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Before the Jane Fonda video…
August 24, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The “Scientific American” issue of Nov. 18, 1911 offers this interesting solution for “…reducing abdominal weight”. I don’t think this one caught on…
The Traveler… The Olympic champion, Jim Thorpe…
August 20, 2012 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
In today’s journey I traveled to Carlisle, Pennsylvania through the Valley Sentinel dated August 20, 1912, wherein I found: “Olympic Reception a Gratifying Success”, being the home-town (college) celebration for the Olympic two-time gold medalist Jim Thorpe. His performance was amazing as he destroyed the world’s best in the decathlon and pentathlon. There is a lot of coverage in this paper on the celebration, including mention of Coach “Pop” Warner.
One hundred years later, Olympians are still breaking records in many ways, not only by performance and speed… Michael Phelps retires as the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals; Gabby Douglas, the first African-American to win gold in all-around gymnastics; the first ‘blade-runner’ Oscar Pistorius, and many more yet to come. Congratulations to all of the Olympians!
~The Traveler
He’ll be singing the blues…
August 17, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
The “Omaha Bee News” issue of Sept. 16, 1932 has this interesting report of a a singer destined for jail…
Historic Newspapers in the classroom…
August 13, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
We received the following note from one of our collector friends and thought our readers might enjoy his note:
Dear Tim Hughes and Rare Newspapers:
and rote memorization of facts. Rather, I teach that history is the interpretation of the present as viewed through a prism of past human experiences. I encourage my students to realize that “historical figures” were once living breathing human beings. They may be gone, but the life lessons that they left behind can still empower us to improve our lives and to better understand our world. I believe that “hand’s on learning” provides students with the most ownership of their knowledge. For this reason, my classroom is a museum filled with dozens of historical artifacts and framed newspapers. For example, when studying the Lincoln assassination, I allow students to hold a tear-stained Philadelphia Inquirer from April 1865. My students have even had the opportunity to re-‐enact the 2000 Florida Presidential election on an actual Dade County voting machine. As a practitioner of Problem Based Learning, I believe giving students access to actual historical documents and relics makes the lesson a truly authentic learning experience. I want my students to realize that history is a never-‐ending story of human triumphs and tragedies. It is a story to which they are contributing. That is a powerful lesson.
Newspaper Reports of Olympic Proportions…
August 10, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
As the 2012 Olympics come to an end, the staff at Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers thought our readers might appreciate reviewing collectible newspapers with coverage of past Olympics. While considerably more issues are available within our inventory than what is shown, at least the list will provide a snap-shot of such greats as Jesse Owens, Nadia Comaneci, Jim Thorpe, Gertrude Ederle, and more. Please ignore the few scattered issues within this link that do not belong, and enjoy your walk back through Olympic history. View Newspapers With Olympic Coverage
The Traveler… Taft is notified… have we learned yet?
August 6, 2012 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled to Farmington, Maine by way of The Franklin Journal (August 6, 1912). There I found that “President Taft was formally notified Thursday of his nomination by the National Republican convention at Chicago.” This would be a year in which a four-way presidential election occurred — Republican, Democratic, Progressive and Socialist.
In part of the acceptance speech, “…the president launches into a bitter attack upon ‘those responsible for the popular unrest’ of the present day… Votes are not bread, constitutional amendments are not work, referendums do not pay rent or furnish houses, recalls do not furnish clothing, initiatives do not supply employment or relieve inequalities of condition or of opportunity…” (see below). Here we are in another election year, 100 years later, with what sounds like the exact same issues…
~The Traveler
Not sure this one worked…
July 27, 2012 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Before the days of plastic surgery or rhinoplasty, here is how problems with the nose were supposedly “cured”. While subscribers were on the hunt for great baseball news, this ad is in the “Baseball Magazine” issue of June, 1923. 
Only Through the Innocence of Children…
July 6, 2012 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
Our friends at HistoryBuff.com recently posted a newsletter which included an article regarding an early 20th century newsboy. Please enjoy!
Only Through the Innocence of Children
A Memoir of a Newsboy in 1939
The following is a personal memoir of Stanleigh Nettleton written in 1987. Unfortunately, he died a number of years ago – but his memoir lives on!
About 1939 I was working the complaint desk on the Chicago Herald-American one Sunday morning. The complaint desk was simply where people call in that missed their paper and I would call the branch manager and he would send a kid over there with another paper. However, it was also the message center for 7 district managers and 91 branch managers who were supervising 3000 carriers delivering over 100,000 home delivery papers in Chicago.
About 6:30 I got a call from Freddy, the branch manager in 158. He called in and simply said, “The boss is looking for me, tell him I’ll call him when I get back. I just got a call from Austin Avenue Police Station that they are holding a couple of my kids out there, so I am going out there now to see what the beef is.”
Well, about 8:30 Freddy calls and he says, “I’m back and everything is OK.” I asked “What about the kids the cops picked up?” He says, “Well, that’s a long story. I’ll tell you Tuesday when I come in the office.”
Come noon Tuesday Freddy comes over to the desk and says, “Let’s go eat.” As we ate lunch Freddy tells me about the carriers.
Out on Wilcox Avenue in Chicago’s West Side there was this big apartment building that was entirely occupied by Jewish families. In one of these apartments was an old Jewish fellow who managed to flee the Gestapo and came to live with his son in Chicago. One Sunday morning the father goes out into the hall to pick up the paper and as he turns to come back in the apartment, he freezes with fear, for right in the center of the door was a big “X” mark made from white chalk. This was exactly the way the Gestapo would mark the houses in Germany when they took the Jews away to the concentration camps.
He finally stopped shaking enough to go in… (Unfortunately the original link to this story is no longer active. -If anyone can find an online printing of the story, please let us know and we will update the link.)
The Traveler… first female aviator killed… turn-about is fair play…
July 2, 2012 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
Today I traveled to Carlisle, Pennsylvania by way of the Valley Sentinel dated July 2, 1912 where I found the report of the first female aviator killed. Miss Margaret Quimby and her manager fell 1,000 feet to their deaths as they were ejected from their seats when the monoplane that Miss Quimby was flying was upset by gusty winds. View the link above for additional details.
The front page of this issue also has an article about a man who had just been before a magistrate on charges of wife beating, “…was taken from a policeman by thirty-five masked men, dressed in women’s clothes, and was dragged to the ball park, where he was partly stripped of his clothing, tied to a post and a ‘rubber snake’ whip was plied to the bare flesh of Bowman until his cries for mercy could be heard for blocks…” He was taken home and warned to never to it again. I guess this was a case of turn-about is fair play… Nice to find such polar opposite woman’s interest coverage (women in flight vs. battered women within the home) within a single issue.
~The Traveler
Not too much has changed in over 60 years…
June 22, 2012 by TimHughes · 1 Comment
This six-point prescription for a longer life appeared on the front page of the “Detroit Free Press” issue of March 17, 1951.