Announcing: Catalog #300 (for November, 2020) is now available…

October 30, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

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Catalog 300 (for November) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes: perhaps the most desired masthead engraving of the 18th century, Washington’s Farewell Address, a graphic issue on Lincoln’s assassination, the first newspaper published for the sport of baseball, “The Polynesian” from Honolulu (1844), The Battle of Gettysburg (with a map), and more.

 

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

 

Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.

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

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

They Put It In Print (1918)… “The 19th Amendment fails by 1 vote…”

October 26, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

Does one vote matter? Does every vote count?

Since the passage of the 19th Amendment, the impact of women on the political climate, and therefore, on both the course and civil fabric of the United States cannot be understated. Since 1964, more women have voted in presidential elections than men – as measured by both actual quantity and as a percentage of their respective genders. While this “right” was not realized until 1920, few know that the (women’s suffrage) Amendment nearly passed two years earlier, but came up short by a single vote. Sadly, not all Senators were present to vote. How do we know? They put it in print in The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) dated  October 2, 1918.

 

Snapshot 1807… William Cowper and the Slave Trade…

October 22, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

We recently discovered a Gazette Of The United States, For The Country (Philadelphia), dated May 25, 1807 which had a timely reprinting of William Cowper’s poem regarding the abolition of the Slave Trade – just a few weeks after the enactment of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 (United Kingdom). It would still be another quarter-century before slavery within the Britain Empire would be abolished.

Hidden gems within Niles’ Weekly Registers…

October 16, 2020 by · 4 Comments 

Approximately a dozen years ago, shortly after the History’s Newsstand Blog was birthed, we ran a series of posts which focused on the joy of finding hidden gems within Rare & Early Newspapers. The introduction to this series, in part, stated:

“What do gold prospectors, pirates, treasure hunters, archeologists, and rare newspaper collectors have in common? They all share the thrill of the hunt and the reward of discovery. When it comes to rare newspapers, finding the unexpected, in contrast to other collectibles, is often a good thing – and at times can even be quite valuable.  Since the inception of the History’s Newsstand Blog, a number of posts have focused on this intrinsic pleasure of the hobby, and several readers have responded with ‘discoveries’ of their own.”

Twelve years later we are revisiting this theme once again – but with a specific focus on one title: The Niles’ Register. If you have ever obtained a Niles’ Register (Weekly Register) and discovered within its pages content which was undisclosed – i.e., a “hidden gem”, you are invited to respond to this post with a comment describing your “find”.  Please include the exact date of the issue and the page number(s) were the content is located. Feel free to include additional information either about the content itself, or why you found it compelling. Every now and then we will pull a few responses and post them for others to see.

If you would like to learn more about Niles’ Registers, you can read additional posts about this intriguing title HERE.

First women’s brokerage firm on Wall Street opens its doors…

October 15, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

In the 19th century world of Wall Street investment firms it was a male-dominated world. So it was with considerable “excitement” that two sisters–the notable Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin–would have the audacity to open an investment firm for women.
The New York Times issue of February 6, 1870 reported the event.
Under the headlines: “WALL STREET AROUSED” “The Female Brokers–The First Day’s Operations–Manner of Their Reception by the ‘Street’–A Word or Two Concerning the Adventurers” is the report of Victoria Woodhull (nee Claflin) and Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin being the first woman to open a brokerage firm on Wall Street.
As the website “Bumped” notes, Cornelius Vanderbilt helped Victoria and Tennessee with the finances needed for them to open Woodhull, Claflin, & Co., the first for-women-by-women brokerage firm in the United States.
On February 5, 1870, Victoria and Tennessee, then 31 and 24, officially opened the doors of Woodhull, Claflin, & Co. for business. Despite a sign stating, “Gentlemen will state their business and then retire at once,” most of the estimated four thousand visitors on that first day were men, presumably shocked by the women now working in their midst.
Opening a successful brokerage wasn’t the whole plan. As Victoria later said, “We went unto Wall Street, not particularly because I wanted to be a broker…but because I wanted to plant the flag of women’s rebellion in the center of the continent.”
And in some ways, that’s exactly what she did. Later in 1870 the sisters used the profits from the brokerage firm to launch Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, one of the country’s first publications published by women.
Woodhull, Claflin, & Co. proved to be a huge success. According to some versions of the story, Victoria and Tennessee supposedly made $700,000 in the first six weeks (that’s more than $13 million today).

Harper’s Monthly & The Self-Made Man – Still Learning…

October 12, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

By natural inclination, I spend a fair amount of my spare time delving into the “women’s publications” within the Rare & Early Newspapers collection.  Consequently, the title of the Editor’s Table of an 19th century issue of Harper’s New Monthly dragged me in, and in the spirit of fair play I decided to dissect and disseminate the contents, using the writer’s three questions.

Who is the Self-Made Man?  In the author’s view, this is not the man who achieved much because of education, as education is an outside influence that detracts credit from the man.  However, a self-made man can be educated.  The one who is not educated, but rises to success in spite of the lack, is not necessarily self-made, as success does not equal the morality required in a self-made man.

What is the Self-Made Man?  Again, this is not the one who commits good deeds, although a self-made man will be characterized by them.  “The difference between the two characters is a moral one.  It springs from the presence or absence of the humanitarian spirit.  It is all the difference between the pure love of truth and the love of opinion.”

What is his true position for good or for evil among the powers of the age?  Finally, all the negatives are set aside and the author clearly promotes a man who is driven to find truth — not in new discoveries or insights, but in the wisdom of the ages that has been tested by time, and continues to be trustworthy.  Ultimately, the author highly esteems the members of the Protestant Reformation, and the things they accomplished.  “It was an age where old truths were brought to light and re-established as old truths.  It was a most serious age; it was a modest age; and in all these respects, especially in the latter, it differed widely from our own.”

The final condemnation of the modern era, male and female, is contained in the author’s closing remarks:

All the writings of every kind during that remarkable period, and, we may even say, the century that followed it, would not present so much of this frothy self-laudation, as may be heard in one Hope Chapel meeting of ‘strong-minded women’ and ‘self made’ men.

My collecting story… P.S. from City of Industry, CA…

October 8, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

Below we continue our series in which we post the “stories” graciously submitted by our collecting friends during the pandemic of 2020.

The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, California, east of Los Angeles, interprets the region’s history from 1830 to 1930 and, among the approximately 30,000 artifacts in the artifact collection are hundreds of historic newspapers, most dating to the 1870s, a key time period in our interpretation.  Among the more unusual of the papers is the first of twelve issues of the “Willow Dale Press,” an amateur paper published by 13-year old Florence Carter and her 10-year brother, Arthur, children of rancher and developer Nathaniel Carter.  The family migrated in 1874 from Lowell, Massachusetts to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles for a reason many others did: health.  Nathaniel Carter suffered from serious pulmonary issues and the temperate climate of the valley proved to be a balm for his ailments.  The Carters, who bought their 17-acre spread from George Stoneman, a Union Army general during the Civil War and future California governor, and christened it “Willow Dale.”  Widely known for its picturesque location, fine home, and its landscaping, Willow Dale was photographed by Carleton Watkins, famed for his images of Yosemite.  The site is in today’s city of San Marino, very near the Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens.

The Carter siblings were provided with a small foot-treadle operated press with a self-inking action made in Boston and which produced a dual-column sheet measuring 6 inches by 9 inches.  The duo’s sheet was among many so-called “juvenile papers” published throughout the nation as literacy rates skyrocketed.  This first issue, for January 1879, appeared late the following month, as one of the major dailies in Los Angeles, the Herald, noted in its Christmas 1878 edition that “we are indebted to our editorial confreres of the Willow Dale Press for a handsome chromo of the ‘Village Mill’,” this chromolithograph produced on their press being a free gift with a subscription, a savvy marketing tool for the young entrepreneurs, who were appealing “to our young friends” in making their “editorial bow.”

In fact, Florence and Arthur felt compelled to state “one of us has hardly reached, while the other has just entered our teens, and so our readers as they look over the paper will please pass judgment accordingly.”  They intended “to present each month, a good selection of reading matter, with articles which will be written expressly for this paper.”  They also added that “we will be glad to receive communications from any of the young folks, also charades, enigmas or conundrums which are original.”  Moreover, the Carters expressed a willingness to exchange with other like publications and made the offer to “each month present for THE OLD FOLKS a column which we hope they will find interesting and profitable, as we find it the most profitable to us.”  Another promotion was that a person who secured the most subscribers would get 500 cards with more than 200 types to choose from and room for up to three names, while the second and third highest producers would receive 300 and 100 cards, respectively.  Elsewhere, the pair advertised for the “latest styles” in New Year’s presentation cards.

Humor, or the attempt at, proved to take up much of the space in the issue, including this example: a small store about ten feet by twelve in East Los Angeles [a neighborhood now known as Lincoln Heights] has three large signs—MARKET—upon it, which nearly cover the building.  Florence said we rode along, she did not think they need “Mark-It” any more.  Another bit of humor was reprinted from the popular Youth’s Companion, and told of a woman who got chills from sitting on a rock until she learned that it was a block of ice covered with carpets to delay its melting.  For the “Old Folks Column,’ that consisted of an ad for a local doctor, a nearby nursery, and for the well-known resort, the Sierra Madre Villa, which was north of the Carter’s place.

Though the paper moved up in summer to a larger size of 9 ¼ x 7 ¼ with three columns and a new masthead with an increase in the subscription rate to 25 cents per year, at which time the Herald acknowledged receipt of the sixth issue and called the Press “a spicy, readable sheet,” the Carters only kept the journalistic endeavor going to the end of 1879.  Two issues were produced by their father because Florence and Arthur took a long trip to see their maternal grandmother in Northern California.  When the paper folded, the explanation was that the closure was due to “school work, baseball and archery,” these being childhood concerns that made eminent sense for the practical business decision reached by the young proprietors.

Just after the shuttering of the paper, the Carters moved to a new 103-acre tract known as “Carterhia,” while Nathaniel developed another 1000 acres and developed the town of Sierra Madre at the base of the chain of mountains once known by that name and later changed to the San Gabriel range.  Florence later married a prominent Y.M.C.A. official in Los Angeles and raised a family.  After she was widowed, she worked as a librarian and a Christian Science practitioner.  Arthur, who remained at Sierra Madre, became a ranger in the newly created national forest in the mountains above the town and ran the Carter’s Camp resort in Big Santa Anita Canyon above Sierra Madre.  Later, he was an orange grower in town, where he and his wife raised their family.

So, while the Willow Dale Press was short-lived, it was significant in that it was the first amateur or juvenile paper in greater Los Angeles and, in fact, was the first paper at all in the western San Gabriel Valley, as even the new town of Pasadena did not have one until the early 1880s.

As additional “stories” are posted they will be available at: MY COLLECTING STORY. We did this many years ago as well – and their posts are also included.

My collecting story… B. C. in Trion, Georgia..

October 5, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

Below we continue our series in which we post the “stories” graciously submitted by our collecting friends during the pandemic of 2020.

I am the published author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction. A few years ago, my publisher suggested that I write a book about Kathryn Kelly, the wife of “Machine Gun” Kelly and also the “brains” behind the crimes they committed over several years. What little I could find about Kathryn was interesting, but since no other books had ever been written about her, research was difficult. I turned to the FBI Vault of historical documents and personally interviewed people who lived during the Great Depression and the “Gangsta” Era. And then I came across “Timothy Hughes: Rare & Early Newspapers.” It was like finding a gold mine. I was able to access the newspapers from that time period that followed the crimes and eventual arrest of Kathryn Kelly and Machine Gun Kelly. With this information, along with the other research I had gathered, I wrote the book, Kathryn Kelly: The Moll behind Machine Gun Kelly. It was recently optioned for a major film. The newspaper I have saved for my collection is “The Bethlehem Globe-Times” – Tuesday, September 26, 1933. On the front page is the headline: “Machine Gun” George Kelly Is Captured. The sub-headline reads: Desperado Surrenders Without Resistance – Wife Is Also Taken Into Custody.

As additional “stories” are posted they will be available at: MY COLLECTING STORY. We did this many years ago as well – and their posts are also included.

 

Announcing: Catalog #299 (for October, 2020) is now available…

October 2, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

http://images.rarenewspapers.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ebayimgs/Webs/Catalog-Rare-Newspapers.jpg

Catalog 299 (for October) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes: the definitive newspaper with the rules of cricket, Sabbatai (the Jewish prophet), ‘The American Journal’ from Providence (1779), the Battle of Lexington & Concord (with a map of Boston), an incredible issue on the end of World War II, Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, and more.

 

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

 

Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.

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

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