I’m New Here: January 23, 2020

January 24, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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History’s Newsstand/ Rare & Early Newspapers has a well-deserved reputation for excellence and integrity; and procedures and processes are regularly evaluated to incorporate the highest quality systems available.  Our website is undergoing some upgrades, most of which will be indiscernible to the average collector/follower.  But in order to be certain things will indeed remain in order, I have been given the assignment to spend some time logging in and out and creating orders from an objective perspective.

As such, I have perused our web inventory – reading through descriptions and looking at photographs.  I have completed numerous purchases the budget of my reality would never allow.  And it has been great fun.

I learned two notable things.  The first is that our website is an amazing tool to navigate the extraordinary inventory here.  I searched date, title, topic, item number with successful outcomes.  But most interesting to me was the list available by clicking the orange oval button “View All Categories”.  This index of more than sixty topics, while not exhaustive, is a fabulous research resource.  For those who regularly meander through online topics and items of interest, I encourage the home page of Rare Newspapers as a springboard for many happy hours of informative browsing.

As a second point of interest, I tagged the strangest report I encountered in my wanderings.  It seems some of the earliest plastic surgery occurred in India and included rhinoplasty (although not identified as such).  Through three separate avenues I arrived at the same description from The Gentleman’s Magazine, published in London, October of 1794.

Included is a fascinating–and extremely early–account of what we would call plastic surgery, being a letter from the East Indies which notes in part: “…the following very curious, and, in Europe, I believe, unknown chirugical [archaic spelling of ‘surgery’] operation which has long been practiced in India with success; namely affixing a new nose on a man’s face…” followed by the various details. Accompanying this is a full page plate of it, with 5 images (see).

Ironically, all these features and items are available on our website in its current state.  I just hadn’t taken the time to look.

Have you?

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Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Common Questions, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, The Collectible Community, The Hobby
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I’m New Here: One Year In

January 17, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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This week I made two different forays into a subject I only visited once before — The Wild West.  Thankfully, when you are dealing with a forty-four year old company that specializes in items printed hundreds of years ago, twelve months is not a long time.  And that is good for me, because even when I tally up the number of days I have been here at Rare & Early Newspapers I still feel like a novice.  Today I had back-to-back victories using the organizational system efficiently.  Harper’s Weekly from 1912 is not in the front warehouse (designated “W” on location maps) with issues published through the end of the 19th Century, but in the annex (“A”) along the right wall, almost to the very end.  Better still, as I confidently strode through the front building with an inward chuckle over my early bumbling efforts to determine what happened after December 30, 1899, I recalled the clipboard hanging in that area.  Rather than maneuver the lift across four rows and down a 15′ column in order to ascend to the appropriate decade, I checked the sheet.  There, recorded after exhausting all potential volume locations, was the notation, “August 17, 1912 — no cc”.  So, a disappointing answer for the collector inquiring, but a resounding victory for me as the entire search took a total of three minutes.

Every time I can locate an issue someone is seeking, I feel victorious. But the worst thing is spending a lot of time (which is always needed elsewhere) without having anything to show for it.  Today’s glance at the inventory tally reminded me that even a negative result can be useful, if not to me then surely to someone else.  Anyway, I am finally reaching the stage where I am wasting less time when I head into the back in search of whatever someone has called, emailed, written or web queried about.  In theory, the more time I save, the more I have to search out another Titanic issue (665700) for the collector in Germany or a Jay Gould cover portrait for the fellow in Minnesota.

And, for those of you who continue to read these posts, I will always make time to follow up on your requests.  I might even write about them…

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Filed under: Harper's Weekly, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, The Collectible Community, The Hobby
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January through the years via the lens of Rare & Early Newspapers…

January 13, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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Walk with us back through time to see what noteworthy, historic and collectible events occurred during the month of January. In so doing, we hope you’ll agree: “History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.”

January Through Time

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Filed under: Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Colonial, Common Questions, Confederate, Death Reports, Great Headlines, Harper's Weekly, Illustrated Newspapers, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Old West Era, Post Civil War, Pre Civil War, Revolutionary War, Sports, The 1500's, The 1500's - 1700's, The 1600's, The 1700's, The 19th Century, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, The War of 1812, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre, Winslow Homer, Yankee
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Snapshot 1954… Ellis Island… The final chapter…

January 9, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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We recently came across a New York Times dated November 12, 1954 which told of the closing of Ellis Island, and included a large photo of the last group of immigrants to take the oath as new citizens (see below). If you’ve never visited this historic landmark, it is a moving experience – certainly worth the trip.

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Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, The 20th & 21st Centuries
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Announcing: Catalog #290 (for January, 2020) is now available…

January 7, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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http://images.rarenewspapers.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ebayimgs/Webs/Catalog-Rare-Newspapers.jpg

Catalog 290 (for January is now available. This latest offering of authentic newspapers is comprised of more than 300 new items, a selection which includes: the trial & execution of Captain Kidd, Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, an American almanac with a rare Revolutionary War battle print, a San Francisco newspaper on the San Francisco earthquake, a rare British “newsbook” from 1642 (first we’ve offered), a great account of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and more.

 

The following links are designed to help you explore this latest edition of our catalog:

 

Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.

(The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days, upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.)

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Filed under: Announcements, Catalog Release Announcements, Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Colonial, Confederate, Death Reports, Great Headlines, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Old West Era, Post Civil War, Pre Civil War, Revolutionary War, Sports, The 1500's, The 1500's - 1700's, The 1600's, The 1700's, The 19th Century, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby, The War of 1812, Yankee
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I’m New Here: Week Forty-Three…

January 3, 2020 by · Leave a Comment 
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Recently, a collector asked me to verify the presence of a continuing report within the Gazette of the United States – the Davila Discourse, which discusses political implications of a republican form of government, as perceived by John Adams in the early days of the young country.  Mr. K offered the information that the section title printed within the sub-heading was not accurate, but a misidentification on the part of the publisher.  Instead, he referenced an outside scholarly source to identify the sequence of text.

My son was old enough during the 2000 presidential election to be fascinated with the process.  At his request, his grandmother kept every newspaper from the week before, through the many days following that strange Tuesday in this nation’s history.  Most notable in his collection, however, is the issue that proclaimed Al Gore as the winner.  This week I began thinking about the erroneous publication of “news” at historically crucial times.

Various reports of death have been “grossly exaggerated” – in fact, Wikipedia has alphabetically indexed 14 pages of such premature obituaries.  In the Rare and Early Newspaper world one of the most well-known gaffes is the Chicago Tribune “Dewey Defeats Truman”.  As I am new and just learning of these,  I am appalled to find yet another winding road away from the details I am supposed to be taking care of during my working day.

Ultimately, a thing is not true just because it appeared in print.  However, an editorial error can be quickly identified by reviewing the publishing context.  Those of this community who have a more seasoned perspective might enjoy sharing some favorite errors with me via this blog, in case an opportunity arises to do a little wandering in my second year…

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Filed under: Collecting Newspapers, Common Questions, The Collectible Community
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Happy New Year!!!

December 31, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all…

December 26, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 
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Christmas-themed poems from 1850 – Food for thought…

December 24, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 
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Earlier this year I came across a December 21, 1850 issue of Household Words – a publication “conducted” by Charles Dickens, which actually contained an original work by him titled “A CHRISTMAS TREE.” Although this was his publication, the majority of the contributions within were typically written by others. While perusing the issue I came across a set of Christmas-themed poems which stirred my heart. Hopefully you will also find them moving. Enjoy.

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Filed under: Food for Thought, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Pre Civil War, The Hobby
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I’m New Here: Week Forty-Two, Wishing You A Blessed Christmas!

December 21, 2019 by · Leave a Comment 
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As this is the first gift ordering season I have experienced in the Rare Newspaper world, there is much I have learned recently. However, I am on a personal quest to keep the bustle of the season from obscuring the spiritual value of these days. It is the third week of Advent on the Christian calendar and my morning reflections are on Joy. I appreciate the preceding meditations have been on Hope and Peace, because without them Joy might feel a bit contrived, at least to me.
My good intentions, however, usually don’t survive the details of life. Into all the elevated mindset about to be swept away by the Monday morning deluge of business activity, came an anchoring phone call. The gentleman was seeking information about an issue out of Honolulu, dated December 7th. It is one of the most available reprints as there were three versions in addition to the original. This fellow was mostly interested in telling the story of his newlywed mother who followed her spouse out to Hawaii in 1941, where he was stationed on a naval destroyer in Pearl Harbor. He told how his mom took a job in the shipyard so she could stay, and her birthday was unexpectedly marked by sirens and smoke. This woman, who wouldn’t open gifts until her husband returned days later, was blessed to spend more than seventy more years with him.
It’s a beautiful story, and it encompasses much of the mindset of WWII. The newspaper headlines surrounding those days are larger-than-life to me, standing decades later. But the people who responded with extraordinary courage and forbearance and loyalty and perseverance were ordinary men and women who put their concerns aside for something greater than immediate comfort or convenience or even personal safety. And the reports, columns, psa’s and advertisements of the time only serve to bring that point home.

Anyway, Hope comes before Peace which comes before Joy.
And then comes Love.

The following poem by Christina Rossetti, eventually titled “Christmastide” was published in 1885:

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

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