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Ludicrous advertising in the late 1800’s…
March 20, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment 
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Hofstra University maintains a Facebook page where staff from their special collections department can post interesting finds. We recently discovered the following which illustrates one of the collecting strands of the hobby: sensational (or absurd) advertising:
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- The things we take for granted… Let there be light…
- The unearthing of a President… yet another discovery!
- “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” – Historic Baseball Coverage…
- Old news is good news for collectors…
- Must have been a slow news day…
The Traveler… taking important steps…
March 16, 2015 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Today I traveled to Detroit, Michigan, by the way of The Detroit News dated March 18, 1965. There I found “Russian Takes First Space Walk From 
Orbiting Ship”. This was the very first time that anyone had ever taken a walk in space, going sixteen-feet from the capsule.
Also on the front page was the reporting of “Allow Capital March, Judge Tells Alabama.” “A federal judge last night ordered Alabama officials to permit Dr. Martin Luther King’s civil rights army to march the 50 miles from Selma to this state capital (Montgomery). Moreover, the state authorities must protect the marchers…”. This was the granting of permission for the infamous Selma march which took five days to complete with thousands of people participating.
~The Traveler
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- The Traveler… marching in Birmingham… Hitler’s end… your next party…
- The Traveler… Martin Luther King… voted in but can’t… first woman…
- Baby Steps… A journey of a thousand miles…
- The first newspaper in Alabama…
- The Traveler… the largest single arrest of Rabbis in American history…
First reference to “Ivy League”?
March 13, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Some words including names, titles, etc. are so noteworthy or common that we forget they had a beginning – a first use. According to Wikipedia, the first public use (in print) of the term “Ivy League” occurred within the Christian Science Monitor, Boston, February 7, 1935. The usage was in reference to Brown University being accepted into the “League”. A quick search on The New York Times database shows that it did not print the title until nearly a half-year later. Is Wikipedia correct? Until we see confirmation to the contrary we’ll assume their assessment to be accurate. If anyone has information to the contrary, please let us know.
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- This Month in History – August…
- They put it in print… First appearance of an American flag?
- This Month in History – October…
- The RareNewspapers.com website – how to search for historic newspapers…
- The Traveler… Miami gets some “new fish”…
Bloody Sunday, Selma, Alabama… Great Headlines Speak For Themselves…
March 11, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the FITCHBURG SENTINEL, Massachusetts, March 8, 1965…
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- The Traveler… announcing the new President…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Martin Luther King Jr. march on Washington and speech…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Knute Rockne…
- Big things (sometimes) come in small packages…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Gandhi…
The City of Boston receives noteworthy journalism award…
March 9, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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The following is a note we recently received from one of the collector friends of Rare & Early Newspapers:
Happy to report that the section “Boston Journalism Firsts” and other contents of the Boston Journalism Trail site were used to nominate Boston for the Historical Site in Journalism Award given by the American Society of Professional Journalists, the largest journalists organization in the United States. The organization gave its 2014 award to Boston, thus for the first time honoring a whole city for the totality of its contributions to journalism. The organization’s president is to present the city’s mayor with a memorial plaque to be placed in a public space in downtown Boston in 2015. Thanks for all your support over the years.
To view details:
http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1260
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- Featured websites – The Boston Journalism Trail…
- The Traveler… spreading the word… named director…
- The Traveler… Valachi spills about “Cosa Nostra”… test-tube babies…
- For a good cause… preserving our Civil War heritage…
- The Traveler… the Goree Merchants… Weales or Weasles…
The Civil War… March, 1865
March 5, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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his is why we often say, “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” The following link will take you back in time to show the available newspapers from the Rare & Early newspapers website. There’s no need to buy a thing. Simply enjoy the walk back in time:March, 1865
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- The Civil War… April, 1865
- The Civil War… January, 1865
- The Civil War (post conflict)… May, 1865
- The aftermath of the Civil War… August, 1865
- The aftermath of the Civil War… July, 1865
A broken heart… 200+ years ago… today?
February 27, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Anguish… deep sorrow… pain and emptiness that engulf and suffocate… As the saying goes: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” No matter how far we advance as a race over time, the death of a loved one elicits the same paralyzing emotions today as it did 100… 1000… 5,000 years ago, and will continue to do so as long as humanity walks this earth. Such is the case (in spades) with a parent’s crushed spirit upon the loss of a child. While searching through an original printing of The American Magazine, Philadelphia, dated May, 1792 in the hopes of finding historical content, I came across the printing of a letter from a Father who was trying to come to terms with the untimely loss of his child. Language usage and expression aside, this letter written 200+ years ago could easily have been written yesterday. It also made me thankful for a hope beyond the grave – a hope that shouts from a Father’s pen as he attempts to express his heart… his love… his hope:
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- Victor Hugo – poetry in early 19th century Gentleman’s Magazines…
- The Village Voice… The Heart of the 60’s-70’s Anti-Establishment Youth Culture…
- 18th century American magazines: one to share…
- Giant leaps… Baby steps are nice, but every now and then…
- From a collector of rare newspapers… The Pennsylvania Railroad…
They put it in print… Castro given a year or less…
February 23, 2015 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Historical perspective offers so much as we reflect upon some of the headlines of the past, particularly those proven to be so wrong. With the reestablishing of relations with Cuba currently in the headlines, we dug through out archives and found a headline which history has shown could not have been more wrong. The “Detroit Free Press” of October 20, 1960, in announcing the beginning of the embargo against Cuba, ran a banner headline: “CASTRO COLLAPSE FORESEEN” and one of the subheads noting: “Fidel Given Year or Less“. This is now a newspaper much more interesting today than it was almost 55 years ago.
What a fascinating hobby!
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- “Wrongway” Corrigan is honored with a backwards headline…
- This Month in History – January…
- They put it in print… The Vietnam Crisis… before it was a crisis…
- The Traveler… Mexican irony… dirty dancing prohibited!
- It’s All About the Headline…
Prices of newspapers… How have the changed?
February 20, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · 10 Comments Email This Post
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One of the questions we often receive at Rare Newspapers relates to the collectible investment value of newspapers over time. Most indicate they do not collect for investment reasons; rather, they do so for the love of “History in your hands.” The embrace our motto: “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.” Newspapers provide glimpses of history in the context of both the exciting and mundane of the era in which it was reported. Still, the question remains. How has the value of Rare & Early Newspapers progressed over time? We posed this question to our founder, Tim Hughes, and the following was his response:
We have to keep in mind that this hobby is a very small one, and when I began 39+ years ago there essentially was no established market, nor any sort of price guide which offered a baseline of values based on content, condition, etc.
I came from the coin collecting hobby and knew from it that the more rare the item, the more values increased through the years. Common date pennies were selling in the 1970’s for about the same prices as from a decade earlier, while the rare dates/coins had increased substantially. I took this information with me when I opted for a hobby which had yet to be exploited by an established collecting industry such as coins, stamps, books, etc. Although I purchased veraciously during my earlier years, always fearful the supply of 150+ year old newspapers would dry up, I have found that the common, generic material was always plentiful—and still is today. What has not been plentiful are newspapers with historic reports, and newspapers which are themselves very rare. The “less plentiful” issues have appreciated considerably over the last 39 years, while generic issue values are really not much different today than they were 39 years ago. Example: I always offered a 10-issue wholesale lot ever since my first catalog, then priced at $19.50. The same lot today is $24.95, and I suspect some of that increase is more to help offset increased shipping costs. And I think we have a virtually unending supply.
How much have values of historic & rare issues increased? It can be difficult to say as we have never made a point to keep comparative records as it seemed a bit meaningless for our purposes. But in general I would say they have increased 5-fold to 10-fold in the post 30 years. I’m not going to consider my first 9 years in the business as any sort of gauge as I was still feeling my way thru the hobby; raising & lowering prices as my customers would react (or not react). An anecdotal story: early on in my enterprise I purchased a bound volume of a Santa Fe, NM newspaper from 1881. Amongst the 150 or so issues was a run of, perhaps, 40 issues each having a little reward ad for the capture of Billy the Kid. Figuring a novice such as myself coming across the volume, and the fact that there were so many issues with the ad, I logically presume it was not very rare. I think I sold those issues for $35 or so each. If I would have those issues today I think we could get $700 each. That 
doesn’t mean the value has increased by 2000%. It speaks more to my ignorance of what they should have sold for 35 years ago. Unfortunately that incident wasn’t my last such learning experience.
Perhaps one of the more “common” of the very historic issues would be the Gentleman’s Mag. with the Declaration of Independence. We sold it for under $2000 ten years ago, and now we sell them for $4000. So this document in this title has doubled in 10 years, and I could never say that it is “rare” as we encounter this issue perhaps twice a year. It is extremely historic, but not truly rare. Truly rare items would have increased much more dramatically. In fact truly rare items don’t come on the market any more. I have few qualms offering a truly rare event/newspaper for 4 or 5 times our last price if we only had it twice in 39 years.
As is always the case–and as it truly should be in a free market economy–the collectors ultimately determine the prices of our material. There have always been high-income collectors who have kept the rare items rising in value at a consistent rate, while more common items have languished in value because collectors are not taking them off our shelves.
I cannot say that there has been any period over the last 39 years when the hobby was either “hot” or “cold”. I think whether values have rising nominally or dramatically, they have done so in a rather consistent curve, unaffected by the economy or stock market ups & downs.
I still believe the hobby is very much in its infancy. The vast majority of people have no idea that our hobby exists, and I have always felt the time will come when that will change. I don’t have to tell you that in a comparative sense with other collectables, our hobby seem dramatically undervalued.
Tim
People collect rare newspapers for various reasons – investment purposes being one of them. Finding hidden historical gems, preserving history, immersing oneself in an era and/or event, as a companion collectible to another collectible interest, etc. What a great hobby!
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- Some more prices, then and now…
- Sharing My Story… How I got started…
- Pricing newspapers back in the 1970’s…
- From the Vault: American history in British newspapers…
- Obama election victory : a follow-up…
The Traveler… peace…
February 16, 2015 by The Traveler · 2 Comments Email This Post
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Today I traveled to Boston by the means of the Columbian Centinel dated February 5, 1815. There I found the breaking news of the “A TREATY OF PEACE between this Country and Great Britain, signed on the 24th December last… I have undertaken to send you this by Express — the rider engaging to deliver it by Eight o’clock on Monday morning… I am with respect, Sir, your obedient servant, JONATHAN GOODHUE.”
This peace treaty ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. Due to lack of telecommunications and time travels at that time, even though the treaty was signed December 24, 1814, the Battle of New Orleans was fought and won on January 8, 1815 and the Treaty was not in effect until it was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 18, 1815.
~The Traveler
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