This Month in History – December…

December 2, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

One of the most popular topics collectors of Rare & Early Newspapers seek are those with war reports. Due to the nature of the human condition, they are in relative abundance. However, primarily due to poor weather conditions often present in the month of December, such reporting does not dominate the news as much as during warmer months. So, what is a collector to collect during this month? Feel free to peruse the link below to see a host of other topics which collectors have found to be desirable. Sadly, war reporting will also be interspersed throughout.

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER

 

Announcing: Catalog #349 for December, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers for collectors…

November 29, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

 

December’s Catalog (#349) is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of over 300 new items – a selection which includes the following noteworthy issues: the House version of the Bill of Rights, Washington’s first inauguration (with an eye-witness account), a newspaper printed by Ben Franklin (with his imprint), an issue with a Paul Revere masthead (and great Ethan Allen content), a fine report of the Boston Massacre, an early ‘newsbook’ dated 1658, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore all available items from this latest edition of our catalog:

         1500-1799 (full view OR quick-scan/compact view)

         1800-1899 (full view OR quick-scan/compact” view)

         1900-Present (full view OR quick-scan/compact” view)

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DISCOUNTED ISSUES – What remains of last month’s discounted issues may be viewed at: Discount (select items at 50% off)

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HISTORY’S NEWSSTAND – Recent Posts on the History’s Newsstand Blog may be accessed at: History’s Newsstand

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Thanks for collecting with us.

Sincerely,

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

570-326-1045

[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days

upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]

This Month in History – November…

November 4, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

Let’s have some fun. Go to The History Place and pick three events which capture your attention. Limit yourself to 3 minutes.

… (waiting)

… (waiting)

… (waiting)

Welcome back. So, which events did you select?

Mine were:

November 1, 1848 – The first medical school for women opened in Boston. [Why did it take so long?]

November 4, 1922 – King Tut’s tomb was discovered at Luxor, Egypt. [“I see dead people.”]

November 6, 1860 – Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th U.S. President and the first Republican. [I’m sure we all picked this low-hanging fruit.]

Bonus selection: I would have said: “November 5, 1733 – The first issue of the New York Weekly Journal was published by John Peter Zenger, a colonial American printer and journalist. A year later, he was arrested on charges of libeling New York’s royal governor.”, but that may have come across a bit self-serving.

I’m sure if I had started at the middle or end of the list I would likely have a different “top three”. Furthermore, to be fair, the task was not served fairly by the time constraint. Oh well.

Although some of the events in their list may not have had corresponding reports within contemporary newspapers, my guess is more than a few did – and while each can be explored online, it is only through “rare & early newspapers” they can be easily pursued in context. Albeit not to Biblical proportions, context matters.

If your interest has been piqued, the following link will take you to an abundance of available newspapers containing reports of events which occurred in the month of November:

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN NOVEMBER

Announcing: Catalog #348 for November, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…

November 1, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

The November catalog (#348) is now available. Shown below are links to various segments of the catalog, our currently discounted newspapers, and recent posts to the History’s Newsstand Blog. Please enjoy.

1) Catalog #348 (for November): This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes the following noteworthy issues: Lincoln’s famous ‘House Divided’ speech, a significant ‘pillar cartoon’: the Constitution is in effect, the death of Benjamin Franklin, a rare political cartoon on the Boston Port Bill, the King declares Americans free & independent, and more.

The following links are designed to help you explore all available items from this latest edition of our catalog:

         1500-1799 (full view OR quick-scan/compact view)

         1800-1899 (full view OR quick-scan/compact” view)

         1900-Present (full view OR quick-scan/compact” view)

————–

DISCOUNTED ISSUES – What remains of last month’s discounted issues may be viewed at: Discount (select items at 50% off)

HISTORY’S NEWSSTAND – Recent Posts on the History’s Newsstand Blog may be accessed at: History’s Newsstand

————–
Thanks for collecting with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

570-326-1045

[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days

upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]

As Halloween approaches – “The Lady in the Furnace”. Yikes!

October 28, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

Reality can often be stranger than fiction. Such is the case with “The Lady in the Furnace”. This true-life horror story (actual event) was first brought to my attention through a collector’s request: “Do you have any newspaper headlines on the Lake Bluff village hall furnace mystery burning of Elfredia Knaack on Oct.30, 1928?” My initial thought was this was going to be an off the grid event in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and our investigative efforts within our archives would be turn up empty. However, as I gathered information about the story so as to be an informed explorer, I was fascinated by what I learned. A severely burned young lady, unrequited love, a furnace, the mysterious imprint of a hand, a small town with its roots in the camp meeting movement of the late 1800’s, an actor with the last name of Hitchcock, spiritualism, secret “rendezvous”, the suggestion of ghosts, an unsolved mystery… What a weird story!

It didn’t take long before our staff realized this event had also captured the interest of those living at the time as we quickly found two issues with front-page reports – one from the city which has grown to nearly encompass this small town. Below please find a set of photos which include snapshots of some of the coverage found within the two issues (the Chicago Daily Tribune and The Day, from New London, CT – both dated on Halloween, October 31, 1928.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whereas both issues have already been acquired by the one who sent us on this journey, interested individuals can learn more about this event by searching for Knaak Furnace 1928. And who knows, by the time this post “goes live”, we may have unearthed additional issues with coverage of this strange, but true event.

This Month in History – October…

October 7, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

A continuation of our ongoing series: This Month in History – October Edition

Not to be repetitive, however, we are often asked how we find newspaper reports covering such a wide variety of topics. Part of the answer is simply longevity. We’ve been collecting and offering issues for a half-century, and time itself as helped us amass an extensive database of notable events. Customer requests, what we’ve learned in school, the news, historical books and movies, etc. have all contributed to the cause. However, our capacity for discovery exploded with the development of the internet. Thanks to an abundance of historical websites, we can now search by day, week, month, era, event, and more in our quest to “mine” our archives. One such resource (among many) is The History Place. Through this online database one can find events by the day, week, month, and year.

As each month approaches, we often access this (or a similar) resource to search for new/fresh topics to explore. In our most recent effort, we search for historic events, discovers, accomplishments, etc. which occurred in the month of August. Our results were found here: The History Place – Month of October.

If you take a few moments to scan their index of October events, perhaps you’ll see an overlap between some of those shown and our currently listed newspapers dated in October through time (see below). If you decide to explore, we hope you enjoy.

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER

 

Finding the Unexpected… Village Voice edition…

September 30, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

The Village Voice is known for many things, but articles which take a deep-dive into the history of the United States is not among them. So, when I came across a highlighted quote from Abraham Lincoln from his 1865 Inaugural Address within the issue dated July 12, 1976, my curiosity was piqued. Rather than describe my findings in words, I think it best to let the pictures (photos) below do the talking. If you are familiar with this publication, I hope you are intrigued about their presence as well. Enjoy.

Note: The Village Voice did a reflective article on this issue on June 28, 2023 which can be viewed here: Last Refuge of a Rock Critic…

Announcing: Catalog #347 for October, 2024 – Rare & Early Newspapers…

September 27, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

 

The October catalog (#347) is now available. Shown below are links to various segments of the catalog, our currently discounted newspapers, and recent posts to the History’s Newsstand Blog. Please enjoy.

CATALOG #347 – This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of over 300 new items, a selection which includes the following noteworthy issues: a great issue on Washington’s first inauguration, near final version of the Bill of Rights, a rare Royalist newspaper from New York, Clark’s letter to his brother on the Lewis & Clark Expedition, front page shows Lincoln being assassinated, a rare “camp” newspaper from the field of action, and more.

 

Helpful Links to the Catalog:
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DISCOUNTED ISSUES – What remains of last month’s discounted issues may be viewed at: Discount (select items at 50% off) 
————–
Thanks for collecting with us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Guy Heilenman & The Rare & Early Newspapers Team

570-326-1045

[The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days

upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.]

This Month in History – September…

September 26, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

“History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” (Timothy Hughes, 1975). Exploring events which have occurred in September as they appeared in rare & early newspapers are no exception. To view a selection of over 1000 such reports within the context of additional news of the day, go to:

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER

 

We missed it – Nellie Bly edition…

September 20, 2024 by · Leave a Comment 

No matter how hard our staff at Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers tries not to, inevitably we occasionally miss gems buried within the collectible newspapers we offer. Dozens of issues of the New York Tribune left our premises with undiscovered (unsigned) articles by Karl Marx. A real heartbreak was missing one of the first (1st?) published articles by a journalist with the initials S.C. Unfortunately, we were unable to get in touch with the recipient of the newspaper, but we sure hope they discovered this precious, early work from Mark Twain. Today we are aware that many of the issues of The Village Voice which pass through our hands have a good chance of containing an ad for one of the very first appearances of an iconic musician or band. As they say, “it is what it is”. What is it? One of special pleasures of the hobby: discovering unidentified treasures within the pages of old, rare, and historic newspapers.

We’ve mentioned this before, so why bring it up now? IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

Not too long ago a collector-friend mentioned they had an issue of The World (Pulitzer’s paper from New York) which contained a puzzle-game based on journalist Nellie Bly’s “Round the World” trip. The (New York) World followed her travels during her glorious excursion and printed the full-page puzzle soon after she returned home. The collector told us the date, and we immediately checked our database to see if we had a monthly volume of The World which spanned the date of the issue. We did. Next, we checked to see if our records revealed a previous sale for the issue? No! So, armed with great enthusiasm we headed off to the archives with anticipation. The volume was about 18 feet off the ground and buried under 5 other volumes (which is always a bit tricky when our feet are not firmly planted on the ground). Still within about 15 minutes from start to finish we were confronted by our worst-case scenario. The volume was present, but the issue was gone. It had very likely sold as a “birthday newspaper” (issues sold primarily to be used to give as gifts to recipients which highlight they day they were born). Bummer.

One may wonder how we could we have missed something so large… and so precious. Actually, it was as easy as 1, 2, 3 (or if you prefer, a, b, c):

  1. (a) We had no idea such an item existed, so we weren’t looking for it.
  2. (b) The sale probably took place prior to the ramp-up of the internet, so we didn’t have the capacity to make even a generalized search for content.
  3. (c) We would have been reluctant to page through the issue looking for special items since many newspapers from this era are rather brittle – and the puzzle-game was on an inside page.

Does this upset us? Not really. This aspect is one of the traits which make this collectible so rewarding.

Note: You can read more about Nellie Bly here and find a free downloadable high-resolution digital print of the puzzle here.

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