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Announcing: Catalog #304 (for March, 2021) is now available…
March 1, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 304 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 304 ($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.
Announcing: Catalog #303 (for February, 2021) is now available…
February 11, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 303 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 303 ($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.
From Waco to Brooklyn…
February 8, 2021 by LauraH · Leave a Comment
Have you ever been thinking one thing and a moment later your mind has completely carried you down several rabbit holes and back up into a field far away? As you try to retrace your steps, you are utterly amazed at how you ever ended up where you did. I find history to be much the same. I may begin my historical trek in a tiny town in the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, but before long I find I’ve meandered to the center of New York City. Such is the journey I took this snowy afternoon.
Every day I drive past an old industrial complex in my mountain town Of Williamsport, PA.. The signage says, “Williamsport Wire Rope Company” and the factory yard is filled with enormous spools stacked about … a photographer’s fantasy for possible black and white images. This picturesque scene is what originally caught my attention on those many drives home. This particular day a rabbit trail led me to an exploration of what the wire cable produced in this factory would have been used for which quickly lead me to an engineer named John Augustus Roebling (1806 – 1869). John had owned the very first wire cable company, similar to the one in my town. Not satisfied to just produce these cables, his mind dreamt of the many, yet be discovered, uses those wires might have … Voila ! … Suspension Bridges. As a suspension bridge designer and builder extraordinaire, he was instrumental in creating the beautiful city of Pittsburgh which became known as “The City of Bridges”. From Pittsburgh to the Niagara River … from Waco to Brooklyn NY, this man took spools of wire cable and transformed each area he touched into a practical work of art. My rabbit trail reminds me that my local history can be the start of the very best future road trips. Whether your interests lie with new scientific discoveries, historical biographies or works of art, much of history can satisfy almost any inquisitive mind. I see a historical bridge excursion coming this spring… perhaps even from Waco to Brooklyn.
The Woman’s Journal & Education, Law and Depression…
January 28, 2021 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
On the front page of a late 1800’s issue (Vol. XVII) of The Woman’s Journal three different topics caught my eye — and studying those prevented me from even opening up the issue. Not included in my collection is the second entry of the column on the far right, entitled “Concerning Women”. It reads, “Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has just passed her seventy-fifth birthday.” One of the most appealing things about old newspapers is that they put human details on the outline sketches of history, as with President Lincoln’s “little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”
Of the more substantive things reported on June 26, 1886, a third of a column is devoted to the passage of legislation in Massachusetts that made it illegal for a man to seduce a woman, even if he was under 21 years of age. With a bit of research I found that the crime described, “the making of a false promise of marriage as a way of luring a previously chaste unmarried woman into having sex.” It baffles me that senators argued to keep this form of fraud legal for younger men since, “they did not think it is wise to punish a minor who might commit an offense in a moment of indiscretion.”
In the medical arena, Dr. John B. Gray addressed a group at Utica and focused on the malady we currently term postpartum depression. He classifies this as a “preventable cause of insanity”, and urges the organization of private support for women after they have delivered babies, to take the form of home and personal care. He claims that the burdens of “toil and worry” overwhelm a new mother, in some cases to the point of losing their sense of reason. The article concludes with his plea, “I have heard the wail of sorrow come up from too many households to keep silent. I have looked into the meaningless eyes of too many, lost by neglect, to stay my voice.”
Finally, I will let the first editorial note speak to the frustration that fueled the fire to grant women the right to vote in this country. And, as always, I calculate the length of time over which this energy had to be sustained until the final passage in 1919 of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
College degrees are just now being given to men and women without any public outcry against the fair sex, or even a hint that they are out of their sphere or usurping the rights of the other sex. So much is gained. But these young women, who in the world of letters hold B.A. and M. A. and even LL.D., are under the law held as equals of lunatics and idiots, and of male felons in prison. Such men and such women are alike denied the right to vote!
Snapshot 1886… Mark Twain – yet another hidden gem…
January 7, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
This forum has often been used to highlight one of the unique benefits of the hobby of collecting Rare & Early newspapers – that is, collecting a newspaper for one purpose, only to later find a more precious item hidden within its pages. Such is the case with the Harper’s Weekly for September 29, 1866. For 40+ years we offered this issue with a spotlight on a variety of the interesting illustrations found within its 16 pages. However, we recently discovered yet another hidden gem: an article accompanying the popular print: “Burning of the California Clipper ‘Hornet'”. What’s so special about this uncredited article? It was written by Mark Twain – making it the first time an article written by him received national attention. What a find!
If you happen to be one of the lucky one’s to have purchased this issue without knowledge of the Mark Twain contribution, you now possess an issue of significantly greater notoriety (and therefore value) than what you previously had thought. Good for you.
Announcing: Catalog #302 (for January, 2021) is now available…
January 4, 2021 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 302 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 302 ($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.
Announcing: Catalog #301 (for December, 2020) is now available…
November 30, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 301 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 301 ($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.
Announcing: Catalog #300 (for November, 2020) is now available…
October 30, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 300 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 300 ($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.
Announcing: Catalog #299 (for October, 2020) is now available…
October 2, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 299 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 299 ($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 Woman’s Journal & Literary Notices… I’m Still Learning…
September 11, 2020 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
The Woman’s Journal (1872 and more), out of Boston, is the publication I am happiest to pull for any reason. It is well-organized, with clear headings and a clean layout. If I have research to do, I save it for last as I am frequently inclined to ramble through the columns, and lose track of time. With that said, it’s a splendid thing to be assigned an opportunity to focus on this paper. Each instance of opening it brings me to a new regular feature, and this one brought me to the Literary Notices where I discovered a special treat.
In the first place, the professional tone and straightforward language convey an instant sense of intelligent discussion. This is serious scholarship being presented. The selections that follow only serve to deepen that impression, as listed here:
The Sphinx’s Children and Other People’s, Reason and Revelation Hand in Hand, A Study of Dante, A Tale of a Lonely Parish, Tokology, A Book for Every Woman, Evolution of To-Day
Each title precedes a 200-word thoughtful review, with summary and critique included. The style is witty and educated, and I was wondering which of these might still be available –as they were so very interesting– when I spotted a last review occupying five times as much space as any of the others. To my delight, it was headed as follows:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: With Extracts from His Journals and Correspondence. Edited by Samuel Longfellow
It’s a great thing to be able to read someone else’s evaluation of a work with which you are yourself familiar, most particularly if their review was written 134 years ago. There is much to recognize and much to learn in the details of this piece. Interestingly, I looked up the author’s name and found it to be the only one of the editorial and contributor staff to be listed by initials, rather than first name. Further research showed that H.B. Blackwell was really “Henry Brown Blackwell” and the only male member of the staff. The entire review closes with the “last words he [Wordsworth] ever wrote were these:
O Bells of San Blas, in vain,
Ye call back the past again;
The past is deaf to your prayer;
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into the light;
It is daybreak everywhere.
The very last interesting bit in this excursion of mine is an item in the adjacent Gossip and Gleanings column which reads, “Rev. Samuel Longfellow has the gratification knowing that the 4,000 copies of his brother’s life composing the first edition, are all sold.”