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Announcing: Catalog #316 (for March, 2022) – Rare & Early Newspapers (for purchase)
February 25, 2022 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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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 more things change… Vaccinations and the immoral influences on children…
February 15, 2022 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
Currently, the whole world over is speaking of virus and antibodies, of carriers and immunization. Outbreaks are mapped in news blurbs, along with identified hot spots and constant status reports on flattening the curve. Comparisons are made to the “Spanish Flu”, but an article in a September, 1808 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine led me to comparisons with smallpox instead. More specifically, they led me to the smallpox outbreak that eventually brought Edward Jenner into focus — he of the cowpox vaccination fame (or, infamy, as critics would have it).
The mannerly Gentleman’s employs an ambitious article heading as it delves into the fray: “Practice of Vaccination Dispassionately Discussed.” As the Reverend Cotton Mather discovered in 1721, there is much passion involved in the subject. He, who pleaded for the adoption of the African method of inoculation to save the afflicted residents of Boston, was the object of threats and the target of a bombing. The periodical contributor, pen named “Cosmopolitan,” attempts a scholarly address of the merits just twelve years after Edward Jenner formalized the medical application of a controlled injection of the cowpox virus in order to immunize a human body against smallpox, which was disfiguring and killing people by the thousands.
After Mr. Cosmopolitan completes his summary of the beneficial relationship between the vaccine and the decreased virus contraction rate, he promises the editor, Mr. Urban, that as the science may not be completely convincing to all, he is prepared to offer testimonials in the next issue.
I was able to locate the fulfillment of that pledge in the October issue.
The facts which were there mentioned, must of themselves be nearly sufficient to convince an unprejudiced observer of the efficacy of the Vaccine preservative. It now remains to take an impartial review of the remaining part of the evidence on this interesting topick, which may be gathered from the experience of eminent individuals and from the avowed opinion of public bodies.
These are the same methods employed today about the still-controversial procedure of immunization — presentation of scientific data, followed by explanation of that data from medical professionals, and the promotion or recommendation of the practice by public officials. For the Coronavirus of today, the vaccine has not even been developed, and the debate is already heated.
PS This issue also has an article regarding juveniles obtaining access to “age-inappropriate literature” through libraries. Two current topics which reach back to the early 1800’s: “The more things change…”.
Sometimes We Miss It – Isidor Louis… 1870’s San Diego…
February 7, 2022 by LauraH · Leave a Comment
After 47 years as both a collector and reseller of “Rare & Early” newspapers, you can imagine we have unearthed a ton of historical content. However, Every now and then we are reminded that, “Sometimes we miss it”. Today a customer called after purchasing an issue of The San Diego Union to let us know he found a fascinating ad on the front page of his issue. For those who love 19th century California history, there was an early citizen of Jewish descent who had an enormous entrepreneur’s spirit. Isidor Louis had many irons in the fire and was advertising one of his first ventures on the frontpage of the newspaper. Interestingly, his son later became the city editor for the San Diego Sun. Have we piqued your interest? Do a little investigating of Isidor for yourself. Are you wondering how we had an image of the ad after we had already sold the paper? Perhaps we have uncovered others. As a lesson learned, it always pays to read the fine print … in case we missed it.
Snapshot 1879 – A former slave’s trek from bondage to bounty…
January 24, 2022 by LauraH · Leave a Comment
As I was reading interesting articles regarding Mormons, Frederick Douglass, and other news of the day in a January 19, 1879 issue of The New York Times, a somewhat nondescript heading caught my attention: “A COLORED MAN’S HISTORY”. Knowing (second-hand at best) a bit about the struggles of being Black during this post-Slavery era of American history, I was quite surprised by what I read. His trek was certainly not the norm, and it in no way negates the horrors experienced by far too many who had once been in bondage, however, I could not help but be inspired by the brief account of his life. Please enjoy.
Announcing: Catalog #314 (for January, 2022) is now available…
December 31, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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Catalog 314 (in its entirety)
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Noteworthy Catalog 314 ($250+)
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Combined Catalogs (current, w/ remnants of previous)
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.
Thankful for today, but dreaming of a better tomorrow…
December 28, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Christmas in the rearview mirror… New Year’s Eve just a stone’s throw away…
The week between these two holidays is prime for a healthy blend of contemplation, nostalgia, and anticipation. Was 2021 a banner year? Will it go down in the annals of history as one of the best years ever? Probably not, however, I am thankful for each and every day. Why? I was blessed with the breath of life, the love of God and family, a mix of both warm sunshine and nourishing rain, and the God-given ability to appreciate the (albeit) flawed present while looking forward to an even better tomorrow. The capacity to dream of a day when COVID, masks, and the inability to see the smiles of my “red and yellow, black and white” brothers and sisters are a thing of the past… when these very same “created in the image of God” siblings can engage in respectful dialogue even while holding opposing deep-rooted views tightly… when people trump politics, is no small gift.
Sometimes dreamers get criticized and dismissed as being naïve for having their heads in the clouds – for being unrealistic and perhaps a bit insane. These accusations may be true for some, but please don’t tell those who thought a band of ill-equipped, untrained, and often uncouth colonists could defeat the world’s greatest superpower of the day, that slaves could one day be free, that humans could fly and perhaps (as ridiculous as it sounds) travel to the moon… and back, that women could be given the right to vote, that a group of people who were treated by many as inferior simply due to the color of their skin would one day be viewed as equals, etc., were crazy. After all, they had a dream, and their dreams are now our reality.
So, today I choose to appreciate the fruit of yesterday’s dreamers while I dream of an even better tomorrow. Are you a dreamer? I hope so.
Please enjoy the last few says of 2021, AND although a bit early, Happy 2022! I can’t wait for what comes next.
Snapshot 1864… Confederacy’s fight – for independence or slavery?
December 20, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
In grade school back in the 1960’s/1970’s I was taught that the Civil War was fought between the Northern (Yankee) States who wanted to free the slaves and the Southern States (Confederates) who wanted to keep the slaves in bondage. Bad Southerners! Perhaps if I had been born in The South my education would have been bent in a different direction, but through my teenage years I assumed this was the accepted “truth”. When I moved on to college… and then graduate school, my assumption of such a simplistic view was challenged by my enlightened (now I think they would be called “woke”) professors who informed me of the true reason: The Southern States merely wanted to exercise their right to self-government (i.e., “State’s Rights”)… to not be controlled by a federal government whose reigns were largely in the hands of the Northern States and their own interests… the right to separate (succeed)., while the Northern States wanted nothing more than to preserve The Union (largely for selfish reasons). Bad Northerners!
Of course I now know the reasons were varied and complex, but by far the most important result was in fact the Emancipation of enslaved blacks. After all, how could “We The People” possibly stand the test of time without embracing (to the core) the self-evident truth that “all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”?
However, I digress. Circling back to the divergent views I was taught…
As I was perusing a Sacramento Daily Union (Nov. 3, 1864), the heading of a front-page article caught my attention: “The New Agitation in the South – Slavery as Well as Separation the Ultimate Object of the Rebellion”. It turns out that while revising history to meet a specific narrative may be the order of the day, the historical perspective regarding this particle issue may not be a victim of these Orwellian efforts. The article (in full) is as follows:
Where History Comes Alive (Part 2)… Gettysburg…
December 13, 2021 by LauraH · Leave a Comment
The Battle of Gettysburg, occurring roughly at the midpoint of America’s Civil War, was both the deadliest battle and the turning point of the war. An interested historian can traverse this soil where American struggled against American to uphold their way of life and protect their convictions and experience the humbling and somber journey which befalls those who explore first-hand the sacred ground which helped define the America we experience today. In the past, when I have personally been blessed to walk upon the sacred soil where so many gave their lives, I could almost hear Abraham Lincoln’s clear and determined voice echo over the valleys: “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...“.
As moving as this trek is, coupling the venture with actual accounts of the day gives a deeper insight of this nation-shaping event. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Gettysburg, it will be more than worth your while. However, before you set out on this adventure, you may want to peruse some of the contemporaneous reporting found within the authentic newspapers of the day. After all, it has been said: “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.“
Announcing: Catalog #313 (for December, 2021) is now available…
December 3, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
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Catalog 313 (in its entirety)
-
Noteworthy Catalog 313 ($250+)
-
Combined Catalogs (current, w/ remnants of previous)
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 1st Amendment – from 1789 to 1961 to…?
November 29, 2021 by LauraH · Leave a Comment
On January 8, 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Richard Price, a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. In his letter he expressed the following, “Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” This belief that the American people, when well informed, were capable of identifying right and choosing it, sits as the core of the 1st Amendment foundation of free speech and freedom of the press.
Flash forward to a spring day in April 1961 when the current American president, John F Kennedy, spoke to The American Newspaper Publishers Association. Hear, in his closing words as printed in The New York Times for April 28, 1961, the same reverence for the right of the American people to know the facts as was voiced by his predecessor over a century and a half before:
“It is the unprecedented nature of this challenge that also gives rise to your second obligation–an obligation which I share. And that is our obligation to inform and alert the American people–to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well–the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.
No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.”
As a lover of history, especially as it is chronicled within the pages of newspapers, I am always thankful our founders understood how necessary freedom of speech and a free press are to maintaining a free republic. It is encouraging to see our government voice a passion in support of this pillar of Democracy for nearly 200 years. Hopefully We The People will not be silenced and will not permit this inalienable right to be gutted.