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A visit to Jim Thorpe (Mauch Chunk), PA…
November 16, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting a relatively unknown town steeped in history. Upon our return to the Rare & Early Newspapers office/archives, I spent some time exploring one aspect of the town’s history (The Molly Maguires) through the eyes of contemporary newspapers. A sampling of what was discovered both on the excursion and upon our return has been posted through images on Pinterest. Please enjoy:
Jim Thorpe & The Molly Maguires
Additional posts regarding Jim Thorpe himself, the town’s name since shortly after his death in 1953, may be viewed at: Jim Thorpe… “the greatest athlete that ever lived.”
Beyond the historic headline…
November 1, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
“Newspapers that shaped the world…“
Some of the better & more fascinating items found in old newspapers are not the most historic or significant, but rather the casual appearance of seemingly innocuous reports which excite collecting interest beyond the historic headline or dramatic presentation which are the more usual draw.
Much of what intrigues collectors can be lost within the body of reports, yet they tell a story of their own, such as the patriotic fervor of some colonist during the Revolutionary War. I recall an issue of the Edinburgh Evening Courant of June, 1776 reporting on American soldiers: “…Their uniform is a dark grey coarse linen frock, which covers the whole body…with the words, ‘Death or Liberty’ marked in large red letters on the right sleeve; and many of them are so enthusiastic as to have them marked with their own blood…”. This report is almost lost on page 3 yet its message is very telling of the spirit which caused the Americans to win the war against a world power despite insurmountable odds.
Some reports are fascinating by their bias. A Richmond newspaper of July, 1863 reporting on the Battle of Gettysburg notes: “…The Confederates did not gain a victory, neither did the enemy. He succeeded in defending himself & we failed in some portions of an attack…We killed more of the enemy than we lost; we took very many more prisoners than lost. The Confederate army did not leave the enemy until it had tried every link of his armour…” Another newspaper notes: “ ..Information, certainly authentic, is in the hands of the Government, which leaves no doubt of the safety & triumph of the noble army. General Lee was victorious in all the combats which have taken place. He has been engaged with the whole force of the United States & has broken its backbone…”, Perhaps the most extraordinary example of optimism appeared in the Richmond Examiner of July 25: “…The result was not a defeat, it was not a loss; it was only not a victory…It was little else than a disappointment of extraordinary expectations…”. What a precious statement as an example of Confederate optimism.
Other little gems were very prophetic in their reporting, particularly when read with an historic perspective. A Scottish newspaper from 1775 sensed a lasting war with America as it reflected on the Battle of Bunker: “…The mischiefs which have already arisen & the greater calamities which are threatened from the unnatural war excited in America…It is impossible we can see, without the utmost alarm, preparations making for the prosecution of an expensive & ruinous war with our own Colonies…”. Some can be very recent, like the New York Times comment on rookie Mickey Mantle in 1951: “…Mantle, who gives every promise of developing into an outstanding baseball star, was ordered to report to his draft board next Wednesday…” An editorial comment in the Army & Navy Journal just after the Gettysburg Address opined: “…a dedicatory speech by President Lincoln, which we give in full, as decidedly the best feature of the occasion, as well as one of the most felicitous utterances of its author.” How true.
Some were prophetic even when the reports were simply wrong, like the Illustrated American article of 1898 reporting on “A New Flying Machine That Flies”–five years before the Wright brothers–when it said: “…It is impossible to imagine without terror the day when these mechanical birds, these flying apparitions, will be able to rain upon armies, hostile towns and escalating parties most deadly and most destructive explosives…”. How true it would become.
There can be much to be found in newspapers beyond the headline. What a thrill it is to discover such hidden gems; reports that have escaped hundreds of years of history only to rediscovered with new-found relevance today. Such are just some of the joys of collecting early newspapers.
Please enjoy: “Newspapers that shaped the world…“
The first newspapers in Texas…
October 25, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Texas had a fascinating history, with flags of six nations having flown over some portion of the present state: Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, United States of America, & Confederates States of America.
It was during the time when the Mexico flag flew over its land that a periodical titled “El Mejicano” was reportedly printed in Nacogdoches in May , 1813, as noted in Oswald’s “History of Printing In The Americas”. One report, from the “Southwestern Historical Quarterly” notes that a newspaper was printed from the same press at about the same time, titled “Gaceta de Texas” with a date of May 25, 1813. Some years later Horatio Bigelow and Eli Harris put out the first issue of the “Texas Republican” on Aug. 14, 1819. When Nacogdoches was captured by the Mexicans two months later the printing office was destroyed.
Milton Slocum, a printer from Massachusetts, established the “Mexican Advocate“, a newspaper in both English and Spanish, in Nacogdoches in September, 1829. Unfortunately no copies have survived. Outside of Nacogdoches a weekly paper titled the “Texas Gazette” was begun on Sept. 25, 1829 in San Felipe de Austin. This paper then moved to Brazoria in July 1832 and ultimately was sold to the publisher of an existing newspaper titled the “Texas Gazette & Brazoria Commercial” which had begun just two years earlier. The combined enterprise became the “Constitutional Advocate and Brazoria Advertiser“.
Beginning in the 1830’s a multitude of newspapers sprang up in present-day Texas, continuing in the 1840’s and beyond.
Countdown to “Newspapers that changed the world…”
October 24, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Each month Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers releases a catalog containing a new set of historic and collectible newspapers (1600′s through 20th century). However, on November 1, 2012, at 12:01 AM ET, the special edition, “Newspapers that changed the world…” will be released. Whether you already collect newspapers, or desire to simply view a sampling of what the hobby has to offer, check back for this special occasion:
Prior to November 1, 2012 and after November 30, 2012, the link below will take you to the most recent offerings of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers… History’s Newsstand! During the month of November it will take you to the special release catalog, “Newspapers that changed the world”.
View: “Newspapers that changed the world…“
The Traveler… the battle of Queenston…
October 22, 2012 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I journeyed to Boston, Massachusetts by way of the Columbian Centinel dated October 24, 1812. I found several reports in regards to the battle of Queenston, Canada. The reporting begins with Col. Van Rensselaer’s troops having crossed the Niagara River into Upper-Canada and that the batteries in Queenston were attacked . It is stated that Fort George was to have been immediately attacked with troops in Buffalo joining them. Further reports continue with actual loss of the battle and the Col. Van Rensselaer being shot and Gen. Wadsworth being missing, assumed dead. It is interesting to read the different accounts within one issue.
~The Traveler
There must be a man in the moon…
October 12, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The “Bellows Falls Intelligencer” newspaper from Vermont, issue of May 10, 1824 has an interesting article reporting evidence of life on the moon (see). It’s interesting that astrological science was so rudimentary in 1824 that this report was to be believed by those who read it, although providing some humor when read today.
Identifying newspaper reprints… a collector’s story…
October 5, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
We recently received an e-mail from a collector who informed us that she had used information from the Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers website which enable her to identify (unfortunately) that an issue she had obtained (Baltimore Patriot & Weekly Advertiser, September 20, 1814) was a reprint. While disappointed, she decided to post her experience on the web to help educate (and protect) others. Rather than us tell her story, please allow her to share her experience in her own words: OH MY GOSH…I FOUND A REAL TREASURE!
Newspaper Confederate bank note creates a crisis…
October 1, 2012 by TimHughes · 2 Comments
Having recently come across the Feb. 24, 1862 issue of “The Philadelphia Inquirer” (see photo) it reminded me of what this innocent looking front page image of the Confederate five dollar note did in creating a crisis in the Confederate Treasury.
Several months ago the “Opinionator” blog of the New York Times did a very nice piece on the fascinating history of this note and its consequences, which we share with our collectors:
In March 1862, an unusual ad began appearing in Northern newspapers. Among the shops selling pianos and patent medicines, sheet music and sewing machines, this one stood out: it promised “perfect fac-similes” of Confederate currency. There were seven kinds of notes for sale, and testimonials from The New York Tribune and others praising the replicas for their high quality and low prices. Five cents bought you one. Two dollars bought a hundred. Fifteen dollars bought a thousand. The word “counterfeits” never appeared. These were “Mementos of the Rebellion,” sold by a Philadelphia shopkeeper named Samuel Curtis Upham.
Upham didn’t look like a counterfeiter. He didn’t hide out in the woods or perform daring jailbreaks. He didn’t run from the police. He was a respectable small-business owner and devoted Northern patriot. He ran a store that sold stationery, newspapers and cosmetics. But he was also an entrepreneur with an eye for easy profit, and the Civil War offered the business opportunity of a lifetime: the ability to forge money without breaking the law. Confederate currency, issued by a government that was emphatically not recognized by the Union, had no legal status in the North, which meant Upham could sell his “fac-similes” with impunity.
Over the next 18 months he built the most notorious counterfeiting enterprise of the Civil War — one that also happened to be perfectly legal. His forgeries flooded the South, undermining the value of the Confederate dollar and provoking enraged responses from Southern leaders. He waged war on the enemy’s currency, serving his pocketbook and his country at the same time.
Upham first got the idea the month before, on Feb. 24, 1862. That day, customers kept coming into his shop to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer. Puzzled, he asked one of them what made that particular edition so popular. The answer was on the front page: the Inquirer’s editors had printed a copy of a five-dollar Confederate note. Philadelphians had never seen Rebel money before and were fascinated by it.
Upham saw a chance to cash in. He raced to the Inquirer’s offices, bought the plate of the note, and printed 3,000 copies on French letter paper. They sold extremely well. Along the bottom of each bill, he included a thin strip that read, in small print, “Fac-simile Confederate Note,” with his name and address. The tags could easily be clipped off, transforming the “fac-simile” into an excellent counterfeit.
After his first print run, Upham rapidly expanded his inventory. He took out ads in newspapers, promising to pay in gold for more specimens of Southern money. At first, it seemed possible that he sincerely thought of his reproductions as souvenirs. In early 1862, most Northerners still expected the war to be brief and glorious. They wanted “mementos of the Rebellion” before the Union crushed it. By the time Upham launched his publicity campaign in March, however, his business had clearly evolved from a modest retail operation into a high-volume wholesaling enterprise. No one needed 1,000 souvenirs: people were clearly using his products for a less innocent purpose.
By April, Upham’s fakes began appearing in Richmond, the Confederate capital. They caused a sensation at the Confederate Treasury Department, and a Treasury officer persuaded the editors of the Richmond Daily Dispatch to inform the public about the new threat. “This note is well calculated to deceive, and in nearly every particular is a fac-simile of the original,” they wrote, condemning the forgeries as “Yankee scoundrelism.” In May, the Dispatch discovered one of Upham’s notes with the margin bearing his name and address still attached. “Who is this man Upham?” they asked. “A knave swindler, and forger of the most depraved and despicable sort.”
By then, Upham had grown his business considerably. In an advertisement published in late May, he claimed to have sold half a million notes in the past three months. He now offered 14 varieties of Confederate notes, postage stamps, and “shinplasters” — fractional bills worth anywhere from 5 to 15 cents — and printed his fakes on real banknote paper. Ingeniously, he even fulfilled orders through the mail. For 50 cents, plus 18 cents for postage, customers throughout the Union could have a hundred of Upham’s notes delivered.
Southerners responded with outrage. They became convinced that Upham belonged to a covert Union plot to devalue the Confederate dollar. For the Philadelphia shopkeeper to be able to advertise his counterfeits openly and send them through the mail meant the authorities must have given him permission or, possibly, material support. Moreover, Union troops spent counterfeit Confederate cash in large quantities — evidence of “a deep laid scheme on the part of the thieving, counterfeiting North … to undermine the Confederate currency,” in the eyes of the Daily Richmond Examiner.
In the summer of 1862, Upham’s notes inundated northern Virginia, brought by Union forces marching south from Washington. A Southern journalist observed men “fortified with exhaustless quantities of Philadelphia Confederate notes,” which they used to buy everything from horses to sugar to tobacco. When one of the soldiers ended up a prisoner in Richmond, the Confederates found one of Upham’s advertisements on him. The shopkeeper’s counterfeits appeared “wherever an execrable Yankee soldier polluted the soil with his cloven foot,” fumed the Richmond Daily Dispatch.
By the summer of 1862, as fake cash flowed across the border in ever greater quantities, the Confederate leadership took notice. On Aug. 18, President Jefferson Davis discussed the threat in a message to the Confederate Congress. Counterfeit Confederate notes were “publicly advertised for sale” and furnished to “the soldiers of the invading army” with the full “complicity” of the Union government, Davis declared. Later that day, Confederate Treasury Secretary Christopher Memminger submitted a report to the House of Representatives that reiterated Davis’s concerns and singled out Upham’s role in the crisis: “[P]rinted advertisements have been found stating that the counterfeit notes, in any quantity, will be forwarded by mail from Chestnut street, in Philadelphia.” By then, forged bills had been found far from the Union border, in Atlanta, Savannah, Montgomery and other cities of the Deep South. There was “no means of knowing to what extent they have been circulated,” the Richmond Daily Dispatch warned.
Hamstrung by a disorganized government and mounting logistical challenges, the Confederacy couldn’t stanch the surge of counterfeit currency. Despite Southern claims, however, it’s unlikely that the Union government ever actively promoted the forging of Confederate money. Federal authorities most likely found it easier to ignore the forging of Southern bills than to take a position either for or against it. They certainly never interfered with Upham, who freely continued forging Confederate cash until August 1863. By that time, the value of the Southern dollar had fallen so low that it was hardly worth counterfeiting. During the 18 months that Upham operated his venture, the purchasing power of the Confederate dollar disintegrated. Between February 1862 and August 1863, the value of Confederate paper money fell by ninety percent.
Upham wasn’t the only reason behind this collapse. Fake cash plagued the Confederacy from the beginning, supplied by Northern and Southern counterfeiting gangs. Gross mismanagement of Southern finances led to runaway inflation, which posed an even greater danger to the Confederate dollar. But Upham’s impact was significant. He later estimated that he had produced $15 million worth of Confederate bills. If all of that ended up in the South, it would have made up almost 3 percent of the total money supply — a large amount for a single counterfeiter. In March 1862, his business had only just begun. Over the next year and a half, he would become one of the strangest success stories of the Civil War: a legal counterfeiter, driven by patriotism and personal gain, who struck at the financial heart of the Confederacy from the safety of downtown Philadelphia.
The Traveler… Surrender of Detroit… New Orleans takes a blow…
September 24, 2012 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
This week I am traveling through Boston, Massachusetts, via the Columbian Centinel dated September 26, 1812, where I found the reporting on the “Surrender of Detroit” and “Gen. Hull’s Official Account”. The Surrender report is a “Letter of Col. Cass, of the army late under the command of Brigadier-General Wm. Hull, to the Secretary of War…”. Gen. Hull’s report includes “…The surrender of Michilimackinae opened the northern-hive of Indians and they were swarming down in every direction… the Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Munsess, Delawares, etc. with 
whom I had the most friendly intercourse, at once passed over to Ameherstburg, and accepted the tomahawk and scalping knife…” “…On the evening of the 7th and morning of the 8th inst. the army… recrossed the river, and encamped at Detroit… Nothing, however, but honor was acquired by this victory; and it is painful consideration, that the blood of 75 galiant men could only open the communication as far as the points of their bayonets extended… On the 15th, I received a summons from him to surrender fort Detroit, of which the paper marked A is a copy. My answer is marked B… On the 15th, as soon as Gen. Brock received my letter, his batteries opened on the town and fort, and continued until evening… It now became necessary either to fight the enemy in the field; collect the whole force in the fort; or propose terms of capitulation… I feared nothing but the last alternative…” and more.
There is also an article pertaining to New Orleans. It seems that what may had previously been reported in earlier newspapers as a tornado hitting the city is now being reported as “…one of the seven year hurricanes of that country — but its effects were more destructive than any of the preceding ones…” . The article continues with further information on the destruction in the city, ships, surrounding areas and loss of lives.
~The Traveler
Concern for preserving newspapers in 1849…
September 11, 2012 by TimHughes · 1 Comment
Over 160 years ago the New York legislature had the foresight to be concerned about the future holdings of newspapers, and more importantly the loss of the unique perspective of history which can only be obtained through newspapers of the day. Their cause remains as relevant today as it was in 1849.
The photos show the entire editorial as found in the “Vermont Chronicle” of Windsor, May 2, 1849, but portions include: “…No historical monument that has ever been devised has half the value for future reference that belongs to a newspaper, & no record can be made of current events nearly as truthful, as minute, as systematic, or as accessible, as the ‘happy pages which no critics criticise’ of a periodical journal…” and “…De Tocqueville…has somewhere spoken of the difficulty to be anticipated at some future day of those who may wish to trace the history of our people for the want of durable monuments or records of their current life & achievements…that the newspaper was almost our only historical repository & that was usually destroyed as soon as its contents were glanced at…” and much more.
A fascinating article on the need to preserve newspapers; something which all of us in this hobby continue to do in some small way.
The entire text of this intriguing article may be viewed at: “Vermont Chronicle” of Windsor, May 2, 1849