Encouraging newspaper collecting in 1862…

July 2, 2009 by  
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An article in the “Charleston Mercury” of June 13, 1862 has a curious item concerning the collecting of early newspapers, and even includes a statement about the value in keeping current (meaning 1862) issues for future posterity:

“NEWSPAPERS—Many people like newspapers but few preserve them; yet the most interesting reading imaginable is a file of old newspapers. It brings up the past age with all its bustle and every day affairs, and marks its genius and its spirit more than the most labored description of the historian. Who can take up a paper half a century old without the thought that almost every name there printed is now upon a tombstone at the head of an epitaph? The newspaper of the present day will be especially interesting years hence, as containing the current record of events fraught with tremendous import to the cause of freedom in all the civilized world. We therefore would urge upon all the propriety of preserving their papers. they will be a source of pleasure and interest to them hereafter.”

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Filed under: Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Food for Thought
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