Davy Crockett survived the Alamo?

May 16, 2009 by · 1 Comment 
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crockettThe report shown appeared in the “Staunton Spectator” newspaper of Virginia, May 5, 1836. Accuracy in reporting the news certainly wasn’t any better back in 1836.  Have you ever found similar inaccurate reporting?

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My Story… Carl Aspler…

May 14, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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carl_asper1For me, I love history and the first time I came across an old paper (I think it was the coronation of George V in 1911), I was smitten. I loved reading the headlines as they were years ago.

In the 80’s I also began collecting antique maps (also my love of history and discovery), and these took over for a while. Now I have antique maps and newspapers!

What gets me excited about the old news is to enjoy the personal connection that people make with the various stories. For example I used to keep a number of the front pages framed in my office at work. One day, a colleague came in and told me how he had admired the “Titanic Sinking” headline. This fellow, originally from Northern Ireland, told me that his father worked at the Belfast shipyard that built the ship, and that he had actually worked on the building of the Titanic. After thinking about it for a while, I gave him the paper. It meant a lot to him, and we all had a few tears in our eyes.

On another occasion I was talking to a friend and discovered that his father had been a soldier in the Canadian Army and had participated in the ill-fated Dieppe Raid in 1942. His father was captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in a Prisoner Camp. When I showed his the newspaper from a few days later, mentioning his father as “missing in action” it was also a very moving moment. I decided that I can live without it, and gave it to him.

Yet another time I mentioned to someone in the Salvation Army that I had a paper describing the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914. The ship was on it’s way to an international congress of the Salvation Army. Most of the 150 members of the Army on board were drowned as was the Salvation Army Band. This was a difficult time for the Army (in fact the band was not reconstituted until 1969). I donated the paper to the Salvation Army museum, where more people can appreciate the story.

I also amaze my family from time to time. A few months ago, my teenage daughter was doing a history project on the London Blitz of 1940. I offered to loan her a front page describing the German first bombing assault on London. She originally wasn’t sure that people would be interested in an old newspaper. The fact that everyone thought it was “so cool” also gained me extra points with my daughter…

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Thanks for sharing your story Carl. If you would like to share your story of how you became interested in collecting rare and/or historic newspapers, e-mail it to guy@rarenewspapers.com and place “My Story” in the subject field. Although not necessary, feel free to include an image. Please do not include your e-mail address or a personal website as part of the text of your story. We will post collector stories every few weeks and will send you a notice when your story appears. Thank you for your contribution to the community.

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Baseball fans… can you help?

May 11, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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baseball_lajole_iiA customer was requesting a newspaper with a report of Nap LaJoie, one of the more notable names in baseball in the early 20th century, ending the 1901 season  with a .422 batting average.  He was one of only a few to do so in the 20th century (there’s been a 67 year dry spell since Ted Williams was the last to do so, in 1941).

Finding reports of batting averages in 1901 is very difficult, but I did find a report at the end of the season which notes: “Lajoie…took part in 131 games. He was at bat 554 times, made 226 singles, 48 doubles 12 triples and 13 home runs…”.

Never mind that the numbers are slightly off from the official record book, which notes 543 games, 229 singles, 48 doubles (only one correct), 13 triples and 14 homers, as such errors might be understandable. But even given the accurate numbers, in calculating his average one comes up with a sum of 304 successful at bats, divided by the number of games (543) giving an average of .560.  But curiously, if you just took his 229 singles divided by 543 the result is exactly his recorded batting average: .4217, rounded out to .422.

Should I surmise that the term “singles” actually means “hits” by today’s terminology ? Was this the common practice back then, to call any type of “hit” a “single”? If so, when did they make the switch?

Thanks for your help !

Tim

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Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Food for Thought, Noteworthy Issues, The 20th & 21st Centuries, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
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No smoking in the court of King James…

May 9, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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tabacco_king_jamesThe Gazette of the United States from Philadelphia, Nov. 24, 1790, includes an interesting item on a treatise of King James I, who was way ahead of his time in opposing smoking.

He considered it a: “…heinous sin…” and those who used it were: “…guilty of great vanitie & uncleannesse–of sinful and shameful lust…”. He considered it: “…harmfull to the brain–dangerous to the lungs–and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoake of the pit that is bottomlesse.”

See the photo for the full text.

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Sharing My Story… How I got started…

May 7, 2009 by · 1 Comment 
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Tim Hughes, founder

Tim Hughes, founder

Invariably there is the quizzical stare I get from anyone who asks “what do you do?” and I answer by saying, “I sell old newspapers.” The typical response is, “…what??” Any follow-up to the inquiry usually leads to, “How did you get started?”

We all have our own stories of what lead us to early newspapers, and mine may not but much different from yours.

I have always collecting something. I guess I was always intrigued by what was old, and coin collecting captured my interest when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, a hobby which still gets my attention but on a dramatically smaller scale. Collecting coins lead to old books, which lead to old bottles, which lead to old radios; and perhaps a few other items which struck my interest through the years.

I eventually found coin collecting a bit frustrating, as the rarities I needed to fill some holes in my collection were way beyond my budget. Coin collecting has always been a well exploited hobby so rare items were almost impossible to find at reasonable prices as the “heavy hitters” kept the prices quite high. I always dreamed of finding a collectible which few people knew about, where truly rare & historic items could be found at reasonable prices.

One day while browsing a local flea market I cam across an 1846 Philadelphia newspaper for $3. I was intrigued. I knew an 1846 coin in nice condition would be ten times that amount. I bought it, took it home and read all four pages and was fascinated by the content. I had found my new collectible and was hoping my dream had come true.

I expended much effort over the next several years looking for more newspapers and found several sources for 18th & 19th century issues at what I thought were amazingly low prices given my coin collecting experience.

Then one day I asked a source from whom I had been buying issues for $3 each if I could get a better price if I bought more than one. His response was fateful and set the course for the rest of my life: he said, “If you take 100 issues you can have them for $1 each”.

Although $100 was likely half of my net worth at the time, I sent the check, received my 100 issues, and starting advertising the issues for sale at $3 each (plus 25 cents for postage; which actually covered the cost).

As I sold the issues I bought more, and found more sources for different titles and different time periods. I eventually found several auction halls which regularly listed newspapers, and established contacts in England for early British material. In time I would travel not only throughout the Middle Atlantic & New England states but went to London each year to to search the back roads for antique & book shops which had material I could use.

Those were very exciting days, as material was plentiful and I bought voraciously.  Buying today is more of a challenge so I take great comfort in knowing my appetite some 30 years ago was justified as much of our inventory of over 2 million newspapers was purchased long ago.

Good material still comes our way. Having our name in the marketplace for over 30 years and maintaining considerable Internet presence has allowed much great material to end up at our doorstep, a trend which–hopefully–will continue as we allow my dream to be realized by our customers: rare, historic material at reasonable prices.

In the coming months we will be posting the stories of other collectors as well.  Details are forthcoming.

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Marriage & death in the same news report…

May 2, 2009 by · 1 Comment 
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marriage_and_deathTypically marriage and death reports are found in separate columns in the newspapers, but one news item in the Salem Mercury of July 6, 1831 could combine both into one:

“Marriage and Death — In Bath, Steuben Co. N.Y. 11th ult. Mr. Moses Alexander, 88, to Miss Frances Tompkins, 105. They wre taken out of bed dead on the following morning.”

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Why does my newspaper look as if it came from a book?

April 30, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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volumegifThis is a common question many newcomers ask upon their 1st encounter with a rare newspaper from nearly every era (Revolutionary War, Civil War, Old West, and even Birthday/Day-You-Were-Born issues, to name a few).  Whether it is the rough left spine present from the issue being removed from a larger volume, or the consecutive numbering which results in only the first issue printed during the year to have a “page 1”,  a novice’s immediate (and logical) reaction is that the issue must have come from a book and therefore must be a reprint.  However, the truth is actually the opposite.  Such signs are good indicators that the issue is likely authentic.  To understand this, what is needed is a knowledge of how historic newspapers and magazines were handled up to as late as the 1960’s.

disbinding_evidence_harpers1Many publishers of early newspapers started numbering their pages from 1 at the start the year and continued with the consecutive numbering throughout the year. This made it very easy to reference content. Examples of early well-known titles which did this are Harper’s Weekly, The War, Gentleman’s Magazine, Niles’ Register, and Leslie’s Illustrated, to name a few.  Although this gave the newspapers a book effect, early readers would not have given this another thought. As far as the spine residue/disbinding evidence (which gives the appearance that the issue came from a book) is concerned, nearly every institution which held rare newspapers bound them together at the end of each year for protection & permanent storage in libraries. Almost all newspapers through the 1960’s were held in this manner. Your local library likely holds its early newspapers in this form. Two resources which may alleviate any concerns you might have related to this issue are the Library of Congress’ Newspaper Division & the American Antiquarian Society.  HistoryBuff.com also provided additional information regarding this topic.

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Great reference work for pre-1821 American newspapers…

April 27, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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brighamWe are often asked about appropriate reference books for rare newspaper collectors, particularly when it comes to relative rarity of newspapers. When one encounters an early title not seen before, how can we judge how rare or common it might be?

Thankfully for all collectors, Clarance Brigham undertook an exhaustive 30 year project to record all know issues of every newspaper title printed in the United States prior to 1821. This effort, published by the American Antiquarian Society (Brigham was directory of the Society) back in 1947, is titled: “History & Bibliography of American Newspapers 1690-1820“, a two volume set with some 1500 pages in total.

This work lists all American newspapers from the noted timespan, by state, then by city, then by title. The true value of this work is the brief historical account of each title with the exact dates of changes of titles & names of publishers, followed by a checklist of all files located. This last piece is what reflect relative rarity. If a title has just one or two holdings in institutions, and only a few issues within these institutions, then it would be consider rare. If a title has 15 institutional holdings noted, and complete or near complete holdings within those institutions, the title might be considered common.

This set has been out of print for many years, including the more recent edition done in 1975, but they occasionally come up on eBay or web-based rare book sites such as abebooks.com. Prices tend to run from $200 to $400 for a set, but a lucky person might find it for much less. I believe we have a set of the 1947 edition priced at $265.

I would encourage any collector of pre-1821 newspapers to think about adding this work to their reference library. It contains a wealth of information and is a resource which I have used regularly for over 30 years.

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Responding to the patriotic call…

April 25, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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terms_for_recruitsThe Columbian Centinel newspaper from Boston, April 28, 1792 contains a very inconspicuous notice at the bottom of the front page which calls for recruits for the military. It’s the wording which is a delight, as the call was put forth:

“To the sons of ambition—Those noble fellows whose courage and superiority of soul dictate to them to enter the list of Fame…Her field is now open and filled with every inducement for a Soldier; every necessary of life and every chance for fortune. It will be your fault if she does not stamp on your names HERO to be caught by every ear…” with more.

See the photo for the full text of this delightful little gem from the 18th century.

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Twelve issues, twelves different cities…

April 23, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 
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Occasionally one finds a single title which had two or maybe three cities of publication, particularly some of the Old West titles which moved from place to place during their early years. Even the venerable Gazette of the United States moved from New York to Philadelphia when the seat of government moved, in order to be close to the political action it was reporting.

trans-continental-excursionThe Trans-Continental had a different take on printing in different cities. It’s creation was a stroke of historical genius in the mind of its editor, W. R. Steele, when on May 24, 1870 over 130 passengers boarded a beautiful eight car Pullman train built under special orders of George M. Pullman specifically for this trip, the first chartered excursion by rail from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On board was carried small printing press which was used to publish 12 issues of the “Trans-Continental” newspaper, each at a different point along the round-trip journey. By what is read in these twelve issues it was a glorious affair enjoyed by all, amid the splendor of the finest mode of living ever constructed on wheels.

For their enjoyment, the passengers were lavished with the finest food, surrounded by a setting which few of the finest mansions constructed could rival. Sights of the new West as well as extraneous news & anecdotes of the day were recorded in the pages of this newspaper, witnessed by the passengers continually in awe of the splendor of the prairies, magnificence of the Rockies and the warmth & hospitality of the people they met along the way.

The Trans-Continental lasted but 42 days and twelve issues–six printed on the westward journey & six printed on the return to the east coast. What is unique is that each issue not only carries a different date but a different city of publication.

Unfortunately for the collector exceedingly few genuine issues of the Trans-Continental remain. Having a complete set in our private collection we had each issue professionally reproduced and bound into a SINGLE BOOKLET so any collector can read from one of the more intriguing & unusual newspapers of the 19th century.

You may never own an original but you can take some vicarious enjoyment in the trip by reading what those 130 passengers enjoyed nearly 140 years ago by clicking on the “single booklet” link above. After all, isn’t this what brought is all to the hobby in the first place?

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