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I’m New Here: Still Learning… Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper
February 7, 2020 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. Winston S. Churchill
This is an appropriate enough quote to summarize my perspective at the close of a year of many new lessons – and not all of them pleasant at the time of learning. It’s tough to be new, but it feels great to be not-new. Since I find myself in a “next stage” here at Rare Newspapers, as of this week I am transitioning the title(s) of my blog. Once a month I will continue to pass along something new I have learned, under the heading “Still Learning.” In the other three weeks I will focus on different aspects of this wonderful place.
My most recent orientation was a byproduct of searching the wide world of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. It seems these treasures, similar in size to Harper’s Weekly, are located in a completely different collection of Civil War Era papers. Although our titles are meticulously indexed and cataloged, the facilities could not possibly be rearranged with each new collection acquired. Consequently, the front warehouse has its own area of 1861-1865 issues, while the annex has a separate one. It’s so funny to still be discovering a nook packed full of Historical Relevance (in capital letters).
Within a publication from 1862, I located a four-panel, tipped-in centerfold. It’s a beautiful illustration that measures 20″ high by 32″ wide, folded inside the magazine, with no binding holes or glue lines within the image margins. The top half is titled “The Second Day of the Second Battle of Bunker Hill”, and depicts a lovely landscape in which lines of marching men wind along hilltops and alongside lanes of trees. Even the award winning photography of later wars doesn’t compete with the impact of this intricate rendering.
Note that this is not a double-page centerfold, as I originally described it to Guy, but a more extravagantly sized and highly desirable four-panel, tipped-in centerfold. I have recently been taught the difference.
Anyway, I have much more to learn, but in case you were wondering, I am ready for more Leslie’s requests — particularly Civil War issues.
Announcing: Catalog #291 (for February, 2020) is now available…
February 3, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 291 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 291 ($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.)
I’m New Here: A Few Changes…
January 31, 2020 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
This week has gone by in a blur. The (exciting) new catalog ships out tomorrow, and all the attendant hoopla has filled our schedules. It’s always a juggling act to maintain regular work around special projects, because there is plenty of the latter to pack our days.
A seasoned collector was filling gaps prior to an approaching exhibit, and he called to have me check a New York Times obituary in 1898. 
We didn’t have the date it ran, and I exhausted all the other major papers. However, the deceased was an abolitionist who also contributed to the effort to gain the vote for women. As a last ditch effort I pulled a volume of the Woman’s Journal from Washington DC, and found a lengthy tribute to Robert Purvis. Mr. G was quite pleased, and I felt triumphant with my find, particularly as it led me to delve into my favorite category – publications in which women played an important role. Although much content pertains to suffrage, there seems to have been an effort to provide a platform for intelligent discussion that encompassed many other aspects of life in the 1800’s. These journals are a valuable resource for a look into the 19th Century, and I am always glad to fulfill an order with one of these gems.
As I begin this second year here at Rare & Early Newspapers, I am planning to dedicate my last post each month to a look at our titles, beginning with the Woman’s Journal. Hopefully, I can unearth enough nuggets that you will all start to consider that a collection cannot possibly be complete without containing at least an issue or two from the Woman’s Tribune, The Woman’s Journal, The North Shore Review, the Ladies Magazine or Womankind.
Thank you for the kind comments and encouragement in this first year. I beg your continued forbearance as I wade more deeply into the water.
Cheers!
January through the years via the lens of Rare & Early Newspapers…
January 13, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Walk with us back through time to see what noteworthy, historic and collectible events occurred during the month of January. In so doing, we hope you’ll agree: “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.”
January Through Time
Announcing: Catalog #290 (for January, 2020) is now available…
January 7, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 290 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 290 ($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.)
I’m New Here: Week Forty…
December 6, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
At the start of this week, I was a bit hard-pressed to think of something new I learned. Winter dramatically closed the Thanksgiving celebrations in our part of the world, and I spent two days trying to determine the best window for travel within two storm systems. Consequently, I arrived halfway through the day Monday and have been scrambling to catch up with the December crush of orders ever since. Yesterday I decided that this was a good time to reflect on all the things that have become old hat to me, and how much I enjoy the rhythm of this world of old newspapers and the folks that value and collect them. However, the end of the day brought home a new lesson.
A quick search of the internet archive yields a total of 1,355 works that are about Harriet Tubman. Many titles are children’s books, by which young people have learned of Tubman’s many missions to liberate somewhere between 70 and 300 slaves, with heroic disregard for her own precarious freedom. Her name is closely associated with the Underground Railroad, and she is credited with the altered route into Canada in response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
And yet.
This week we discovered a report of her death in “The Omaha Bee” for March 11, 1913, out of Nebraska. It is outrageously brief, and bewilderingly sparse in its acknowledgement of the North American 1800’s “Moses”.
The following is what Tim wrote for an upcoming catalog listing:
Page 3 has a somewhat inconspicuous report on the near death of the famed Harriet Tubman.
The report is headed: “Aged Negress Friend Of Abraham Lincoln Dying” and reads: “Harriett Tubman, a colored woman 95 years old, who is said to be a friend of Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, and who was associated with John Brown in anti-slavery work, is dying here of pneumonia.“
A curiously brief report giving her extraordinary life. A notable that of the many volumes of newspapers in our inventory this is the only report of her death (or nearly so) that we could find.
The new thing I learned this week is that a newspaper can only report on things to which the editorial staff is paying attention, or finding noteworthy. This seems more than a bit disconcerting, but then again I may have had too many Thanksgiving treats.
Announcing: Catalog #288 (for November, 2019) is now available…
November 4, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 288 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 288 ($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.)
I’m New Here: Week Thirty-Five…
October 25, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
Sometimes I think that the constant hum of political discourse is unique to our time. Certainly, the tone is billed as uniquely vitriolic – in stark contrast to the bucolic days of yore. Except, I keep uncovering these eviscerating denouncements of a certain elected leader, or particular view, or specific cause, or controversial vote – with all the surrounding discussion and debate. The only difference I can see is that a certain level of pride seemed to stamp each public statement – as if a political position was strengthened by dissent. These days, nearly as much time is spent disassociating from one’s words as in the pontificating.
Adding a second distinguishing feature, this week I discovered the satirical Puck – begun in Germany and published in America in 1877. Interestingly, the founder collaborated with the renowned Leslie’s Illustrated prior to making the transition. Headed with the Shakespearean character’s wry commentary, “What fools these mortals be,” the clever magazine takes the tone of an outside, slightly mocking, observer.
The one I selected for perusal deals with the Justice System on the cover, and New York’s participation in the World Fair of 1839. A brief glance at the latter conveys a fairy tale worthy, beautifully colored double page centerfold that on closer inspection mocks the greed associated with the exposition and its participants.
It’s an elevated tone, when compared with the shrill modern volume on television and radio. Somehow, satire is more palatable to me — a velvet glove of watercolor illustration covering the iron fist of debate in a place where freedom of speech was so highly esteemed that it was almost an art form.
I’m New Here: Week Thirty-Four…
October 18, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
Today’s post is a bit harried because Guy was away for a few days. There is nothing like his absence to bring home to me how much I still have left to learn. Thankfully, he has returned and no one was irrevocably distressed by my continued ineptitude — which was blatantly apparent without his buffering.
That said, I juggled as successfully as I could, and in the process found a sphere of knowledge of which I have somehow remained ignorant. The covers of Harper’s Weekly publications are often pen and ink constructions that are balanced and aesthetically appealing. Many collectors purchase these to frame and subsequently decorate walls and offices. An issue from 1859 passed under my gaze while fulfilling a request that had been paired with a name unfamiliar to me. The collector was searching for Garibaldi reports. As I was completely unfamiliar with the name, my shipping room buddy brought the June 18, 1859 Harper’s to my desk before commencing his painstaking shipping process.
Clearly, I have been missing out. This “famous Italian patriot whose exploits on the slopes of the Alps are at present in every one’s mouth” was featured on the full front page, and continued onto one inside column. His visage is coldly angular, and his narrowed eyes appeared to find me across the length of my desk. My reaction must have been noteworthy, because an hour or so later Mike brought me a different date for that same title. “This artist had a kinder interpretation,” he said as he carefully placed another Garibaldi side by side with the first. And, the difference was so pronounced I spent a bit of time looking for the minute changes that dramatically influenced the whole.
Then I thought of all the people who search out issues containing Lincoln portraits, or a date among the seemingly unending eight years of Teddy Roosevelt covers. How funny it is to realize that our collective views of historically foundational people have been based on the interpretation of artists! Based on the shape of Joseph G.’s eyes, I suspect that some of them had a distinct bias that has unconsciously colored our perspective.
Even with my reasoning braced against my imagination, I find the introductory paragraph to the report does nothing to soften the aggressive life chosen by this commander. “Joseph Garibaldi is the type of gallant soldier of fortune, to whom the excitement of war is a necessity; but when his country’s opportunity arrives, is never found wanting among her defenders.”
I’m New Here: Week Thirty-Three…
October 11, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
This week, while pulling issues that contain Emily Dickinson death notices, I read about the first public appearance of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and also the institution of the Income Tax. As this was in 1886, I was surprised at the latter. Actually, I was surprised to see so many famous names and events in just a ten day span within that May. Oscar Wilde was hosting parties, Chicago was caught up in the Haymarket affair, and Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist. The rabbit trail I chose to follow (after investigating this whole Federal Income Tax thing that has historically been attributed to Woodrow Wilson’s presidency almost thirty years later) began with the following words to the Editor of the New York Times: “Mr. Putnam’s remarks on the impropriety of republishing [Washington] Irving’s works in their unrevised form, have but one fault; they are not strong enough.”
It is Autumn with a capital “A” in the northeast United States where, flanked by hilly vistas of multi-hued splendor, every street corner proclaims this the month of Hallowe’en. Washington Irving, author of the famous ghost story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, could easily have been one of the serialized authors featured in the 1869 “Saturday Night” issues I have been pulling for a Philadelphia area collector. And October is definitely the time of year in which strange, extraordinary and macabre stories would have provided thrilling weekend entertainment to a 19th century culture blessedly devoid of electronic clamor.
I didn’t know about Irving’s first published work, or the misinformation campaign to hype interest prior to the release of A History of New York. I read about his “Knickerbocker” alter ego whose fictitious disappearance sparked a national following. This moniker influenced sports teams, architectural structures, social groups, and even a toy company. To this day, a resident of Manhattan is a Knickerbocker — nicknamed after a man who never was.
So, I am thankful for the censure that drew my attention away from the tax tables and the following words of “THE NEW INTERNAL REVENUE LAW. Topics of Interest to Everybody”:
Among these the Tax and Tariff laws are prominent, possessing an interest for every one, inasmuch as they most sensibly affect the cost of living, enhancing the prices of everything we eat, drink, or wear, adding to the value of articles of both necessity and luxury. The Tax law especially appeals directly to our pockets; and we find that a share of our profits from manufacturing any article, as well as a proportion of the income which we annually receive, is due to the Government.
I would much rather consider impropriety of a literary kind.