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The Traveler… white man sentencing… six slaves conspiracy…
November 16, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
I traveled to New York City by The New York Evening Post of November 15, 1815 where I found three men in North Carolina were tried and convicted for having cruelly whipped a black slave to death and one of the three men was sentenced to be hung. “…But as it was the first time a white man was condemned to death in the state for killing a slave, the governor thought proper to reprieve him when under the gallows…” (see image below).
In Maryland, six slaves had conspired to kill their master if any of them were to be whipped the next day. When Mr. Owings “called one of them to correct him”, their plan then ensued and a very brutal murder occurred. At the end of the report, all six were sitting in the new jail.
~The Traveler
Noteworthy newspapers – one person’s view (part I)…
October 15, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
At Rare Newspapers, the most difficult to answer yet common question our staff is frequently challenged to answer is, “Do you having anything new to offer that’s interesting?” While some newspapers would certainly rise to the top of the heap and make the answer a no-brainer (Lincoln assassination, Declaration of Independence, an Oxford Gazette, a great Stock Market crash report, etc.), these issues are few and far between – and do not come along very often. What about the periods when no “best of the best” has come our way? Selecting great issues is often quite subjective – and ends up being heavily 
influenced by one’s own interests and knowledge base. This truth makes answering this question nearly impossible. However, just for fun, from time to time we’ll ask the Rare & Early Newspapers’ staff to take turns looking at the issues listed month-to-date to select their choice for the most interesting new item.
I’ll get things started by taking a look at September (to-date), 2015. In my opinion, there are several good issues to choose from: The New York Yankees acquire Joe DiMaggio, the very 1st King Kong advertisement, the announcing of the creation of a Jewish homeland, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the death of William Randolph Hurst – to name a few. However, as a graduate of Penn State University, my selection of the month is an issue announcing Joe Paterno becoming a starter at Brown University. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I’m confident my selection may not be the same as yours. You can weigh in on your own thoughts by looking at the first page of our Recent Listings. Enjoy.
Next stop: October, 2015.
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Gandhi…
October 8, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the TAUNTON DAILY GAZETTE, Massachusetts, January 30, 1948: “GANDHI SHOT TO DEATH”…
The Traveler… unbelievable human brutality…
October 5, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
This week I traveled back to New York City by the way of the Harper’s Weekly, October 7, 1865. Although this issue is filled with a variety of woodcuts [illustrations], the one that struck me the most was of the “Grounds at A
ndersonville, Georgia, Where are Buried Fourteen Thousand Union Soldiers Who Died in Andersonville Prison” and the accompanying article. “…The graves of the soldiers starved and poisoned and brutally murdered there are not scattered about over the innocent hill-sides of our land, but are dug under the sod that drank their blood and bore witness to the cruelty of Wirz, Winder, and the rebel authorities at Richmond, who kept these demons at their posts… James M. Moore,Assistant-Quarter-master, and his party, returned from Andersonville, where they have been engaged for a month in identifying the graves and giving honored sepulture to the fourteen thousand victims of rebel barbarity, who suffered all manner of torture and death in that notorious prison-pen…”.
~The Traveler
The Traveler… the sinking of the Hesperian…
September 7, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled to New York City by the way of the New York Tribune of September 7, 1915. The headline is of the tragic sink of the Hesperian. “Hesperian Sinks; 26 Dead; No Excuse for Act Found; Disavowal Is Expected”. “With all of the twenty-give missing passengers and crew of the Hesperian, torpedoed Saturday evening, now given up as lost, the total death list… stands at twenty-six… Wesley Frost telegraphed today to the American Embassy that the Admiralty authorities had not been informed officially that the Hesperian had been torpedoed without warning, but that they believed this was the case. Persons so far seen stated that no warning was given…”
~The Traveler
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Jean Harlow dies…
September 3, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the HERALD EXPRESS–EXTRA, Los Angeles, June 7, 1937: “FILM STAR JEAN HARLOW DIES; WM. POWELL, FAMILY AT SIDE“…
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Groucho Marx…
June 26, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the LOS ANGELES TIMES, Aug. 20, 1977: “GROUCHO MARX DIES“…
The Traveler… A commuted sentence… the angry mob and more…
June 22, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled to New York City by the way of The New York Times of June 22, 1915. There I found the headlines announcing Governor Slaton of Georgia had commuted the sentence of 
convicted killer Leo Frank to life in prison. “The death sentence imposed on Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan has been commuted to one of life imprisonment by Governor John M. Slaton, and Frank is now in the State Prison at Milledgeville…” This news was not received well by the community and soon a crowd of up to 10,000 marches were upon the governor’s home. An effigy of the governor was burned. In the meantime, Leo Frank was secretly moved from the Atlanta prison to one in Milledgeville. This issue carries extensive coverage on this matter.
~The Traveler
They put it in print… Cheating in baseball predates the “Black Sox” scandal of 1919…
May 29, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Cheating in baseball may be as old as the the sport itself, but it was most notably brought to national attention with the infamous “Black Sox” scandal of 1919, when several players of the Chicago White Sox were 
accused of throwing the World Series that year for financial gain.
As newspaper report from shortly after the end of the Civil War gives evidence that it happened much earlier as well. The “New York Times” issue of Sept. 29, 1865 reports on a game between the Mutuals and Eckford teams, ultimately won by the latter with a score of 23-11. Excellence in play was reported with: “…Some of the fly tips taken by Mills surpassed, anything we ever saw in that line of business, while their pitching came nearer to the Creighton mark in accuracy of delivery than any we have seen since his death…”. But records show that several Mutual players were later charged for accepting money to deliberately toss this game (see this hyperlink for the details). Ironically the summary mentions the poor play of the Mutuals marked by “…over-pitched balls, wild throws, passed balls, and failures to stop them…”. Interesting evidence that all was “not well” with the game.
Although the 1919 World Series remains prominent in sports history, this obscure game from 54 years earlier gives evidence to a a rather lengthy history of cheating in baseball.
They put it in print… Interesting Kennedy obituary…
May 21, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
One of the more desired of the newspapers reporting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has always been the “Dallas Morning News“, published in the city where he was killed. 
Unbeknownst to most–including us for many years–is the curious obituary found on page 6 of the last section. Inconspicuously listed among the 33 entries in the “Deaths & Funerals” section is the one shown in the photo. It is a paid obituary notice inserted by a private funeral home announcing the death of an American president. The O’Neal Funeral Home handled President Kennedy’s remains in Dallas and furnished the casket in which he was sent to Washington. Although certainly not a local funeral, I suspect the funeral home sought the opportunity to gain some stature & credibility by letting all know they handled the remains of a President of the United States.
Has anyone else discovered this obituary notice?
And of note as well, relating to the Kennedy assassination, is the death notice of “J.D. Tibbit”, the police officer killed by Oswald shortly after the Kennedy assassination. In fact it was for Tibbit’s death that Oswald was initially arrested, the connection to Kennedy’s assassination discovered afterwards.