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I’m New Here…Week Four (!)
March 8, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
I had begun to think that interest in my little contribution to this blog was waning enough that I would be able to slip right past the post in which I had promised to elucidate my multiple disasters.
Most of the veteran collectors ask for Guy, and yesterday I had to answer that Guy was not available, could I possibly be of any help? Just before I completed a phone call with Mr. W., he asked me (in the classic gentlemanly manner of many from the southwestern states) for a preview. Of my calamities.
And so, with a nod toward Arizona, I am sitting down to recount a few of my more unfortunate escapades. I have called the same person with the same information twice, and neglected ever calling an important other. Through the first ten days I went fuzzy every time I needed to pull a title and date because I couldn’t even begin to locate the identifiers amidst all the fancy, scrolly banner headings. But many such moments were never known to any of the rare newspaper community because the group of people here at Timothy Hughes is absolutely splendid, and they countered most of them before anyone even noticed. I sent the skylift up to the shelf under the roofline, lowered it, maneuvered the 20’ row and parked. I was back at my desk before someone casually reminded me that the unwieldy volume had to be returned to the same location. Friday I answered the phone, forgot the business name, and then just began to laugh — because what else could I do? It’s hard to be new, but it’s downright ironic in a place so full of old things. Surely the papers yield evidence that I am not, by far, alone in my muddles.
Still, the most colossal so far — including my omission of eBay tracking numbers, which potentially plummeted our heretofore stellar ratings — was the rare paper that I sold to two different people. In case you were wondering, there was only one. We didn’t have a second issue anywhere in the roughly 12,000 searchable square feet. I don’t know enough to help with the hunt, but everyone capable tried any space or collection that could possibly contain this gem. And, remarkably, they looked at me with something akin to regret when each location had been exhausted. Somehow, to their chagrin, they had not saved me from my own folly.
Mercifully, the fellow that I had previously introduced to the paper (I used the word “stunning” as I described it to him) was very gracious when I called. But in all sincerity, while I seldom make the same error too many times, I am working to meld all this newness into the well-oiled machine that is Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers …without excessive further ado.
So, if Guy isn’t available, one of these days I really will be able to help.
I’m New Here…Week Three
March 1, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · 2 Comments
These last few days have been highlighted by fascinating rare newspaper excursions that touched on Johnny Appleseed and hot air balloons and genealogy searches and gold ink newspaper editions and even “mourning rules” (a post-worthy ramble in itself). As this week closes, I find myself musing on all things literary.
I recall my first encounter with Walt Whitman’s poetry as being somewhat controversial. Compiling an anthology for a sixth grade project I stumbled across “Song of Myself” and laboriously copied it out onto its own page — carefully fitting text to margins and indents that defined, despite lackluster rhyme or rhythm scheme. Abruptly, I was the focus of adults pontificating on the perils of the modern age and the coming doom symbolized by artists throwing off established norms and strictures. In college, I was perplexed to find that Whitman wrote his grieving “Lilacs” four months after the eloquently detailed sixteen hundred mile funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln. From all the squawking, I had assumed the poet lived in my time, or my parents’ time — not contemporaneously with the sixteenth president. I’m keen on Frost and Dickinson and Oliver and all the greats, but Whitman broke the lingering nursery rhyme cadence of Robert Louis Stevenson with a clear voice of plain-speaking, beauty filled, heartwrenching truth. And so, with ten minutes of unscheduled time this week, I delved into the directories of perhaps the largest Civil War newspaper collection in the world, to see what we might have within our archives. Three years after Lincoln’s assassination, the popular New York Herald was the first to publish the words “…to all cut off before their time, Possess’d by some great spirit of fire Quenched by an early death.” It is signed in block type, “WALT WHITMAN”. And, yesterday, I held it in my very own 21st century hands, looking at this poem irreverently sandwiched between complaints against Kansas senators and the connection of the Minneapolis/Montreal railroad. In 1888 Walt Whitman’s words were taken at face value, distinct from any of the acclamation or aspersion that would come with the passage of time. Reading them, this way, is a little bit like traveling back two hundred years to look at things from a completely different view. Many of you who call or email or write or browse online in search of particular subjects, dates and people are reaching for the insight from the immediate context of newsprint columns, to hear what was once merely words in print, chronicling the events of the day.
At any rate, no one can live by poetry alone, so next Friday I am honor bound to tell you of one or two colossal mistakes I have made, and balance this week’s ponderous tone with a humorous tale or two. Things around here are often funny and deep — a little bit like those old, modern poets.
I’m New Here…Week Two
February 22, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · 5 Comments
For the next day and a half I’ve been left in charge of a small portion of things in the Rare and Early Newspapers world, which must mean I’m learning something. Still, I am going to rattle off this week’s post between all the responsibilities as I am fiercely resolved to not let anyone down. If you’re disappointed with my submission, please check in again next Friday when I have a little more time to reflect. But I do want to take a momentary glance at this recent week before it is forgotten in the next discovery.
Requests for birthday papers are a regular occurrence here, and it’s a good excuse to go hunting in the racks, exploring the mazes of columns and rows. To me, the best thing about searching for these issues is that they frequently hold a hitherto unknown element that increases the value beyond “a regular NYT from 1959”. However, I am learning that content is in the eye of the beholder. Yesterday I climbed and crouched (and crawled at one point) pulling every volume that might still contain the specified date. When at last I laid it flat on one of the twenty(?) portable viewing surfaces, I felt a surge of confidence that I had found something exceptional and I cornered the closest newspaper veteran to verify my discovery. “Winston Churchill,” I pronounced, “shaking hands with Harry Truman, on the front page above the fold. Is that special content?”
It turns out that it was not. It turns out Churchill and Truman were “getting together like that all the time.” Those were the very words used to burst my bubble and I couldn’t help wondering a bit about these giants of recent history — one with an abrupt ascension to the highest office in the land, and the other whose stirring oratory inspired hope in hopeless times — who were nevertheless real people with routines and commonplace interactions and details of living, even as they went about setting their mark on everything that came after. Newspapers are crammed to bursting with so many important people, so many consequential events and so many seemingly insignificant things, as well. Regular treasure hunters already know this; the novices might just discover it in a birthday paper. At any rate, this week I learned that there are at least two quests involved when I head out into the rows, coordinates in hand: the thing I know I am looking for, and the thing I didn’t expect to find.
I hope today you uncover a bit of treasure yourself.
I’m New Here… Week One
February 15, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · 10 Comments
It’s a daunting world — Rare & Early Newspapers — and at first it can feel like being in a foreign country, overhearing a few words that sound familiar in a vague sort of way. At least, that’s my sense. But I suspect it appeared that way to many collectors at the beginning. With that in mind, my plan is to share some of my observations, discoveries and even mistakes over the coming weeks, months and years as I learn to navigate this universe of newsprint. If you have never even held an old paper, much less thought to purchase one, perhaps my adventures will pique your own interest and you’ll find yourself browsing the titles and descriptions of the details of life in a bygone era. Having “met” a few of you veteran collectors and scholars, I suspect you might enjoy a little reminder of the early days when you turned that first purchase over in your hand, skimmed the columns, and then settled in for a read.
I began and then discarded multiple versions of this initial post — there’s no way to convey the immensity of standing in a treasure trove that is more than three times my height, wider than my house, and filled with papers. Without moving my feet I can examine the headlines from Harper’s, published every Saturday in the first half of 1869. 1869. That is not a misprint! The proper title is “Harper’s Weekly”, subtitled “A Journal of Civilization”. It is astounding that one hundred and fifty years after these rolled off the printing press, were cut and bundled and delivered to 100,000 people living in a completely different world (regardless of our shared geographical location), I am able to hold an original issue in my hands. It’s a rag paper, so the pages can be turned without any fear of damaging it. I verified this before opening an issue; gloves aren’t even required. The details of manners and battles and grocers and treasury debt emerge and bring the inevitable conclusion. Life in a different time –even with dramatically changed fashions, altered lifestyles, and varied circumstances– is still life. Civilization is after all the story of people. Sometimes it’s seen in broad strokes, sometimes in classified advertisements. I found the following in an 1861 publication, “When families send for ‘Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce’, observe if it is the genuine JOHN DUNCAN & SONS…” I am amazed the condiment has been around so long (and wonder, who was making fake Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce?). Others might be more interested in the 15″ map of Major-General McClellan’s Operations Along The Potomac.
Anyway, the Harper’s Weeklies section is a good place to stand and introduce myself and tell you I am privileged to be here. Please check in and see the “progress” part of my experience. Also, tell me what I should look for if you’ve been around a while. And if you’re new, feel free to ask any questions. If I don’t have the answer (which is likely, as I am new here) I have recently met some brilliant people who probably do.
Stephanie
Where have we been?
January 31, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · 3 Comments
In case you hadn’t noticed, those of us at RareNewspapers.com who write and manage the History’s Newsstand Blog have been on a hiatus the last month as we’ve negotiated the changing of the guard within our staff. Doreen Mileto (pen name “The Traveler”), who has served as our office manager for 15 years, is retiring on January 31st. We wish her the best as she and her husband seek to spend more time with their children (and grand-kiddos), and pursue adventures formerly inhibited as a result of being tethered to an ongoing work schedule. Good for her.
As of this Friday, our new office manager will be Stephanie Williams – a lover of both history and literature. Once settled, our blog posts will resume.
Thank you for your patience.
Guy Heilenman
Co-owner, Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers
They put it in print… Fairfax County, Virginia reacts to The Intolerable Acts…
October 11, 2018 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
How did Fairfax County, Virginia, the home of George Washington, react to The Intolerable Acts? Thanks to The Virginia Gazette dated August 4, 1774, we don’t need to guess – after all, they put it in print:
Thanks to the Virginia Gazette dated May 5, 1774 for putting the following in print in print.
John Hancock appointed… The Traveler…
June 4, 2018 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
I traveled today to Boston, Massachusetts, by the way of the The Boston Chronicle dated June 6, 1768 where I found an announcement had been made “His Excellency the Governor have appointed John Hancock, Esq; to be first Major of the independent company of Cadets, and William Coffin, jun. Esq; to be second Major of the said company.”
~The Traveler
The magic of old newspapers, in 1844…
May 24, 2018 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
An 1844 issue of the “Adams Sentinel” (Oct. 14th) from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has an interesting front page item concerning the fascination of reading old newspapers, noting in part: “…few preserve them…brings up the very age, with all its bustle…marks its genius & its spirit more than the most labored description of the historical…” with more (see). An interesting perspective on the value of collecting old newspapers, written 174 years ago.
Sometimes it’s what’s missing that catches the eye… Alaska…
December 28, 2017 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
One of the greatest hobby-related pleasures experienced by those who collect rare and early newspapers is finding previously unidentified content within an issue. While not on the same scale as finding gold, “mining” a newspaper for reports that were missed by the seller is certainly rewarding. Time and time again collectors tell us they purchased a newspaper for under $30 for a relatively minor report only to find a hidden gem buried deeper within the issue. Such discoveries, at times, can be financially rewarding, but in a world where the unexpected is often tethered to bad news, such relatively common incidents in the newspaper collecting hobby are a sweet salve to the weary soul (okay – perhaps a little overstated). Still, it certainly is to a seller’s advantage to keep such incidents to a minimum. Prior to offering a newspaper for sale, we compare it to various historical databases and our 40+ year chronological record of findings to help us estimate when a report of historical significance might be found. Since news traveled a bit more slowly in previous centuries, even our best intentions are left wanting.
This being said, there are times when, as we go through the process of searching for historical content, what surprises us most is what we are unable to find – or the minimal coverage which is present. Its not that we miss the coverage, rather, its that what we now see as noteworthy events – often buoyed up by movies, history books, etc., were mere blips on the screen at the time they occurred, and the contemporary coverage only serves to confirm its position in the coverage food-chain of the day.
The purchase of Alaska from Russia, finalized on March 30, 1867, is such an event. After spending over an hour searching for a mention in a set of Springfield (MA) Republicans from 1867, coverage finally showed up on page five of the April 10th issue (see image). Perhaps this is why the purchase, promoted heavily by and signed by the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, William H. Seward, became known as “Seward’s Folly.” Of course just because many of his contemporaries thought paying 2 cents an acre was foolish doesn’t mean he was wrong. Sometimes the masses simply don’t get it right – as time would reveal.
19th century Harper’s Weekly reviewed…
December 11, 2017 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
Over the years we have made several mentions of Harper’s Weekly, one of the most beloved illustrated newspapers of the 19th century. This title is also one of the most sought-after collectibles through our website,
RareNewspapers.com. Although I’m sure many others exist, I was pleasantly surprised to find a contemporary review of this publication on the front page of the Springfield Republican dated February 13, 1867. Even more pleasing was my discovery that, unlike It’s a Wonderful Life, the works of Vincent Van Gogh, and Thoreau’s Walden, along with a host of other now-popular people, songs, products, books, etc., which initially found it difficult to gain traction, at least in one journalist’s opinion was seen as an unrivaled, gem of a publication. Their review stated, in part:
“The Harpers offer their Weekly in bound volumes for the year 1866 for $7. As a record and illustration of the times, it has no rival; its pages are history, literature and politics, all of the safest and soundest sort. Good as are the Harper’s pictures for America, valuable as its record of passing events, and interesting as are generally its sketches and stories…” (view entire article).
The link RareNewspapers.com will take you to our website where nearly every Harper’s Weekly has been photographed and described for your reading and viewing pleasure. Please enjoy.