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Prices realized… 19th century…
September 20, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · 5 Comments
This post is the 3rd installment of a series dedicated to exploring actual sale prices of historic newspapers from various periods of time. Below please find a few selections from the 19th century.
Note: If you have an issue of your own you’re trying to price, one trick/strategy is to go to the “advanced” search engine at www.rarenewspapers.com (see top left of window), enter a 2 week range of dates (one week prior to your issue’s date to one week after), and view the results. This will give you comparable issues (if available) to help you in establishing a reasonable price for your issue. Make certain to take into consideration your issues title, city of location, proximity to the location where the event (key content) occurred, condition, displayability, proximity of issue’s date to the date the key event occurred, etc.
19th century selections:
The best Lincoln Assassination issue to be had… THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 15, 1865 ($2,800, 2009)
Wallpaper issue! THE OPELOUSAS COURIER, Louisiana., Apr. 4, 1863 ($2,650, 2006)
The previous posts in this series are:
Prices realized… 16th & 17th centuries…
Prices realized… 18th century…
Same concern over 100 years ago…
August 30, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
While listing an issue of “Judge” magazine, the political satire publication popular for the three color political cartoons in each issue, I noted the back page of an 1888 issue has a caption: “Goods Will Be So Much Cheaper–But what will become of all the American Industries?” The print (see below) shows the opening of the “Protection” flood gates with “European Pauper Manufactures” pouring upon American industries, shown in disrepair.
With one of the concerns of the American economy today being the flood of manufactured goods from foreign plants and the flight of American industries to off-shore sites, I find it curious that an identical concern was a focus 122 years ago. This political cartoon could well appear in a newspaper today.
Understated caption, or overstated print…
August 28, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
This illustration appears in “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper” dated August 5, 1871. The caption notes: “Mount Washington Storm Signals–Use of the Anemometer under difficulties.” Either the print is overstated or the caption is understated. I’m guessing the former, but it makes for a fun image.
The influence of newspapers…
August 16, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
I’m sure we would all agree with Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1839) that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. What about the pen as wielded via the text of a newspaper? Napoleon’s view was that “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets”. Interesting comment from one of history’s infamous (famous?) sword bearers. The following editorial note found on the front page of the June 17, 1867 issue of the Bethlehem Daily Times (PA) provides affirmation of this view:
However, lest we become overly fearful of the devastation such influence has upon our thinking, Erasmus (1571) provides us with a word of encouragement to the contrary: “There is no sword to be feared more than the Learned pen”. Perhaps we are safe. 🙂
Did you notice the 1867 price for the issue shown at the top of the image? Apparently, if the average person was inclined to be paid “a penny for their thoughts”, newspaper editors believed their thoughts were worth double.
With the ever-decreasing circulations of newspapers, I wonder what the equivalent form of influence is today… and will be 10 years from now???
Practice makes perfect???
August 7, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
An interesting note in the November 14, 1857 issue of “Harper’s Weekly” only goes to show that practice doesn’t always make perfect:
Interesting cure for a multitude of ills…
July 31, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
This advertisement in the August 22, 1885 issue of “Harper’s Weekly” gives evidence as to how much times have changed. And I find it interesting that cocaine–a known stimulant–would be a cure for “sleeplessness” and “nervousness”.
The allure of the Old West…
July 26, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
While few of us will have the opportunity to visit some of the fascinating old mining towns of the Old West, holding a newspaper from a ghost town’s hey day can be the next best thing. And with a little knowledge about the town, a newspaper from the neighborhood press takes on added appeal and intrigue.
With this in mind I will, from time to time, offer some background information on the towns from which some of our Old West newspapers came. And I’ll start with an issue with an interesting title, the “Owyhee Avalanche” of Silver City, Idaho.
Silver City is one of the few old mining towns that did not burn down or become commercialized into a modern city. Visiting Silver City is like going back into history. The Idaho Hotel is as it was 100 years ago with a few modern amenities. Rugged and picturesque, the 8,000 feet-high Owyhee Mountains surround Silver City, elevation 6,200 ft. The history-filled town contains about seventy-five structures that date from the 1860’s to the early 1900’s.
During its “heydays”, Silver City had about a dozen streets, seventy-five businesses, three hundred homes, a population of around 2,500, twelve ore-processing mills, and was the Owyhee County seat from 1866 to 1934. Some of the largest stage lines in the West operated in the area, and Silver City had the first telegraph and the first daily newspaper in the territory in 1874.
More that two dozen camps provided shelter, supplies and amusement for the thousands of people who came to the mountains seeking their fortunes in one way or another. The ruins of some of these can still be found though nature is reclaiming most of them at an accelerated rate. Almost a dozen cemeteries and many more remote burial sites attest to the hard and sometimes dangerous and violent lives led by many. Hundreds of mines pock-mark and honeycomb the mountains; one had upwards of seventy miles of tunnels laboriously hand-dug through it. Between 1863 and 1865, more than two hundred and fifty mines were in operation and hundreds more were developed thereafter. At least sixty million dollars worth of precious metals were taken from the area. (credit: historicsilvercityidaho.com)
Click HERE for some photos of present-day Silver City.
Just following the doctor’s orders…
July 17, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The following piece appeared in the “Bethlehem Daily Times” issue of November 22, 1869.
A witty five year-old…
May 29, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
This item appeared n the “Santa Cruz Sentinel“, California, on April 18, 1871:
Better luck next time…
May 15, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
“The Evening Wisconsin” of Milwaukee, Dec. 17, 1888 reports a bad day for two train robbers. Perhaps their watches were set for the wrong time zone?