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The Civil War (post conflict)… May, 1865
May 1, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
quite revealing. This is why we often say, “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” The following link will take you back in time to show the available newspapers from the Rare & Early newspapers website. There’s no need to buy a thing. Simply enjoy the walk back in time:May, 1865
They put it in print… The floating soap surfaces…
April 27, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
It’s interesting to find articles reporting the very beginning of some of the more commonplace items in present-day life, but which were given little consequence at the time. A good example is a rather inconspicuous article in an April 1, 1882 issue of “Scientific American“.
Titled simply “Floating Soap”, the article includes: “…the peculiarity of the soap they were using. When one of the men had soaped himself he would drop the soap into the water and it would ‘bob up serenely from below’ like a cork, ready for the next man to pick it up…The soap was called ‘ivory’, presumably on account of being of a creamy white color like ivory…We are pleased to note that Messrs. Proctor and Gamble, of Cincinnati, have at last discovered how to make a soap that will float & at the same time be durable & serviceable, & reasonably cheap.”
Ivory soap remains today–some 133 years later–a very common product on store shelves around the world. And it still floats.
Ford’s Theater… then and now…
April 24, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
150 years ago, much of the nation was still reeling from the death of Abraham Lincoln. A mere 10 days previous time stood still and tears flowed freely at the news that the President had been killed. Did many travel to Washington, D.C. to mourn his passing? Did some visit the very site of his tragic and untimely demise to place a candle… flowers… mourn? The Philadelphia Enquirer, April 17, 1865, not on only printed a sketch of the captured John Wilkes Booth, but they also included a front-page schematic (right) of the back-alley escape route where a horse was waiting for the infamous villain and his accomplice. While the region has gone through several transformations over the course of the last 150 years, this same alley exists today. The current-day photo shown below was sent to us be a collector friend who also included the following note:
I have attached a picture of the rear of Ford’s Theater as it looks today (showing the original windows/doorways that have been bricked-up)…and I want to point out that the alleyway shown on that April 17th issue is incredibly, to this day, the only exit on the entire block and proportioned to what it was in that newspaper.
If you’ve never visited Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., it is certainly worth the trip.
Note: During my days as a Middle School Teacher, can anyone guess the most common question students asked upon visiting this spot during a school trip?
Discovering hidden treasure…
April 17, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
One of the many pleasures of the Rare Newspapers collectable is finding content which was unexpected. The following note from a collecting friend drives this point home:
Dear Guy,
Thank you for sending the recent “History’s Newsstand” [newsletter]. Good stuff.
I wanted to share with you, assuming that you are also a history “nut”, a news item that I came across in a recent purchase.
From the Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, August 9, 1860 (see attached) a mention of a “Miss. A. Surratt” of Prince George’s County (Surrattsville now Clinton, MD.) Although I may never know for sure, the name, place and date seem to match up correctly with Elizabeth Susanna “Anna” Surratt (1843-1904), daughter of Lincoln assassination co conspirator Mary Surratt.
I became interested in the tragic life of little Anna through my research on the Chapman sisters of Ford’s theater fame.
Love these old newspapers. Historical goldmines each and every one.
Once again: History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.
They put it in print… Sons of Liberty…
April 13, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Finding reports in centuries-old newspapers which read like they came from today’s papers are always fascinating. They provide interesting evidence that life today, in many ways, is not necessarily so much different from years ago.
A report in the October 12, 1776 issue of “The Pennsylvania Ledger” newspaper (see below) of Philadelphia contains a very interesting piece which accuses the manipulation of news, reading: “It is astonishing to see daily the insults offered by the Tories…since the news of the skirmish on Long Island; on the first report…congratulate each other…They have the effrontery to assert that it is much worse than reported, that it’s so bad that the Sons of Liberty are afraid to let it be known least the people should be discouraged. Is not this intolerable?…they propagate every intelligence they receive, taking care to calculate it so as to serve their own turn; its beyond a matter of doubt that they keep up a secret correspondence through the colonies in order to comfort one another to keep up their sinking spirits and to propagate falsehoods…” (see).
In light of on-going accusations by political parties today that news reports are manipulated to serve their own interests, it is fascinating to find the same happened during the Revolutionary War so many years ago.
The Civil War… April, 1865
April 10, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
revealing. This is why we often say, “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” The following link will take you back in time to show the available newspapers from the Rare & Early newspapers website. There’s no need to buy a thing. Simply enjoy the walk back in time:April, 1865
The things we take for granted… Let there be light…
March 30, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Yet another discovery… I love this hobby!
March 27, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · 1 Comment
From time-to-time we (Rare & Early Newspapers) talk about one of the joys of the hobby being the unearthing of unexpected “finds”. A few weeks ago this was played out in spades as
Guy Heilenman, President, Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers
we learned that the same issue we had sold for under $50 sold at a well-known auction house for well over $5,000 – the price driven by content we did not know was present. While we do our best to discover such hidden gems before offering issues, the reality is, it is nearly impossible to find everything of historical interest and/or collectable value. Some wonder if hearing about such events bothers us. Quite the contrary. This is one of characteristics of collecting old newspapers which make the hobby so enjoyable. While not all “finds” bring financial reward, it is rare to read through a rare newspaper from cover to cover without finding something unexpected beyond the original reason for purchasing – an interesting ad, the mention of a noteworthy name, contemporary viewpoints which add depth to the key content, etc. What fun!
While we won’t mention the exact date or title (that would be too easy), we will say the issue was from the 1760’s and was not American. 🙂
They put it in print… The Vietnam Crisis… before it was a crisis…
March 23, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
One of the attractions of collecting old newspapers is the ability to look at history with the benefit of hindsight. Many times writers were right on the money when it came to predicting events in the future; many times they could not have been more wrong. Both views offer interesting reading.
Not long ago we came across a report of what would become a scar on the military history of the United States, specifically the lengthy war in Vietnam. A “Los Angeles Times” newspaper as early as March 25, 1965, some ten years before the Vietnam War would 
officially end (Saigon fell on April 29, 1975) had a headline announcing: “VIET CRISIS GROWS“. This report notes that Red China was committed to sending troops to fight in Vietnam if the Americans persisted in their growing involvement, and that they would: “…fight together with the South Vietnamese people to annihilate the U.S. aggressors.” This is in response to the event of 3 weeks prior when the first American combat troops arrived in Vietnam, joining a force of 23,000 American “advisers”. American involvement in the Vietnam War would only continue to grow for another 8 years.
I am sure almost no one who read this newspaper in the spring of 1965 could have guessed the future complexity and duration of American involvement in Southeast Asia. This issue constitutes half of what I would call “bookend newspapers”, or a pair of newspapers which report the beginning and end of noteworthy events.
First reference to “Ivy League”?
March 13, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Some words including names, titles, etc. are so noteworthy or common that we forget they had a beginning – a first use. According to Wikipedia, the first public use (in print) of the term “Ivy League” occurred within the Christian Science Monitor, Boston, February 7, 1935. The usage was in reference to Brown University being accepted into the “League”. A quick search on The New York Times database shows that it did not print the title until nearly a half-year later. Is Wikipedia correct? Until we see confirmation to the contrary we’ll assume their assessment to be accurate. If anyone has information to the contrary, please let us know.