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The Political Season Has Arrived. Next Up – An October Surprise (?)…
October 4, 2024 by Laura Heilenman · Leave a Comment
Since it only takes 2 items to count as a series, this is the 1st post in what I am confident will be a series leading up to the election in November. However, in lest anyone already be overcome by political angst, please know the series will only meet the minimum requirement of 2 – one in September and one in October, this being the first.
In anticipation of what might soon be filling the airwaves and making the rounds on social media ad nauseum, I was inspired to explore the history of the political tactic of using an “October Surprise”. With minimal effort (thanks to the internet), I found a report in THE GLOBE, October 23, 1840, which describes what many believe to be the first such occurrence.
“In mid-October 1840, shortly before the 1840 presidential election, federal prosecutors announced plans to charge top Whig Party officials with “most stupendous and atrocious fraud” for paying Pennsylvanians to cross state lines and vote for Whig candidates in New York during the 1838 [midterm] elections.” ~ Wikipedia
So, as we keep our eyes open for what is sure to rain down upon us in short order, let’s keep our heads about us as we recite the age-old adage: “There is nothing new under the sun”. 
Snapshot 1820 – Considering a Cure for Hard Times…
September 6, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · 6 Comments
One would need to search far and wide to find someone who doesn’t acknowledge that we’re living in hard times. Harder than those who lived through any major war… any great famine… any weather-born catastrophe… any form of slavery (or similar form of oppression)… any horrific accident… any economic depression… any…??? Most would say no, but “felt” hard times are often relative, and “counting our blessings and naming them one by one” – a practice well-known to be an effective pain-soothing salve for “felt needs” and more, is not often our default response to hardship. To be honest, I’m not among the few who often get this right. Perhaps this is why an article (not a key report by any means) in a Niles’ Register for July 1, 1820 caught my attention. It features a portion of a judge’s rather unusual admonition to the members of the grand jury set before him. If you decide to take a gander at the article (which is posted below), while contemplating his advice, please try to read it through the contextual eyes of the era in which he gave it. Whether you agree with his counsel or not, it would be hard to argue that the setting seems quite familiar. I’d love to hear what others think. 
The reason I collected it: Ai Anglo Sacsun…
August 19, 2024 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Sometimes stepping outside the normal categories of historic, rare, or early when it comes to collecting newspapers can turn up some intriguing items. The odd, strange, unusual, and outright bizarre can be attractive additions as well.
The Ai Anglo Sacsun fits that bill.
This newspaper attempted to exploit a movement to spell words phonetically, just as they sounded. So their motto in the dateline is: “Devoted Tu Ai Difyushun ov Nolej and Nuz, Tru Ai Medium of Fonotipi, or the Tru System ov Spelin Wurdz As Iz, Just Az ae are Pronnst.” (difficult to translate as they use some characters not in the traditional alphabet. Their alphabet is found on page 3).
The entire issue has various articles spelled phonetically, making it difficult to read. Otherwise the layout is much like other newspapers of the era, with a very decorative masthead.
Obviously a movement that never caught on. Yet it produced a fascinating newspaper worthy of collecting.
An open letter to those currently holding the reigns at Disney…
August 7, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Dear current Disney board and top-level staff,
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Signed: “Those of us who collect authentic newspapers (including reports related to the Wonderful World of Disney) to be reminded of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past… that is, to keep us tethered to the good, to learn from the bad (and to be encouraged by how far we’ve come), and to help us gain sobering perspective from the ugly. In this case, while an imperfect man, we put Walt Disney in column #1.”
The Founding Documents – the Bill of Rights edition…
July 12, 2024 by Laura Heilenman · Leave a Comment
I recently read about a “man on the street survey” where people were asked to choose one of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights from a list of 4 options. The options were: The right to vote, the right to healthcare, the right to a public education and the right to trial by a jury of your peers. Sadly, most of those interviewed did not pick the correct one. Even worse, most picked either the right to healthcare or the right to a public education. I quickly sent a group text to my adult children and asked them the same question and then awaited their responses with a bit of trepidation. Thankfully, my concern was unfounded.
One of the reasons we at RareNewspapers.com love what we do is that we feel as if we are helping to keep the heart of our country alive by protecting authentic papers containing real-time (contemporary) reports regarding our founding documents such as the Bill of Rights. The portion shown below was printed in THE PENNSYLVANIA PACKET & DAILY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia (PA), October 6, 1789. Newspapers like these need to be cherished and their message intentionally disseminated to all generations so future surveys are a bit more encouraging. Thanks in advance.
Sometimes you just know what it means – The Spirit of ’76…
July 4, 2024 by Laura Heilenman · 2 Comments
Sometimes you hear a word or a phrase and even though you can’t clearly give a written definition, you just have a gut feeling of what it means. Earlier today, when I was looking at a Picture and Magazine section from a Chicago Sunday Tribune, July 4, 1926, I breezed by the caption of the front-page image… The Spirit of ’76. After a moment, I found my mind wasn’t so much thinking of what that phrase meant, but instead, I was struck by the emotions which had been stirred… pride (in a good way as my mother would say), determination & a deep sense of purpose. Wanting to see if the phrase, “The Spirit of ’76” had a clear definition, I went to Wikipedia and found the following…
“The Spirit of ’76 is a sentiment explored by Thomas Jefferson. According to the text published at Monticello, “The principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence promised to lead America—and other nations on the globe—into a new era of freedom. The revolution begun by Americans on July 4, 1776, would never end. It would inspire all peoples living under the burden of oppression and ignorance to open their eyes to the rights of mankind, to overturn the power of tyrants, and to declare the triumph of equality over inequality.”
Thomas Jewett wrote that at the time of the American Revolution, there was “an intangible something that is known as the ‘Spirit of ’76.’ This spirit was personified by the beliefs and actions of that almost mythical group known as the Founding Fathers and is perhaps best exemplified by Thomas Jefferson.”
Jefferson and the Second Continental Congress believed the Spirit of ’76 “included the ‘self-evident’ truths of being ‘created equal’ and being ‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights’ including ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'” ~ Wiki
Hmmmm… “an intangible something”. I would agree this spirit is hard to completely capture with words, but it can certainly be understood with a feeling, a picture, or a flag, and it is certainly a “spirit” we need in abundance today.
Memorial Day (aka, Decoration Day) and the melting pot of grave markers…
May 27, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Soon after the Revolutionary War, during the formative years of The United States, the metaphor “Melting Together” was often used to describe the citizenry of this new experiment in self-government. In the early 1900’s this morphed into “Melting Pot” as a result of Israel Zangwill’s famous play of the same name. The breadth of ethnicities which make up our nation can almost be described in Biblical terms – “every ethnos” (people group) – and for much of the past two centuries, although not without hurdles to clear, it has been one of our greatest strengths. However, being in the same pot does not necessitate a “melting together”. It takes hard work. Yet, the effort has proven to be worth it. Of course, our enemies know the reality of both – the strength it brings…. and the effort it takes, and so they seek to foment division from within. Sadly, too many do not see this nefarious manipulation or the writing on the wall if they continue to allow themselves to be a pawn of the tactics used by those who seek to weaken us at the core.
So, what does this have to do with Memorial Day? A few days ago I came across a May 31, 1939 New York Times which contained multiple reports telling of the prior day’s Memorial Day celebrations held throughout the country. What struck me was the “melting together” of citizens from every walk of life as they honored those who had given their very lives to earn, preserve, and protect those from each and every ethnos who comprise the melting pot in which we live. As I pondered which article to feature in conjunction with this post, considering current events, I thought the one below to be apropos. It is interesting to note that this article was written in the midst of perhaps the greatest effort in human history to create a nation based on the antithesis of a melting pot – specifically targeting those hereafter honored:
Happy Memorial Day? Perhaps. Grateful Memorial Day? Absolutely!
Pre-Memorial Day (Decoration Day) preparations…
May 26, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Today (Sunday, May 26, 2024) is the day before what was originally called Decoration Day. Whereas we will have another post tomorrow commemorating the day, today I was browsing through some of our previous posts and related website listings, and was struck by both the early emphasis on “preparations” for the day, and the ritual of decorating the grave sites of those who had paid the ultimate price in war. This led me to ponder how I could incorporate both into this years “holiday”. I’m not sure if it will happen, but we currently have 11 grandchildren and their parents with us this weekend, so I’m hoping they’ll all agree to walk down to the small Civil War cemetery (on what is now called Freedom Road) where several black soldiers from our area are buried, and place a few American Flags among the decades-faded markers. If it works out, I’m looking forward to the umpteen questions which will come my way.
in the meantime, feel free to take a gander at an item we have on our website which has several reports on the very first official Decoration Day celebrations which took place throughout the United States in 1869:
Decoration Day
Snapshot 1903 – “Jack the Ripper” in America?
April 15, 2024 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
In the midst of what appears to be the steady decline of American culture, and the resulting tendency to develop a “woe is us” mindset which begins to long for the past, every now and then I come across a newspaper which serves as a reality check. Such was the case as I perused a Memphis Morning News dated December 21, 1903. The front-page alone had the following headlines: “No Safety for Americans” in Columbia, “Thieves Rob Jail”, “Killed All His Family”, “Russell Is Hurt” (student hits teacher in the head with a rock), “Mountain Bandit Escapes From Jail”, “Charles Nellens Arrested – Charged With Murder of Millionaire Wentz…”, “Saved Two Women From Fire”, “Preferred To Die – Charged With Postal Robberies, He Suicides”, and my favorite, “Jack The Ripper… Ghastly Find In A Hotel”. AND, I’ve yet to move past the front page. YIKES!
Truth be told, Western Culture (in general) and American Culture (specifically) are declining, but the call should be to right the ship for present and future generations, not to bury our heads in the sands of the past. Thanks to the slap in the face provided by this newspaper from 1903, I’ll get back to being thankful for all that is good in the present, while pushing for an even better tomorrow. Go back to life in 1903? No thank you – and WWI, the Spanish Flu, and the devastating Qing Famine are still far beyond the horizon. Note: The latter may not have been a “Western Culture” event, but when 20-30 million people die of starvation, it deserves a mention.
PS Spoiler alert. The Jack the Ripper headline is an early 1900’s version of what today would be labelled “click bait”.
Happy Thanksgiving, 2023…
November 17, 2023 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Each year as Thanksgiving approaches my thoughts (rightfully) bend a knee in the direction of gratitude which I try to express, for better or worse, in a simple post. In so-doing, while the feedback has been generally positive, on occasion I have been accused of being rather verbose, loquacious, over-talkative, etc., when what I tried to communicate could have been delivered with a higher degree of eloquence with considerably less long-windedness (i.e., I can be a bit wordy). In an effort to reign in this default behavior, in expressing this year’s thoughts I’ve elected to let a series of photos taken from a single issue of Harper’s Weekly from 1900 do the talking. I hope you find them thought-provoking. 
Happy Thanksgiving!
By the way, if pictures really do say a thousand words, success! My verbose, loquacious, over-talkative streak lives on!!!