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Hobby trivia: most used newspaper titles…
June 29, 2009 by TimHughes · 1 Comment
By far the most common of early titles were “Gazette” and then “Advertiser“. Between 1704 and 1820 “Gazette” was used either by itself or as part of a newspaper title 488 times. This was closely followed by “Advertiser” with 440 times, showing the deference which publishers paid to their advertisers who made up the greater part of a newspaper’s profit.
These two titles were followed by “Herald” with 115 times, “Journal” 114, “Intelligencer” 104, “Register” 86, “Republican” 77, “Chronicle” 75, “Patriot” 57, “Centinel” or “Sentinel” 56, and “Courier” 45.
Titles frequently used, but in lesser number, were “Eagle“, “Mercury“, “Messenger“, “Monitor“, “Museum“, “Observer“, “Post“, “Recorder“, “Repository“, “Star” and “Times“.
It is curious that “Times” was rarely used before 1820, and there is no mention whatever of “Tribune” or “Transcript“, all somewhat common within newspaper titles today.
(The above is excerpted from the book “Journals and Journeymen” by Clarence Brigham)
Extensive list of reprinted newspapers…
June 2, 2009 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The Library of Congress, as we previously discussed, maintains a web listing of the eighteen mostly commonly found reprinted newspapers. Most reprints which turn up today will be found in this list, however many others do exist.
Rick Brown, who maintains the “historybuff.com” website and who edited the journal “Collectible Newspapers” for many years, created a master list of some 567 reprinted newspapers. Should you encounter a newspapers and you are suspicious of its genuineness, check the list of titles and dates on “American Newspapers Known to Have Been Reprinted” which can also be accessed from the home page of our website. If the title & date appear on this list your suspicions many be justified.
If you care to take an additional step towards determining genuineness, Rick offers a more detailed “Annotated Index of Newspapers Editions Known To Have Been Reprinted…” for a modest charge, which offers additional details for each entry.
Although reprinted editions are exeedingly rare in the hobby of early newspapers—and most common reprints are easy for even a novice to spot—having access to such a list is of much value to the hobby and can provide some comfort when pursuing historic newspapers for one’s private collection.
Resources… The Library of Congress…
May 26, 2009 by GuyHeilenman · 1 Comment
The Library of Congress has a wonderful collection of original newspapers along with an extensive digitized database of American titles. An informative website is maintained in an effort to provide useful information related to rare and historic newspapers. They describe themselves as:
“The Serial & Government Publications Division maintains one of the most extensive newspaper collections in the world. It is exceptionally strong in US newspapers, with 9,000 titles covering the past three centuries. With over 25,000 non-US titles, it is the largest collection of overseas newspapers in the world. Beyond its newspaper holdings, the Division also has extensive collections of current periodicals (70,000 titles) comic books (6,000 titles) and government publications (1 million items).”
Some of the features to be found at their Newspaper Division’s website are webcasts, a searchable data base, full text versions of many newspapers and periodicals, and a link to their ongoing project “Chronicling America”. Although we at Rare Newspapers maintain an extensive list of common reprints (thanks to Rick Brown at HistoryBuff.com) the Library of Congress also has an abbreviated list of common reprints with descriptions as to how one can determine whether their issue is authentic… or not.
Thanks L.O.C. for your ongoing efforts on behalf of historic newspapers.
Pricing newspapers over 30 years ago…
May 18, 2009 by TimHughes · 22 Comments
In conversations with people about how I started this business, a common question is, “How did you know how to prices newspapers back then?” Well, the short answer is I didn’t.
This venture started as a hobby with no thought of it turning into a business. But when I started getting too many of a similar title or date, selling off the “unwanteds” became a more common occurrence. My simple thought was, if I had $3 for it, try to sell it for $5. If I did, the price stuck for future issues; if it didn’t, the price dropped to $4.
But this became trickier years later when I was buying for resale but didn’t have enough experience to know what to pay, nor what to price them at. Nor did anyone for that matter, as there were no price guides, nor sufficient auction records to offer a clue.
I was flying by the seat of my pants. If I thought an event was historic, say a major Civil War battle, I would pay the $5 price and increase it by 50% or so. If it sold, then the next time I inched it up a bit more. If it didn’t, I reduced the price a bit. Never knowing how high customers might go for an event, I might have “inched up” the price of an event 15 times over the coarse of 4 or 5 years until there was some resistance. I was careful to keep records of sales through the years–even in the pre-computer days–which was a tremendous assistance in assigning values to the myriad of historical events covering 300 years of history.
Did I sell some great material too cheaply in the early years? I sure did. Looking at some of my earlier catalogs I gladly pay five times the selling price of many items I sold. But it was part of the process. I remember nce having a volume of a Las Vegas, New Mexico newspaper from 1881. There must have been 30 or 40 issues with a small “Reward” ad for the capture of Billy the Kid. I think I sold those issues for less than $20 each. If I had 40 of them how rare could they be? Certainly I’ve learned through the years, and became smarter as well.
But we are still challenged today with some items. As we continue to find truly rare, almost unique issues it becomes difficult to assign values with no history or prior sales. But these are the fun challenges. As much as you may enjoy finding interesting items in our catalogs, I enjoy finding the unusual to offer.
Although this is a business, I have always gotten more joy from buying newspapers than selling them.
Why does my newspaper look as if it came from a book?
April 30, 2009 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
This is a common question many newcomers ask upon their 1st encounter with a rare newspaper from nearly every era (Revolutionary War, Civil War, Old West, and even Birthday/Day-You-Were-Born issues, to name a few). Whether it is the rough left spine present from the issue being removed from a larger volume, or the consecutive numbering which results in only the first issue printed during the year to have a “page 1”, a novice’s immediate (and logical) reaction is that the issue must have come from a book and therefore must be a reprint. However, the truth is actually the opposite. Such signs are good indicators that the issue is likely authentic. To understand this, what is needed is a knowledge of how historic newspapers and magazines were handled up to as late as the 1960’s.
Many publishers of early newspapers started numbering their pages from 1 at the start the year and continued with the consecutive numbering throughout the year. This made it very easy to reference content. Examples of early well-known titles which did this are Harper’s Weekly, The War, Gentleman’s Magazine, Niles’ Register, and Leslie’s Illustrated, to name a few. Although this gave the newspapers a book effect, early readers would not have given this another thought. As far as the spine residue/disbinding evidence (which gives the appearance that the issue came from a book) is concerned, nearly every institution which held rare newspapers bound them together at the end of each year for protection & permanent storage in libraries. Almost all newspapers through the 1960’s were held in this manner. Your local library likely holds its early newspapers in this form. Two resources which may alleviate any concerns you might have related to this issue are the Library of Congress’ Newspaper Division & the American Antiquarian Society. HistoryBuff.com also provided additional information regarding this topic.
Great reference work for pre-1821 American newspapers…
April 27, 2009 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
We are often asked about appropriate reference books for rare newspaper collectors, particularly when it comes to relative rarity of newspapers. When one encounters an early title not seen before, how can we judge how rare or common it might be?
Thankfully for all collectors, Clarance Brigham undertook an exhaustive 30 year project to record all know issues of every newspaper title printed in the United States prior to 1821. This effort, published by the American Antiquarian Society (Brigham was directory of the Society) back in 1947, is titled: “History & Bibliography of American Newspapers 1690-1820“, a two volume set with some 1500 pages in total.
This work lists all American newspapers from the noted timespan, by state, then by city, then by title. The true value of this work is the brief historical account of each title with the exact dates of changes of titles & names of publishers, followed by a checklist of all files located. This last piece is what reflect relative rarity. If a title has just one or two holdings in institutions, and only a few issues within these institutions, then it would be consider rare. If a title has 15 institutional holdings noted, and complete or near complete holdings within those institutions, the title might be considered common.
This set has been out of print for many years, including the more recent edition done in 1975, but they occasionally come up on eBay or web-based rare book sites such as abebooks.com. Prices tend to run from $200 to $400 for a set, but a lucky person might find it for much less. I believe we have a set of the 1947 edition priced at $265.
I would encourage any collector of pre-1821 newspapers to think about adding this work to their reference library. It contains a wealth of information and is a resource which I have used regularly for over 30 years.
Editorial policy (?) and the potential impact upon an issue’s collectibility…
April 11, 2009 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
The following are a few thoughts by Morris Brill (guest contributor) concerning slight differences in the printing of the Declaration of Independence within the London Chronicle (dated August 17, 1776) vs. the printing within the Gentleman’s Magazine (dated August, 1776):
Recently on Ebay two different sellers offered a printing of the Declaration of Independence in the Gentleman’s Magazine. I also noted your offering of the Declaration within the London Chronicle.
I (Morris) noted, while reading the text of Gentleman’s Magazine, as photographed on Ebay, a particular sentence in which two words were missing and substituted with a line, i.e. ___________
The sentence is as follows:
“A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
In the Gentleman’s Magazine the words ” prince” and “tyrant” are deleted.
I find it interesting that although the Gentleman’s Magazine and the the London Chronicle are both British that one paper printed the words prince and tyrant, yet the other did not.
To me, the deletion of the two words certainly diminishes the historic value of the printing as it appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, although I would not pass up the opportunity to own this paper. Perhaps it has to do with an opposing editorial policy, or the political persuasion of the two publishers.
Morris
Note: If anyone is aware of the formal policy which led to the deletion of certain words within the Gentleman’s Magazine, please share your insight with the rare newspaper community.
Double-dated newspapers: the Julian and Gregorian calendars…
April 9, 2009 by TimHughes · 1 Comment
If you have some 1600’s newspapers in your collection you may have a few with dates showing years as “1683/4″ or 1686/7”, or perhaps you have a few issues from a single year where a later date has an issue number lower than an earlier date, and you’ve wondered “how could this be?” Well, it’s due to the calendar, or more specifically which calendar was in use at the time.
Although the differences between the older Julian calendar and our current Gregorian calendar are many and very complicated and can be understood by visiting this site, the short answer is that in the latter part of the 17th century & a portion of the 18th century both calendars were in use in England, and the date of the issue would reflect which calendar was in use.
The new year of the older Julian calendar began on March 21, so an issue dated March 17, 1675 would be followed by the next weekly issue dated March 24, 1676. This would also mean that an issue dated December 31, 1675 would be followed by an issue dated January 7,1675. This was how the London Gazette dated it’s issues for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries. At first glance one would think that the issue of Jan. 7, 1675 was older than one dated December 31, 1675, but the opposite was true.
Other titles were a bit more helpful in noting the year of publication by dating issues from January 1 thru March 20 with a double-dated year such as “1684/5” or “1686/7” so the reader would know that it was from the year 1684 under the Julian calendar, or 1685 under the Gregorian calendar.
Some American newspapers of the 18th century have similar double dates, but by the beginning of the 19th century–if not reasonably before–newspapers had converted exclusively to the Gregorian calendar. The same was true with most of the Western world, while other portions of the globe adopted the Gregorian dating system much later.
Hopefully this answers a few questions you have had. Be in touch if we can be more helpful!
Numbering an issue….how was it done?
April 6, 2009 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The numbers noted at the top of the front page of a newspaper, typically at the far left and right of the dateline, may seem a bit confusing so I’ll try to explain what they mean.
Most newspapers had two sets of numbers: 1) the issue & volume numbers, and 2) the whole number.
The issue & volume number often appear such as “Vol. 5 num. 237” which means this is the 237th issue from the fifth year of the newspapers existence. Newspapers would assign a volume number to their publication which would increase by one on the anniversary of its beginning, so if a newspapers published it’s first issue on March 5, 1837, volume two would begin with the first publication after March 5, 1838. The issue number notes the issue from within that volume, meaning that issue “Vol. 5 num. 313” might be followed by issue “Vol. 6 num. 1” if the newspaper published 6 days a week (365 days less 52 Sundays = 313 published issues in the year).
But to many the more mysterious number is the “whole number”. Essentially it indicates how many issues have been published since the founding of the paper, and can be a very large number if the paper has been in publication for many years.
Using the above example of “vol. 5 num. 313” the “whole number” of this issue would likely be 1565 (313 issues per year x 5 years = 1565). And the very next issue, noted as “vol. 6 num 1” would be whole number 1566.
The tricky thing is that when some newspapers were sold, reorganized, changed their name, or merged with another they might begin a “new series” and the volume/issue numbers would begin afresh, and the whole number may or may not start over with number 1, depending on the whim of the publisher. So these numbers cannot be depended upon to give an accurate reflection of how old the newspaper is, nor the number of issues that were printed since its inception. Niles’ National Register did this at least twice in its 40 years’ existence.
Red (British) tax stamps… They appear to be random…
April 2, 2009 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Recently a member inquired as to why the red-ink British tax stamps seemed to appear randomly within an issue – sometimes on the frontpage, sometimes on the backpage, and at other times somewhere within the issue. Although we had our thoughts on the subject, we called upon a collector of red-ink stamp issues, Randall Burt. His thought substantiated our “hunch”:
“These newsprint publishers bought their stock from the
paper makers, and then were required by law to pay the paper tax on it at the gov’t
house where the paper was taxed at current rates. The stamp was applied on
the blank sheets [pre-printing], then taken to their newspaper office where the news was added.
These tax stamps were not always in a desirable place for the collector. J.H. Chandler & H. Dagnall wrote extensively on this subject in their “Newspaper & Almanac Stamps of
Great Britain,” as did several other noted revenue writers.” Randall Burt
Thanks for your insight Randall.
If you have additional questions you would like to see addressed through the History’s Newsstand Blog, please comment to this post of send your questions to guy@rarenewspapers.com.