(Abraham Lincoln)
“For united we stand; Divided we fall. And if our backs should ever be against the wall. We’ll be together…”
(The Brotherhood of Man)
Bringing people together is no small task. Those who have the ability to rally factions behind a common cause are few and far between. Those who can do so for a noble cause are a true rarity.
While we all acknowledge Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to this end as exemplified in both his “House Divided” speech and yet again in his “Gettysburg Address”, it was another relatively unknown true American patriot who was instrumental in doing the same soon after the close of the American Revolutionary War: Dr. Benjamin Rush. Below please find (and enjoy) the full text of “Address to the People of the United States”, which begins:
“There is nothing more common that to confound the terms of the American revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over; but this is far from being the case with the American revolution.”,
and concludes:
“PATRIOTS of 1774, 1775, 1778—HEROES of 1778, 1779, 1780! come forward! your country demands your services!—Philosophers and friends to mankind, com forward! your country demands your studies and speculations! Lovers of peace and order, who declined taking part in the late war, come forward! your country forgives your timidity, and demands your influence and advice! Hear her proclaiming, in sighs and groans, in her governments, in her finances, in her trade, in her manufactures, in her morals, and in her manners, ‘THE REVOLUTION IS NOT OVER!’ “, Dr. Benjamin Rush, MD.
What a tremendous rally for all Americans to unite behind a noble cause: the establishment of a nation like none other!
To read the complete text of this amazing speech, go to: American Museum, January, 1787
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Rudolph Valentino…
December 5, 2014 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the Los Angeles Record – Second Extra, August 23, 1926: “VALENTINO DEAD“, with subhead, “Hollywood Mourns Film ‘Sheik’s’ Death“…
Rudolph Valentino
The Traveler… Col. Bradstreet’s peace offering… the devil’s what?…
December 1, 2014 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled to London, England, by the way of The Gentleman’s Magazine of December, 1764. There I found a letter from Quebec reporting “Col. Bradstreet, on his arrival at 
Detroit, sent a belt of peace to General Pontiac, but he, like a true hero, depended on his power, and greatly dared his worst, by cutting the belt in pieces at the head of his army, (the Indians) and two days ago an Indian canoe came on board us, who assured us M. Pontiak had assembled all his forces together at St. Dusky, and received Col. Bradstreet with undaunted courage… “.
Also in the issue is a “sketch of Peak’s Hole commonly called the Devil’s A—–se-A-Peak in Derbyshire”. This also is Pool’s Hole and includes a plate with two illustrations. To enter this, “the entrance is by a small arch, so very low, that such a venture into it are forced to creep upon their hands and knees, but it gradually opens into a vault more than a quarter of a mile long, and, as some have pretended, a quarter of a mile high…”. This also has a running stream and both a cold and hot spring — the springs within a hand touch from the other.
~The Traveler