Search
The Rare & Early Newspapers Hobby
Receive the Newsletter
Buy Historic Newspapers
Discovering hidden treasure…
April 17, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
One of the many pleasures of the Rare Newspapers collectable is finding content which was unexpected. The following note from a collecting friend drives this point home:
Dear Guy,
Thank you for sending the recent “History’s Newsstand” [newsletter]. Good stuff.
I wanted to share with you, assuming that you are also a history “nut”, a news item that I came across in a recent purchase.
From the Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, August 9, 1860 (see attached) a mention of a “Miss. A. Surratt” of Prince George’s County (Surrattsville now Clinton, MD.) Although I may never know for sure, the name, place and date seem to match up correctly with Elizabeth Susanna “Anna” Surratt (1843-1904), daughter of Lincoln assassination co conspirator Mary Surratt.
I became interested in the tragic life of little Anna through my research on the Chapman sisters of Ford’s theater fame.
Love these old newspapers. Historical goldmines each and every one.
Once again: History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.
A National calamity… What is one to do?
April 3, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
What does one do when abruptly ushered into one, if not the, most powerful positions on earth by the untimely death of the President of the United States? Today, in honor of the Easter Holiday Weekend, we reach back to 1841 to see how newly elevated President John Tyler responded when placed in this situation. The following proclamation, which begins in part, “When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government over the children of men, to acknowledge His goodness in time past, as well as their own unworthiness, and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future…”, was printed in The Globe, Washington, D.C., April 15, 1841:
Happy Easter from the Rare & Early Newspapers Team
They put it in print… First appearance of an American flag?
February 13, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Many in our hobby like to pursuit the very first time “they put it in print” and the “it” can be a very wide range of announcements, reports, or images. Certainly first reports of major 18th 
and 19th century battles have been among the favored issues of collectors, and most certainly the first printing of ht Declaration of Independence in a newspaper commands a considerable premium among those who are able to consummate that pursuit.
Two collectors, Michael Zinman and Steve Lomazow, raised an interesting question: what newspaper was the first to include a print of the U.S. flag within its pages? After discovering several newspapers from 1847 and then 1840 with flag engravings, we found in our database the “True American & Commercial Advertiser” from Philadelphia, 1806 which incorporates a U.S. flag (albeit a small engraving: see photo) within the masthead image (see sample). The newspaper actually began in 1798 but that didn’t mean the masthead engraving was there. Typically mastheads change, often several times, through the life cycle of a newspaper.
But a confirmation from Vincent Golden, newspaper librarian at the American Antiquarian Society, which has holdings of this title going back to issue number 1, confirms the engraving with the flag is, indeed, present with that very first issue.
So this sets the earliest appearance of the U.S. flag in a newspaper at July 1, 1798. But I’m not convinced this is the earliest date. Are any of you collectors aware of an earlier appearance? Check your collections and share with the rest of us!
A gem from the American Antiquarian Society…
January 30, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
In celebration of its 20oth anniversary the American Antiquarian Society published a beautiful exhibition catalog titled “In Pursuit Of A Vision – Two Centuries of Collecting at the American Antiquarian Society”. Featured are a fascinating array of books, documents, maps & other paper ephemera, as well as several very rare & unusual newspapers we felt worthy of sharing with our collectors (with permission from the A.A.S.).
93. “Moniteur de la Louisiane“, New Orleans, February 21, 1810
The Moniteur de la Louisiane, established in 1794 by Louis Duclot, was the first newspaper published in Louisiana. Because so few early issues have survived, its history is difficult to piece together. The earliest known issue — since lost in a fire but preserved in facsimile — was dated August 25, 1794; all other extant issues are from the 1800s. Although founded when Louisiana was under Spanish control, the Moniteur was published primarily in French, the language of Louisiana’s majority population. Over time the newspaper grew in size from octavo to quarto to folio, and it also change publishers. This 1810 issue lists Jean Baptiste Le Seur Fontaine as publisher, A role he had assumed by 1803 and perhaps as early as 1797. Publication apparently ceased in 1814. When Fontaine died that year, he bequeathed to the city of New Orleans his personal file of the Moniteur.
This is one of two issues of the Moniteur sent to AAS by Edward Larocque Tinker as part of his very substantial gift of early Louisiana newspapers and periodicals.
They put it in print…
January 26, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
It was such a tragedy to America when Alexander Hamilton, the founding father of the United States, chief of staff to Washington in the Revolutionary War, and America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, was killed in a duel, an event he opposed but honor forced him to participate. His words from shortly before the duel are telling: ““My religion and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of dueling…My wife & children are extremely dear to me…I am conscious of no ill will to Col. Burr distinct from political opposition…But it was, as I conceive, impossible for me to avoid it…”. The report is found in the “Middlesex Gazette” newspaper of July 20, 1804 (see below).
His wounds at the hand of Aaron Burr–who curiously was Vice President at the time–would prove fatal. His comments give evidence to the value of honor among the early patriots, even when they lead to a tragic end.
They sure don’t make’em like they used to…
December 12, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
How many things can you think of that are simply not made to the same quality standards as they once were? It would be fun to comprise such a list. However, when someone makes the statement, “They sure don’t make’em like they used to”, it is interesting to note the assumption that the object in question is no longer made as well. However, as the following article from a November 21, 1858 National Intelligencer reveals, thankfully, there are a few things which buck this assumption. Please enjoy… and feel free to send on your own list of things that are actually made better than they were in the past. Let’s transform this common phrase from a negative to a positive.
Note: The Hadley Falls Dam disaster (above), in what is currently Holyoke, Connecticut, drew considerable attention in the 19th century. In 1896, a Harper’s Weekly writer reflected, “The engineer took great pride in his work, and when it was finished, and the gates shut down, he is said to have irreverently exclaimed: ‘There! Those gates are shut, and God Almighty himself can not open them!’” Yet another example of man underestimating the power of God… or perhaps overestimating his own. 🙂
An eerie coincidence? A Chippewa legend…
October 31, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
As I began preparing this post I realized with a degree of angst that the date for the post is October 31st – Halloween. To say this is not a holiday I embrace is a gross understatement. Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas are certainly more in my wheel-house. So, what to do??? As fate (?) would have it, the very next issue I picked up contained an article more than suitable for this infamous day: “The Dancing Ghosts – A Chippewa Legend”. Was this just an eerie coincidence, or something more? Please enjoy (to view the entire article, go to: National Intelligencer (September 11, 1849):
Hawaiian Islands… ignorance is often the default position of the uninformed…
October 17, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
While many have been rightfully moved by James Michener’s account of the 1800’s Hawaiian Island pandemic, and have been forced to wrestle with and ultimately accept the albeit unintentional but horrible spread of disease and death often associated with well-intended explorers and missionaries entering new lands, an article in the National Intelligencer (December 4, 1849) takes “ignorance” to a whole new level. The image to the right expresses at least one person’s “uninformed” reaction to the wide-spread death that had befallen many of the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands (Sandwich Islands). Captain Cook and those who followed (with the intention of bringing Good News) would never have guessed they were also bringing such overwhelming human destruction. Thankfully we now know better – so as to not make such cold-hearted statements as the one made in this mid-19th century newspaper.
Say it isn’t so – The Natural Bridge for sale?
October 13, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
The Half-dome of Yosemite, Niagara’s Falls, the peaks of the Grand Tetons… Who is not overwhelmed by these and similar examples of the wonders of God’s creation? Yet too often we take them for granted – assuming they will forever be “open to the public” for those desiring to breathe in the Designer’s handiwork – never considering their ownership. Occasionally an event provides us with a reality check, bringing us down-to-earth so to speak, and forces us to consider whether or not such marvels should be owned by no one… or perhap0s even better, by all. An 1849 report in the National Intelligencer (November 27, 1849) is a case in point.
The Natural Bridge of Virginia is for sale? Please view the hyperlink above to read one man’s reaction to this very true event. His thoughts challenge us to consider whether or not such beauty should somehow be preserved for the public good, and to appreciate the simple pleasures of a rainbow, a sunset, and the fresh dew of the morning. It is nice to read his views written more than 25 years before the 1st National Park (Yellowstone) was established, and more than 50 years before the establishment of the National Park System (in 1916).
A common thread…
September 22, 2014 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Question: What do Henry Ward Beecher (abolitionist), Leonard Bernstein (composer/conductor), Henry Bergh (founder of the A.S.P.C.A), Charles Ebbets (owner, Brooklyn Dodgers), “Boss” Tweed (NY political boss), Henry Steinway (founder of Steinway & Sons, piano manufacturers), and Samuel F.B. Morse (inventor of the Morse code) have in common?
Answer: They, along with many other equally famous, infamous, and relatively unknown individuals are currently resting in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York – it being among the most noteworthy cemeteries in the United States. A scan over the list of those buried at this single location is quite sobering – causing one to pause and consider the hope for something beyond the grave.
What inspired the above query?
While searching a National Intelligencer (June 9, 1849) for California Gold Rush content (which we did find), we came across an interesting article written by a journalist who had visited Greenwood Cemetery soon after it opened, and then again just a few years later. His description makes for compelling reading. While a portion is shown below, the entire article may be viewed at: Greenwood Cemetery
Trivia: No one with an arrest record was permitted to be interred at Greenwood Cemetery. This policy held true until the death of “Boss” Tweed, whose corrupt influence and power were apparently not buried with his remains.