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February through the years via the lens of Rare & Early Newspapers…
February 10, 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 February. 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.”
February Through Time
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.)
Christmas-themed poems from 1850 – Food for thought…
December 24, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Earlier this year I came across a December 21, 1850 issue of Household Words – a publication “conducted” by Charles Dickens, which actually contained an original work by him titled “A CHRISTMAS TREE.” Although this was his publication, the majority of the contributions within were typically written by others. While perusing the issue I came across a set of Christmas-themed poems which stirred my heart. Hopefully you will also find them moving. Enjoy.
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.)
Announcing: Catalog #287 (for October, 2019) is now available…
October 1, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 287 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 287 ($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.)