Search
The Rare & Early Newspapers Hobby
Receive the Newsletter
Buy Historic Newspapers
Old age is relative…
October 23, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Enjoy the following, which appeared in an 1857 newspaper:
The Traveler… coffins… do they really have an expiration?
October 21, 2010 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Take me out to the ballgame… It’s the reporting for Game Three of the World Series between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago Cubs in the October 21, 1910 issue of The Allentown Morning Call in which it is reported, “The Combat to-day was a slaughter with the final score Philadelphia 12 – Cubs 5″. Just a Wikipedia tidbit of information — in 
Game 2, all nine Philadelphia players in the line-up got a hit, the first time in World Series history.
The reporting of Dr. Crippen’s murder trial is also on the front page as well. This was the first murderer caught via wireless communications.
An unrelated article caught my eye as I was quickly scanning through inside pages… “Three Years For Coffin”. It ends up being about a man with the last name of Coffin who was being sent to Leavenworth on counterfeiting charges. At a quick glance, it makes one wonder if there were was an expiration date on “coffins”. I thought they were to last an eternity. 🙂
~The Traveler
Roosevelt to blame for the Pearl Harbor attack…
October 16, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
We often list on our website issues from the island of Guernsey during World War II when it was occupied by the Nazis. As such all news is filtered through the German propaganda machine which offers interesting reading, as the reports are in English because the residents speak English.
Although many battles reports border on the absurd, particularly with historical hindsight, the front page report in the “Evening Press” dated December 8, 1941, one day after the Pearl Harbor attack, is one of the more outrageous (see the photo below).
The Traveler… a hatchet and… a slap in the face…
October 9, 2010 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
This week I ventured off the date just a bit, but staying within the current week. I began reading through the October 3, 1810 issue of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy, or Worcester Gazette when a lengthy front page article entitled “An Island of Savage Cannibals” caught my eye. This was from The Fejee Islands, and after reading the article, I have decided that this would definitely not have been on my vacation agenda! For some reason, a part of ransom requested by these people was twelve hatchets??!!
Inside the issue was a small article entitled “Real Bravery” which read “Little Algiers has declared war against France. The independent States of America dare not.“ Now, talk about a slap in the face…
~ The Traveler
Beware what you “conjure”…
October 2, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The “Massachusetts Centinel” newspaper from Boston printed this interesting item headed “Astrology” in its May 12, 1790 edition:
“Keeping” the Commandments…
September 25, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The following is an interesting item printed in “The Floridian” newspaper from Tallahassee, August 12, 1848. The “Temperance Aphorisms” which follows it is worth a look as well:
The Traveler… can’t you just go outside and play???
September 23, 2010 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
This week bring us to the reporting of the gubernatorial nomination for New Jersey. The front page of the September 23, 1910 issue of The Christian Science Monitor has the headline of “Believe Wilson May Have Career Like Cleveland” “Gubernatorial Victory in New Jersey for Princeton Man, It Is Said, May Lead to Presidency”. Do you think that they were possibly setting his next goals for him before he even got this one accomplished?
Also on the front page of this issue was a picture of a bi-plane and a young man standing beside it with a simple headline “Fitchburg Has Its First Aeroplane”. This intrigued me to read on, only to find that this a bit more unusual in more ways than one. “Fitchburg’s first aeroplane has been built and its wings tested in several short glides, according to its inventor, Edward W. Macy, 17-year-old… who had labored in secret on his free glider since early in February. The youthful inventory recently took the machine apart for the purpose of perfecting one or two points that the trials had brought to his attention…” It was noted that he was also intended to equip it with a motor. So, when your children get very quiet… watch out, you may not believe what they may be up to!!!
~The Traveler
Presumably not a chamber of commerce sponsored event…
September 11, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
This appeared in the “New York Clipper” newspaper of December 6, 1856 issue. Hopefully this “expedition” in Bridgeport, Vermont, was so successful that the town is a nice place in which to live today:
The Traveler… oh rats…
September 9, 2010 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
This week I have selected tomorrow’s date for our travel advantage. The Connecticut Mirror issue dated September 10, 1810 which on the front page carried an article entitled “Character of Bonaparte”. Mr. S. T. Coleridge had instituted a political paper in which the character of Bonaparte was handled with great severity of reprehension, and assailed with great vehemence of indignant feeling, for which Mr. Coleridge was attacked and vindicated through another newspaper. The article on Bonaparte’s character was introduced for the purpose of shewing the propriety of the epithets which he has applied to it and to be perused with interest. Inside the issue is the reporting of the “End of the Dutch Nation” with the annexing of Holland to the French Empire.
The story from Baltimore, Sept. 1 began as “Was set on fire, on Friday morning, between 2 and 3 o’clock … “ This proceeded to tell of a fire at the home of Jacob Hoffman, “the fire originated from a Rat, which conveyed a lighted candle from the fire hearth, to a closet where the hole was, the fire originated at the hole and made its progress thro the ceiling; but was happily discovered before any material damage was done… It is hoped the above will be a caution to those who are in the habit of letting lighted candles stand in low places after retiring.” By the way, it was noted that the “singular rat” was found dead after the fire was extinguished.
~The Traveler
Same concern over 100 years ago…
August 30, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
While listing an issue of “Judge” magazine, the political satire publication popular for the three color political cartoons in each issue, I noted the back page of an 1888 issue has a caption: “Goods Will Be So Much Cheaper–But what will become of all the American Industries?” The print (see below) shows the opening of the “Protection” flood gates with “European Pauper Manufactures” pouring upon American industries, shown in disrepair.
With one of the concerns of the American economy today being the flood of manufactured goods from foreign plants and the flight of American industries to off-shore sites, I find it curious that an identical concern was a focus 122 years ago. This political cartoon could well appear in a newspaper today.