My collecting story… B.R. in Grosse Ile, Michigan…

April 20, 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 have been a collector as long as I can remember.  In my teens I came across an old newspaper from the early 1800s and was amazed at its condition.  Only later would I learn that in the early days of newspaper printing were they using rag paper.  And how exciting for us all that they did because now we still have incredible pieces of history dating as far back as the 1500s and 1600s!
Several years ago I ‘discovered’ the wonderful world of rare newspapers offered by Tim Hughes on eBay.  I couldn’t believe what he had!  Amazing rarities that I’ve never seen offered by anyone else anywhere else!  I quickly became hooked.
My favorite eras to collect are the 1600s and 1700s.  The handmade paper and the labor intensive process of creating a newspaper in those days results in a unique finished piece unlike newspapers of later eras.  And some of the content is truly remarkable!
I was very excited when I found a 1679 issue of an English newspaper for sale published by Benjamin Harris who is known for publishing the first newspaper in America.  That particular issue from 1690 is so rare that apparently only one copy exists as Mr. Harris published an item concerning King William’s War and atrocities attributed to Native American forces allied to the British.  Without a license, his paper was shut down after a single issue and Mr. Harris was jailed.
My issue, Domestick Intelligence, Or News both from CITY and COUNTRY, is in remarkable condition and was purchased solely because it’s an early item by Benjamin Harris.  But the content makes it even better.  In 1679 there was a plague in Vienna and it is estimated that 76,000 people died there as a result.  The paper notes the following details:
“From Vienna in Germany they write That it is hoped the Plague is somewhat abated there, for whereas there has usually died two or three hundred in a day, there is not now above an hundred, but it is feared that it goes down further in the Country toward the Netherlands.”  But then it gets even more incredible with this item: “From Mentz in Germany they write, That it is confidently affirmed, There have been fiery Dragons lately seen flying in the Air near that City, and also several other Strange and Prodigious sights, which makes  a great Consternation among the People for fear of some dreadful miseries and Calamities approaching”.  Wow!  Fiery Dragons?!?
This hobby has provided much fascination and education for myself and friends and family members.  I would encourage everyone to dig deeper into these pages to uncover the gems that aren’t in any history books.  And hold history in your hands…from the day it was happening!
Thanks very much to Tim Hughes and Guy Heilenman and the other wonderful people at rare newspapers.com for bringing such treasures to the public.  It’s been a pleasure dealing with you!

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.

The April (2020) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…

April 17, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

Monthly Newsletter ~ Rare & Early Newspapers
Welcome to the April 2020 edition of our monthly newsletter. Our hope and prayer is for everyone’s health and general well-being.
This month we’d like to direct your attention to newly discounted items on our website, two historical items of Jewish interest, brand new items (just released), a continued opportunity to “tell your story”, and a bonus discount for items posted on eBay. Please enjoy.
*Discounted Newspapers – 50% off – We are offering well over 200 items (over 100 new items) at a 50% discount through May 14, 2020. The prices shown already reflect the discount.
New Titles, New Topics, New Listings – We’ve added over 25 new items to our website since the April catalog was released. The set includes a few titles which we’ve never offered and a variety of new topics: New Offerings
Two Great Jewish-Themed Items – We’ve just listed two new items on eBay which have rare, historic, Judaic reports – one being listed as the 2nd most significant report in Jewish-American history:
Speaking of eBay – From now through Sunday at midnight we are offering our Buy It Now (fixed price) eBay items at 20% off for cart totals which eclipse $200 (excluding storage options and certificates): eBay Discount
Catalog 293 – Enjoy the remaining items from our latest catalog of historic newspapers. The most collectible items may be viewed at: Key Catalog 293 Issues
Tell Your Story – Dozens of collectors have already responded to our offer to tell their newspaper collecting story. We’ll be posting them at random on the History’s Newsstand Blog over the next few months. What’s been posted thus far may be viewed at:
My Collecting Story
In case you missed it, please know it is not too late to participate. The offer, as it was written a few weeks ago stated:
Are you climbing the walls? Are you looking for something to do that will enable you to stay indoors yet won’t cost you a penny? After all, one can only spend so many hours binge-streaming movies, documentaries, and TV shows before boredom sets in. Additionally, since many of our collecting friends have little to no income stream at the moment (not to mention the hit our retirement portfolios have taken), we’d like to offer everyone an opportunity to do something a little different.
As most of you know, we at Rare & Early Newspapers maintain the History’s Newsstand Blog – which is an effort to spread the love of the hobby. While most of us have experienced the joy of preserving history, reading news from the day it was first reported, and finding hidden gems buried within newspapers we’ve collected, the average person has no idea the collectible even exists. Yet, growing the hobby helps us all as the more people who discover the pleasures spawned by collecting original newspapers, the more issues are preserved (not discarded due to the belief they have no value), and the more their value increases over time. It’s a win-win-win (we win, they win, and the preservation of history through available original reporting wins). So,what am I suggesting?
Would you consider guest-writing a post for the History’s Newsstand Blog?
I would like to offer three topics to consider:
  • Which issue within your collection do you value the most and why?
  • Have you ever found something you consider special within an issue you’ve collected that you did not know was present prior to your decision to obtain it? If so, what did you find?
  • Why do you collect rare/historic newspapers? How did you get started? Tell us your story.
If you decide to contribute please send your “post” to me at guy@rarenewspapers.com – or simply reply to this email. I will gather them together and begin to post them over the next few months. I will only include your initials and state – no personal contact information will be shown. As an added bonus, all who contribute will receive a discount code for 10% off a future website order. Since income for many is currently limited, and others who have more to spare are using it to help family, friends and others who are in need (by far the greater priority), the coupon will not expire until the end of the year so as to allow things to settle and then rebound economically. Note: the coupon may be used for any-size order, but may only be used once.
Please know this “discount” is in no way intended to increase our sales. Although we are all currently stressed economically, I know Who holds my future – so all is well when viewed through the lens of eternity. However, I do want to say “thank you” to those who are willing to share their thoughts with the collecting community. Let’s just have some fun in the midst of a difficult situation! 🙂

Thanks for collecting with us.Sincerely,

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team
RareNewspapers.com
570-326-1045

Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers . . .
           . . . History’s Newsstand
“…desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.” Hebrews 13:18b
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My collecting story… R. L. in Daytona Beach, Florida…

April 13, 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.

Newspapers Offer A Glimpse Into the Past

I don’t know if some things never change, or if history simply has a habit of repeating itself. As I watch today’s TV news in the era of the Corona Virus, I see many of the same challenges to society today that faced a particular society 76 years ago. Both then and now, people were searching for normalcy in their everyday lives.

Harper’s Weekly, September 11, 1858

Fall 1944 was a time when World War 2 was still raging across the globe. My period newspaper reports that “members of the International and Swedish Red Cross have been obliged to discontinue their activities…” Today, we hear of the possibility of hospitals becoming over-run and shutting their doors.

In 1944, an article headlined Enormous Drain On Resources feels just as relevant now as it did back then. As we see images of grocery stores with empty shelves, I am reading about food shortages which existed in 1944, with potato thieves being fined — or even going to jail. Yet despite shortages and community hardship, then and now, everyday life carried on. While Jeffrey Morris was born on November 4, an 85 year old widow, Marie Guilbert, died on the 6th. The cycle of life still rolls on today.

Meanwhile, one subscriber offered a billiard table for sale to help pass the long winter nights. The editor offered a column titled How to Enjoy Long Evenings. Reading, creating arts & crafts, or even doodling sounds just as good to folks quarantined today, as it did to folks back then in a time of war.

What I find really amazing is that the wartime newspaper so relevant today is the Guernsey Evening Press published on November 22, 1944. It was written in English, under Nazi supervision, on one of the German-occupied Channel Islands. I believe its readers would certainly know how to face the current hardships we are enduring, and then some.

Newspapers from the past offer a glimpse into everyday lives. For me, that is the lure of collecting old newspapers. They are our personal connection to the people who lived while history was unfolding. Many of their hopes and fears and challenges were the same then, as ours are today.

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… M.B. in Sedro-Woolley, WA…

April 9, 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’ve been collecting newspapers of historic events for 50 years. In a purchase last year I was interested in a July 1960 New York Times front page story on the Democratic Party’s nomination of John Kennedy for president. As I perused the inside content I found the real treasure: the Books of The Times review of Harper Lee’s new novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Herbert Mitgang. Many years ago, I worked with his son Lee Mitgang at the Associated Press in New York City.

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… J.R. in Ipswich (UK)…

April 7, 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.

In 1945 at the end of the war I was eight and saw my father save the Daily Telegraph proclaiming VE (victory in Europe) Day. I was already an avid newspaper reader (no television then) and decided to add newspapers I found interesting – VJ Day, Nuremberg Trials, Princess Elizabeth wedding, Dakota plane lost in the Alps etc. Soon people gave me old newspapers they had – an aunt gave me Edward/ Mrs Simpson abdication papers and my grandparents two 18th century ones.

This slow rate of collecting continued until the mid 1980s when my income allowed me to spend on myself as well as a wife and the children. I found book shops in London, where we lived at the time, where I could fill the gaps in years which were blank and have reference to most historical events, particularly those relating to improvements in social well-being. By this time I had all years from 1661 and references to most riots, bread marches, demonstrations for improved parliamentary representation, and suffragettes.

The children having long departed and my wife having died I found I had more time (and money) and now am collecting titles as my main interest. This means I am acquiring and understanding how newspapers were able to develop and change their format and means of attracting customers.The growth of size, number of pages, type change, introduction of illustrations and then photographs. Also the relationships of one newspaper to another and the takeovers, combinations and title changes. Now of course I am monitoring their decline.

By collecting different titles I have been able to acquire many short lived extreme left and right wing newspapers and also Irish Republican ones.

After 75 years collecting I now have over 3600 newspapers going back to 1642 and 1900 different titles. What am I going to do with them? None of my family wants them although I am still working on one son-in-law, so they are being offered to my local museum in Ipswich- after many more years of my collecting!

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… R.P. in Boise, Idaho…

March 31, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

As an attempt to make good use of the extra time many of us now have as a result of the current restrictions on mobility, about a week ago (from this post) we sent out an email asking collectors to submit their collecting stories. Three topics were suggested:

  • Which newspaper within your collection do you value the most and why?
  • Have you ever found something you consider special within an issue you’ve collected that you did not know was present prior to your decision to obtain it? If so, what did you find?
  • Why do you collect rare/historic newspapers? How did you get started?

The response to-date has been overwhelming (and new entries are welcome – just email them to me at guy@rarenewspapers.com). Over the next few months our plan is to post 1-2 per week. Today we begin with a contribution from R.P. in Boise, Idaho. Enjoy.

In response to your request for posts regarding your customer’s collections I would like to answer a bit of all three suggested topics. 

I have been a rare book collector for over 45 years.  I am a native Oregonian who lives in Idaho.  As a Northwesterner with an interest in history, early on I began to collect first editions of accounts of early expeditions and travels to the western United States.  Because Lewis and Clark reported the first overland expedition to the Pacific across mostly territory controlled by the United States, I needed to begin adding their expedition items to my collection.                                               

In my early collecting days, Lewis and Clark first editions were beyond my means.  However, accounts of their expedition exploits, and President Jefferson’s early messages to Congress, were available in newspapers and some magazines.  So I began collecting as many newspaper recordings about the expedition as I could find.  My collection isn’t huge, but it provides an immediacy which even first edition books don’t provide since all books (even Congressional Journals) were printed well after the activities being reported.  The close proximity of a newspaper account to the actual event occurrence is a primary reason why I collect newspapers and 18th Century American magazines.

Your second suggestion asks about surprises.  From your last catalog I purchased a newspaper from 1848 which contained a Congressional recording of three votes made by Abraham Lincoln while he was in the House of Representatives.  Although I am not a Lincoln collector, I thought this was interesting  and worth owning.  Also, the price was right.  When I perused the Newspaper, I saw two articles regarding the soon to be completed establishment of a new Oregon Territory.  The writers of both articles (one was a Georgia senator and the other was South Carolina’s John Calhoun) advocated that immigrants to Oregon be able to bring their slaves to the territory with the retention of their slave status.  Happily, Oregon did not become a slave territory nor a slave state.

These articles fit well with my reasonably large collection of books, maps and ephemera related to the Oregon Territory which encompassed the present states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana.

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.

Collector Historic Newspapers – A discussion with Tim Hughes…

March 27, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

On March 3, 2020 Mike Safo conducted a podcast with the Tim Hughes, founder of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers. His textual intro. to the podcast states:

Joined today by the owner and founder of Rarenewspapers.com, Timothy Hughes. Tim and I talk about our weird passion of collecting newspapers and discuss the current state of collecting and the industry today. We chat about his infamous hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the home of the Little League World Series. How before the newspaper business Tim was employed by Little League International. He talks about the famous 1980 World Series and how that put the LLWS on the map and golfing with Mike Mussina. Tim takes us back to collecting coins and stamps and how buying a 3-dollar newspaper changed everything. From leaving employment with Little League International to how he acquired over a million newspapers from the 1600a to present day. He tells us which newspaper’s he’ll never sell, which are the most in demand and why the hobby is growing.

The entire, informative podcast can be heard at: Mike Safo’s Interview With Tim Hughes

 

Mike describes himself as: “Just a regular New York City guy who gets to interview some pretty amazing people… A conversation/hangout podcast with friends, athletes, authors, celebrities, fighters, and the world’s most fascinating people. ‘The greatest podcast ever’ – My Mom”

March through the years via the lens of Rare & Early Newspapers…

March 6, 2020 by · 4 Comments 

Walk with us back through time to see what noteworthy, historic and collectible events occurred during the month of February. In so doing, we hope you’ll agree: “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.”

March Through Time

Announcing: Catalog #292 (for March, 2020) is now available…

March 2, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

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

Catalog 292 (for March) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes: a Confederate newspaper printed on wallpaper, the Funding Act of 1790, the Gettysburg Address, a Lincoln assassination issue from the Capital, Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, the “Battle of Los Angeles”, 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.)

The February (2020) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…

February 17, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 

Each month the staff of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers sends out a newsletter to our members which includes special offers, discounts, alerts to new inventory, and information related to the rare newspaper collectible.

The February, 2020 newsletter:

Our most recent newsletter is as follows:

Welcome to the February Newsletter from Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers. Whereas typically a newsletter would focus on Newly Discounted Items (50% off through March 12th), the remaining items from our current catalog (Catalog 281), new posts on the History’s Newsstand Blog, under-the-radar listings which are quite desirable (such as those with Botany Bay and/or Captain Cook content), New Items (outstanding listed after Catalog 291 was released), etc., this month we’d like to bring your attention to three special offerings:
like to bring your attention to three special offerings:

  • A Snapshot in Time – May, 1863 – featuring the Battle of Chancellorsville and the wounding and death of Stonewall Jackson.
  • An incredible issue on the Bombing of Hiroshima – book-ending the beginning an end of American involvement in World War 2 – the first of its kind we have ever had. Note: The most desirable issue regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor is the key report in The Honolulu Star Bulletin. The Bombing of Hiroshima issue in question is a dramatic report on the bombing in this same title.
  • A Free Newspaper – We are offering up to 25 free newspapers from London dated in 1790 – an original printed over 2 1/4 centuries ago. All we ask is for you to pay S&H (standard S&H criteria applies).
Of course this isn’t to say the Newly Discounted Items (50% off through March 12th), the remaining items from our current catalog (Catalog 281), new posts on the History’s Newsstand Blog, under-the-radar listings which are quite desirable (such as those with Botany Bay and/or Captain Cook content), New Items (outstanding listed after Catalog 291 was released), etc., are not worth exploring. 🙂

Thanks for collecting with us.Sincerely,

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers . . .
           . . . History’s Newsstand
“…desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.” Hebrews 13:18b
See what’s happening on our social sites

xxxxx

Thanks for collecting with us.

 

Sincerely,

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

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