Mission to Mars… Climb aboard…

November 6, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

As China, Russia, and the U.S. (among others) begin to enter a new space race – a manned mission to the Red Planet, we are reminded of the early days of flight when dreams were high and understanding was… perhaps a bit lacking.  While early film fueled the excitement, it wasn’t until knowledge of Robert Goddard’s work became widespread that the thought of space travel made the leap from dream to real possibility.  These dreams took a hit on January 13, 1920 when the NY Times printed an editorial (unsigned) which scoffed at the proposal.  However, on February 4, 1920, the President of the Aviator’s Club of Pennsylvania, Captain Claude R. Collins, restored the public’s hopes of space travel when he volunteered to be a passenger on a Mars bound rocket, if ever developed.  Ironically, this “offer” was published on the front page of the of the February 5, 1920 NY Times (see image), alongside of the announcement from the Smithsonian Institution stating Goddard had invented and tested a rocket that might have the potential to reach the moon.  This battle between nay-sayers and dreamers continues to this day.  I wonder how we will be looked upon 100 years from now?

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Noteworthy Issues, The 20th & 21st Centuries, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

The Traveler… election time… one horse tail…

November 4, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Our elections have been over for a couple of days, however I found that not the case 100 years ago. In the November 4, 1910 issue of “The Call” from San Francisco, the governor race was heated with the report of a rally of 7,000 people.  “Johnson Hurls Lie Direct in Teeth of Detractors and Lays Bare True Meaning of Battle” is one of the sub-headlines. It seems that politics has not changed…

But the deceit and lies does not stop in the political arena. A man traded a mule under the guise of a “shaved tail” horse. Afterward he began to laugh about it, to the point he could not stop laughing. This continued for hours to which a physician was called in. Finally after 12 hours of laughing, they resorted to electric shock therapy which did stop the laughter. This may truly be a case of who really got the last laugh in this deal!!           ~The Traveler

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , , ,

April 15, 1865 New York Herald reprints… revisited…

November 1, 2010 by · 10 Comments 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

A previous post by guest contributor Rick Brown  detailed how one can identify whether or not their April 15, 1865 New York Herald is authentic.  One of the most notable differences between an authentic issue (which is quite rare) and one of the reprints (which are rather common) is that the common reprint has an image of President Lincoln on the front page, whereas, the original does not.  We recently came across a photo of the Lincoln image (as shown to the right).  If your issue has it… unfortunately, your’s is not an original.

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Common Questions, Noteworthy Issues, The Hobby, Valuation of Issues, Yankee
Tagged: , , , , , ,

A ghost robs a bank…

October 30, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

And just in time for Halloween, a report from “The Observer” of London, January 1, 1797:

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: The 1700's, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , ,

The unearthing of a President… yet another discovery!

October 28, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

The image  shows a portion of a full-page ad found buried in the back of the January 4, 1902 edition of Harper’s Weekly Illustrated.  One of the joys of collecting rare and early newspapers is the fun collectors have digging up hidden treasures.  A student at Arizona State University recently noticed that one of the contributors listed in an ad for encyclopedias was Woodrow Wilson, more than 10 years before he would be elected as the 28th President of the United States.  In case one did not already know, this ad also reveals that he was a Professor at Politics at Princeton.   I wonder if any other noteworthy individuals are named within this ad??? Additional close-up images can be found at:  Additional Images.  Feel free to add your finds.

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Harper's Weekly, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , , ,

Prices… a walk down memory lane… 1987…

October 25, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Blondie, Kool & the Gang, Ambrosia…  Rubik’s Cube, Break Dancing, Transformers…  The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, Moonlighting… the 80’s!  Our walk through time now brings us to the 8o’s.   Our exploration of authentic newspaper pricing through time takes us back to Catalog 60. To see a larger image of the catalog’s page, go here: Catalog 60

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Common Questions, The Hobby, Valuation of Issues
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Old age is relative…

October 23, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Enjoy the following, which appeared in an 1857 newspaper:

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Pre Civil War, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: ,

The Traveler… coffins… do they really have an expiration?

October 21, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Take me out to the ballgame… It’s the reporting for Game Three of the World Series between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago Cubs in the October 21, 1910 issue of The Allentown Morning Call in which it is reported, “The Combat to-day was a slaughter with the final score Philadelphia 12 – Cubs 5″. Just a Wikipedia tidbit of information — in Game 2, all nine Philadelphia players in the line-up got a hit, the first time in World Series history.

The reporting of Dr. Crippen’s murder trial is also on the front page as well. This was the first murderer caught via wireless communications.

An unrelated article caught my eye as I was quickly scanning through inside pages… “Three Years For Coffin”. It ends up being about a man with the last name of Coffin who was being sent to Leavenworth on counterfeiting charges. At a quick glance, it makes one wonder if there were was an expiration date on “coffins”.  I thought they were to last an eternity. 🙂

~The Traveler

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Sports, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, Uncategorized, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , ,

Prices… a walk down memory lane… 1993…

October 18, 2010 by · 2 Comments 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

Forest Gump, Jerry Maguire, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana… the 90’s.  Our price-searching through time continues… all the way to “back in the day”… when everything was “aiight. Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at sample prices from 2006 and 2009.  Today we explore a half-dozen years earlier – 1993.  To see a larger image of the catalog’s page, go here:  Catalog 90

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Common Questions, The Hobby, Valuation of Issues
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Roosevelt to blame for the Pearl Harbor attack…

October 16, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 
Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

We often list on our website issues from the island of Guernsey during World War II when it was occupied by the Nazis.  As such all news is filtered through the German propaganda machine which offers interesting reading, as the reports are in English because the residents speak English.

Although many battles reports border on the absurd, particularly with historical hindsight, the front page report in the “Evening Press” dated December 8, 1941, one day after the Pearl Harbor attack, is one of the more outrageous (see the photo below).

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy...

Filed under: The 20th & 21st Centuries, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

« Previous Page — Next Page »