Search
The Rare & Early Newspapers Hobby
Receive the Newsletter
Buy Historic Newspapers
Finding the Unexpected… Village Voice edition…
September 30, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
The Village Voice is known for many things, but articles which take a deep-dive into the history of the United States is not among them. So, when I came across a highlighted quote from Abraham Lincoln from his 1865 Inaugural Address within the issue dated July 12, 1976, my curiosity was piqued. Rather than describe my findings in words, I think it best to let the pictures (photos) below do the talking. If you are familiar with this publication, I hope you are intrigued about their presence as well. Enjoy.
Note: The Village Voice did a reflective article on this issue on June 28, 2023 which can be viewed here: Last Refuge of a Rock Critic…
Announcing: Catalog #347 for October, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…
September 27, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
|
|
[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]
This Month in History – September…
September 26, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
“History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” (Timothy Hughes, 1975). Exploring events which have occurred in September as they appeared in rare & early newspapers are no exception. To view a selection of over 1000 such reports within the context of additional news of the day, go to:
NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER
We missed it – Nellie Bly edition…
September 20, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
No matter how hard our staff at Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers tries not to, inevitably we occasionally miss gems buried within the collectible newspapers we offer. Dozens of issues of the New York Tribune left our premises with undiscovered (unsigned) articles by Karl Marx. A real heartbreak was missing one of the first (1st?) published articles by a journalist with the initials S.C. Unfortunately, we were unable to get in touch with the recipient of the newspaper, but we sure hope they discovered this precious, early work from Mark Twain. Today we are aware that many of the issues of The Village Voice which pass through our hands have a good chance of containing an ad for one of the very first appearances of an iconic musician or band. As they say, “it is what it is”. What is it? One of special pleasures of the hobby: discovering unidentified treasures within the pages of old, rare, and historic newspapers.
We’ve mentioned this before, so why bring it up now? IT HAPPENED AGAIN!
Not too long ago a collector-friend mentioned they had an issue of The World (Pulitzer’s paper from New York) which contained a puzzle-game based on journalist Nellie Bly’s “Round the World” trip. The (New York) World followed her travels during her glorious excursion and printed the full-page puzzle soon after she returned home. The collector told us the date, and we immediately checked our database to see if we had a monthly volume of The World which spanned the date of the issue. We did. Next, we checked to see if our records revealed a previous sale for the issue? No! So, armed with great enthusiasm we headed off to the archives with anticipation. The volume was about 18 feet off the ground and buried under 5 other volumes (which is always a bit tricky when our feet are not firmly planted on the ground). Still within about 15 minutes from start to finish we were confronted by our worst-case scenario. The volume was present, but the issue was gone. It had very likely sold as a “birthday newspaper” (issues sold primarily to be used to give as gifts to recipients which highlight they day they were born). Bummer.
One may wonder how we could we have missed something so large… and so precious. Actually, it was as easy as 1, 2, 3 (or if you prefer, a, b, c):
- (a) We had no idea such an item existed, so we weren’t looking for it.
- (b) The sale probably took place prior to the ramp-up of the internet, so we didn’t have the capacity to make even a generalized search for content.
- (c) We would have been reluctant to page through the issue looking for special items since many newspapers from this era are rather brittle – and the puzzle-game was on an inside page.
Does this upset us? Not really. This aspect is one of the traits which make this collectible so rewarding.
Note: You can read more about Nellie Bly here and find a free downloadable high-resolution digital print of the puzzle here. 
Snapshot 1820 – Considering a Cure for Hard Times…
September 6, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · 6 Comments
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. 
Announcing: Catalog #346 for September, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…
August 30, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
|
|
[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]
Snapshot 1887 – The End of the Western Frontier?
August 23, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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).
An open letter to those currently holding the reigns at Disney…
August 7, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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.”
This Month in History – August…
August 5, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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
Announcing: Catalog #345 for August, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…
August 2, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
|
|
[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]